Humans tend to get a little “holier than thou” about their presence here on Earth. The fact of the matter is that we’re just one in literally millions. Some of the best guesstimates from top biologists around the world are that there are seven MILLION species of plants and animals on the planet — and that’s not including bacteria! When you break that number down by vertebrate (with a backbone) and invertebrate (without a backbone), our presence on Earth becomes even more insignificant — of the seven million estimated species on Earth, only 5,500 species identify as mammals like us. When you take that number into consideration, we are really only 1 in 5,500: the odds are still against us in many ways. So how is it that one small species has been capable of causing the extinction of thirty species in the last fifty years alone? You guessed it: overpopulation.

While some animal species have gone extinct due to destructive forces of nature (RIP T-Rex) or disease (RIP platypus frog), many of the thirty animals that have gone extinct in the last five decades were killed off due to habitat destruction and illegal hunting (better known as animal poaching) — two activities that are directly caused by overpopulation of humans.

One of the most widely discussed extinctions to happen in the last half-century occurred only four years ago. In 2011, the western black rhinoceros was declared extinct due to hunting. Between 1970 and 1992, the western black rhino saw a staggering decline in numbers — roughly 96% of the western black rhino population had depleted in only 22 years time. The horn of a western black rhino was used for a variety of human needs — weapons, medicine, and jewelry just to name a few. With the rising population, more animal poachers began hunting the western black rhino to keep up with demand. Oddly enough, rhino horn actually has zero medical benefits, so this creature was poached to extinction for nothing more than human greed and ignorance.

The Florida panther is one of the few big cat species that inhabits the United States. Unfortunately, the Florida panther is on the endangered species list due to overpopulation. This big cat once thrived throughout much of the southeastern United States and is now only found in 5% of its original habitat range. A majority of these panthers died due to habitat destruction caused by humans building roads through their home. The increased number of panthers in one concentrated area caused too much competition, which led to many panthers dying out of starvation. As of 2011, there’s only an estimated 100-120 Florida panthers left in the United States. Rapid population growth is leading to more deconstruction of their natural habitat. The Florida panther may be extinct because of overpopulation sooner than we think.