Is "Nerdis Americanus" an endangered species?
354988
**calms the people down**\n\nHonestly, we've had trends like this for years and years. This is what continues to make school systems all over the country continually adjust their curriculums. This is a good thing. This is not a panic situation. Let me see if I can explain......\n\nDo you remember when we were young and they introduced "New Math?" It was always the brunt of many jokes because people then wanted to know how it differed from the "old math." But it was a trend. The true basis of the trend was in upping the awareness of the necessity of math. We were moving toward metric; we were using measurement and applied mathematics. And with awareness......science and math scores rose. Then what happened? We felt deficits in reading and writing. So what was the trend then? "WHOLE LANGUAGE!" This catch phrase was used throughout the land. Incorporating reading and writing into an integrated whole language approach. Was this really much different from what we were already doing? Not so much. But did it raise awareness of the need? Absolutely! So my first point is that trends of math scores and language scores vying for top marks has been around for years and years. \n\nNow on to proficiency levels. This is good news as well. As a whole, our population's testing scores have risen. So happens as a result? Well.....we need a statistics expert here to explain this more accurately than myself. But surely my novice explanation might make a bit of sense. As scores as a whole rise, the median score rises. What once was above average performance may now only fall in the "average" range because of the rise in scores as a whole. Naturally as the proficiency level rises.....a great population is then put into a lower achievement level. (does this make sense at all?) The media often pounce on this. Perhaps to have news to report to scare the beejeezus out of everyone, or again, to help with "awareness." But regardless, it puts people that are not involved in education in a panic mode. Proficiency tests don't always measure achievement. And luckily enough, schools do. :) We use these scores yearly as a checks and balances system to make sure that skills are being taught and learned. We use them to notice changes in childrens levels and abilities as well. \n\nNow about your question. pfffffft don't worry! The "nerdis Americanus" is still alive and living within us. I'm afraid we'll keep breeding them over and over for years to come! :)\n\n*sniffs and pushes her glasses up on her nose**
902354
Good thing, yes.  But on the endangered species list.  There are lots of fundamentalists who would seek to tie the two pretty closely together.
743378
It looks like it:\nhttp://www.uwsp.edu/gEo/faculty/heywood/geog358/extinctm/LEKitFox.htm\n\nThat is a web site about mammal extinction & states that the last one was trapped in California in 1903.  Apparently it was exterminated because it was a pest.
263223
It looks that the answer is... YES!\nIt's a bird called JERDON'S COURSER [Rhinoptilus bitorquatus], an endangered species, one of the fifty rarest birds of the world. It is a rare and local endemic to the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh and extreme southern Madhya Pradesh, India, with a population estimated at 50-250 individuals.
579586
you should check the official site of WWF for a list of endangered species...
409610
Giant pandas are an endangered species, threatened by continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity. About 1,600 are believed to survive in the wild. Poaching is uncommon; killing a panda was punishable in China by death until a 1997 law changed the penalty to 20 years imprisonment.\n\nIt seems like the only thing we can do is donate money to support research on panda preservation.  Check out the sites below.  You'll love the panda cam.
