There have been thousands of marine species that have become extinct. Currently there are thousands of fish that are endangered and in great need of protection. The following are some.

The Arcadian Redfish are found in warm waters, such as the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. These fish mature at a late age (5 to 6 years) and have low reproductive rates. However, they can live to be 50 years old, which is relatively remarkable. Young redfish are marked with patches of black and green color. They don’t develop their red color until after they move to the ocean bottom. Now the Arcadian Redfish is endangered due to overfishing. These fish started to decrease in population in the early 1900s because of their increased popularity in the food industry.

The Bluefin tuna is one animal that is high on the endangered species list. This fish has been named one of the wonders of the ocean, because they can grow to be 12 feet long and weigh over 1, 500 pounds! Why are these fish disappearing at alarming rates? Because they are being captured for food, with over 75% consumed in Japanese restaurants often by making a popular sushi.

The European Eel is found in the Baltic and the Mediterranean Sea. They have a unique metamorphosis process and they change their forms over a longtime period. According to IUCNRedList.org, the European Eel is one of the threatened species that are not only endangered, but critically endangered.

The whale shark is one of many endangered sharks out there. According to one source, sharks are revered as our last “living” dinosaurs. They are known as the largest fish with the potential to grow over 60 feet long and weigh over 70,000 pounds. The whale shark also has the potential to live to be over 100 years old.

Cooler, higher places may not be very welcoming to some hummingbirds trying to escape rising temperatures and other effects of climate change. Anna's hummingbirds live no higher than about 2,600 meters above sea level. If the birds attempt to expand their range to include higher altitudes, they may struggle to fly well in the thinner air, researchers reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

These hummingbirds have expanded their range in the past. Once only found in Southern California, the birds now live as far north as Vancouver, says Austin Spence, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis. That expansion is probably due to climate change and people using feeders to attract hummingbirds, he says.

Spence and colleagues collected 26 Anna’s hummingbirds from different elevations (海拔) in the bird’s natural range in California. The team transported the birds to a habitat about 1,200 meters above sea level and measured their metabolic (新陈代谢的) rate when hovering (盘旋). After relocating the hummingbirds to a field station at an altitude of 3,800 meters, the researchers let the birds rest for at least 12 hours and then measured that rate again.

The rate was 37 percent lower, on average, at the higher elevation than the aviary, even though the birds should have been working harder to fly in the thinner air. At higher altitudes, hovering, which takes a lot of energy compared with other forms of flight, is more challenging and requires even more energy, Spence says. The decrease in metabolic rate shows that the birds’ hovering performance was suffering, he says “Low oxygen and low air pressure may be holding them back as they try to move upward.”

Additional work is needed to see whether the birds might be able to better adjust if given weeks or months to get used to the conditions at gradually higher altitudes.

Carola’s parotia, one of the fascinating and unique birds of paradise that live on the island of New Guinea, begins his dance. This male bird is attempting to impress a row of females watching him from a branch above.

It seems that the more extreme the male’s costume and colors, the better his chance of attracting a mate. While some birds of paradise perform alone, others, like Goldie’s birds of paradise, often perform together, creating an eye-catching performance that female birds find impossible to resist.

These brilliantly colored birds of paradise have evolved (进化) over millions of years from ancient birds whose feathers were dark and boring in comparison. It seems to be a contradiction that such extreme feathers and colors could have been favored by the process of evolution. After all, these same brightly colored feathers also make them much more noticeable to predators and slow the birds down. The forest of New Guinea is a perfect environment for birds. In fact, sexual selection has been the driving force in evolution of birds of paradise. Over millions of years, they have slowly undergone changes in their color, feathers and other talents. Characteristics that made one bird more attractive than another were passed on and enhanced over time. The usual rules of survival aren’t as important here as the rules of successful mating.

In the past, demand for the birds’ beautiful feather resulted in a huge amount of hunting. In the early 1900s, 80,000 shins a year were exported from New Guinea for European ladies’ hat. However, surprisingly few birds die for these costumes nowadays. Local people are still permitted so hunt birds of paradise for traditional uses. However, hunters usually target older male birds, leaving younger males to continue breeding (繁殖).

There are more serious threats to the birds’ welfare like illegal markets, the large-scale industrial logging, oil prospecting and mining presenting dangers to the birds’ habitats. Meanwhile, human populations continue to grow. Land is owned by different local families whose leaders disagree about which areas should be protected.