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Sciences Italy Endangered species by Rossella and Francesca The natural phenomenon of extinction of a species is a biological phenomenon very slow in a balanced ecosystem is compensated by the appearance of new species and is thus a phenomenon that does not impoverish the variety of living organisms. Different, and in many ways alarming, however, is the situation that has arisen in the last 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution: many species have disappeared and others not at risk of extinction due to natural factors but due to the pressure on the man’s ecosystem. The number of species that have become extinct in recent years is unprecedented in the history of life. If the frequency of extinctions should proceed with the current speed (about 30,000 species per year according to some estimates) , or even if, as seems to be happening, should accelerate, the number of species extinct in the next decade could match and exceed that observed during the major mass extinctions, the last of which, dating back to 65 million years ago, causing the disappearance of dinosaurs. Worldwide, there are numerous attempts to try to prevent the extinction of our closest relatives, the great apes: according to the UN, in fact, for Gorilla, Orangutan, Chimpanzee and Bonobo few decades remain before the extinction, in nature or in captivity. A lot of species are in danger: African wild ass, Alabama cavefish Amur leopard, Arakan forest turtle,Asiatic cheetah, axolotl, bactrian camel, Brazilian m e r g a n s e r, b r o w n s p i d e r m o n ke y, California condor, Chinese alligator, Chinese giant salamander, gharial, Hawaiian monk seal, Iberian lynx, Island fox, Javan rhino, kakapo, leatherback sea turtle, Mediterranean monk seal, Mexican wolf, mountain gorilla, Northern hairynosed wombat,Philippine eagle, red wolf, saiga, Siamese crocodile, Spix’s macaw, s o u t h e r n b l u e f i n t u n a , S u m a t ra n , orangutan, Sumatran rhinoceros, vaquita, Yangtze river dolphin, northern white rhinoceros . Gavialis Gangeticus The Siberian tiger is a subspecies of tiger that is endangered; three subspecies of tiger are already extinct. The most endangered Asiatic top predator, the dhole, is on the edge of extinction. Gold toad Hawaii Turtle