This story was originally published in the third edition of The Lion’s Tale (December 7, 2018).

Endangered animals are going to be the next issue after global warming gets fixed.

Now, some of you think that global warming might never end, but I do. If we all try hard enough, we could stop most of the problems, but that will only happen if we all stay strong and all do the right thing.

Remember those projects we did in elementary school? We researched animals and wrote down some facts about them. Now, imagine a world without your animal. What would your elementary school self think, knowing they’re all dead, while you could have made a difference?

One animal that not many people know is endangered is the leopard. Until right now, you probably thought that it was living its life very peacefully, but actually, it’s fighting for its life. According to snowleopardconservancy.org, humans and less food are two of the many reasons the snow leopards are going extinct.

Now, imagine a world where the phrase “A leopard can’t change its spots” is meaningless, referring to a long-dead species.

Some extinct animals that you may not know about are the dodo bird and the quagga. The quagga was a type of horse native to South Africa that died out in the late 19^th century.

With previous generations’ help, we could have stopped that. Now, we have the chance to save all the other soon-to-become-extinct animals and make a difference in their lives, so that they can continue to exist. This does not mean putting them in a zoo, because scientists have found out that most animals live longer in the wild, according to discoverwildlife.com.

So, if a zoo isn’t the answer, is there any hope?

After reading this, you’re probably crying and saying, “Owen, how can I help keep the animals alive?”  You can start by volunteering some hours in your local county and see if you can help the endangered animals there.

If you don’t believe that there are endangered animals near you, then go online and look it up–find out about the gopher tortoise, a species native to Florida. There are many other Florida animals you can help, including panthers and ospreys, which are in danger of losing their habitats to development and pollution. If you especially want to help a specific species of animal, then go the to World Wildlife Fund website and donate some money at WorldWildlife.org.