493684
Cloning has become a widely debated issue in the media since 1996, when a group of Scottish scientists led by Ian Wilmut cloned Dolly, a sheep that was the first clone of an adult mammal. The cloning process involves destroying the nucleus of an egg cell of the animal that will carry the clone and injecting a donor nucleus from the individual to be cloned into that egg cell. The resulting egg thus has a nucleus from the donor animal (which may be an endangered animal) and can develop into an animal that has the same genetic makeup as the donor, thus making the resulting offspring a clone.\n\nSince Dolly's appearance, a wide variety of uses for mammalian cloning have been proposed, including using cloned animals to produce superior livestock and to simplify the process of creating transgenic animals (genetically modified animals that can make human proteins in their milk, for example). Several groups have suggested cloning endangered or recently extinct species. A company called Advanced Cell Technology used a cow named Bessie to clone an Asian gaur, an endangered oxlike animal native to India and Burma (the cloned gaur died of an ordinary disease two days after his birth). Scientists also hope to move on to cloning extinct animals, perhaps starting with the cloning of the now-extinct bucardo mountain goat from Spain; scientists froze some tissue from the last living animal before the species became extinct.\n\nCloning endangered and extinct species has raised heated debate in the scientific community and beyond. On the one hand, many say it may offer us an opportunity to protect animals such as the giant panda from extinction so that our descendants will be able to see the beauty of these creatures. Some claim that cloning may help us bring back recently extinct species. Still others just want to have an opportunity to see a mammoth. (By the way, cloning mammoths from tissues frozen in Siberian permafrost is considered impossible with the current techniques because their DNA has become fragmented. In addition, scientists do not think that fossilized species such as dinosaurs can be cloned.) Indeed, if successful cloning of an endangered or recently extinct species is possible, we may be able to boost the populations of these animals.\n\nOn the other hand, cloned populations consist of genetically identical individuals, leading to high susceptibility to many diseases and slow adaptation to the environment. In addition, some argue that introducing extinct species back into the wild may upset the natural balance and have disastrous effects on the populations of other species. Such concerns are probably not as relevant with recently extinct species, where their extinction has usually been caused by human interventions, such as destruction of habitats and hunting. We do have to consider such issues when we start talking about bringing back mammoths, but the cloning of long-extinct species is still only a theoretical possibility. Concerns remain, however, that endangered and recently extinct species could be brought back to a world where their habitats no longer exist, and they will only be able to survive in zoos.\n\nAnother concern voiced by animal conservationists is that cloning endangered species would be viewed by the public (and governments) as an alternative to the breeding and habitat-protection programs already in place. Such possibilities are especially alarming as cloning techniques become cheaper and may be viewed as a less costly alternative to the more traditional means of protecting endangered species. Of course, cloning cannot serve as a substitute for such programs, because cloned animals lack the genetic diversity that is crucial to survival, and they still need habitats to live in.\n\nAs you can see, cloning is far from being able to serve as a Noah's Ark that would save all endangered species from extinction, but together with habitat protection and breeding programs, it may help some endangered and rece
943602
I caught the tail end of that show.  I did not know you could adopt one.  I thought the point of people not being able to keep them...was a good point also.  I did not know they lived so long.  Also the poor chimp that they took one of his vertebra's out.
503938
Pandas are not extint, but endangered. Right now there are about 1,000 left in the wild. Before there were many people in China, Pandas lived through-out China. If you need more information please e-mail me at scarbro002005@yahoo.com
793857
Although the Black Mamba is not currently an endangered species it's numbers are declining due to human activities and it could be placed on the endangered species list in the future.
455248
nope...\nbelow is a website...\nhttp://www.wildsingapore.com/news/20050910/050906-1.htm \nthis website says that banning is not a solution...\nthis is made by the Head, Resource Conservation Department, National Environment Agency (NEA)
84746
Not around here they aren't. I haven't heard any evidence to say they are, but it is possible. Not very likely however. I would say it is more likely that they are disapearing from a specific place, such as around you, because of changes in the climate, introducion of a new species that is competeing with or eating the bees, or something like that.
553866
I have to wonder about your fascination w/ Pandas? Maybe its their simplicity, the black and white color, the robust form, or its innocent relaxing attitude. When Pandas are extinct I know you will miss them but it wont happen in your lifetime. China will miss their #1 mascot and will have to find another one.  Mankind will add another beautiful animal to our list of casualties and greed. Children will learn about them in textbooks the way we do about do do birds and wonder why and what they looked like in real life. On the day the last one dies I believe many people will be ashamed knowing they all contributed in some way to their demise
633694
No black swans are not in any way endangered. Their current conservation status is listed as "Secure", which is the second highest rating possible.
9251
They did find a creature recently, in Indonesia though. Don't know anything about one in Brazil.\n\nhttp://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=creature+indonesia&c=
867716
http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/\nhttp://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/\nhttp://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/EndangeredSpecies/\nhttp://www.panda.org/about_wwf/who_we_are/index.cfm
701739
Most of the time its a near endangered species.  They usually aren't so bad that they are on the endangered species list but are close.  It can act as a way for animal rights people to protect them even though they aren't at the needed population level to be protected.  This is true most times, but not all.