we aren't rats, what are we?

There has been talk of 6th great extinction.  This one is not being caused by meteor strikes, or volcanic ash or an Ice Age.  It is instead, just like everything we buy regularly--manmade.

Estimates are that there are fewer than 3200 tigers left in the wild.  Tigers are dangerous predators and make great coats.

There are about 100,000 gorillas but only 600 of those are the mountain gorillas (like in the movie).  Gorillas are dangerous animals and make great knickknacks.

Giraffes number the same.  Its not like they are good for anything, they just stand around and eat out of trees.

The sperm whale population is thought to number in the hundreds of thousands, but when your backyard is all the seas and oceans of the world, that seems a rather low number.  It is also an estimate due to the difficulties of tracking something with such a large area to wander.  They were hunted for a substance used in perfume and cosmetics.  While legal hunting is no longer a threat, ocean noise, pollution, and fishing equipment accidents are still making their lives dangerous.  They are no longer considered endangered, but are still a vulnerable population. ( Not that it affects most of us humans very much)

Ten years ago, there were about 3500 rhinoceros, but right now, there are only 3 white rhinos, 2 female and 1 male, and the black rhinos are mostly under armed guard due to idiots that prefer rhino horn to viagra.

Of the 44,838 species assessed worldwide using the IUCN Red List criteria, 905 are extinct and 16,928 are listed as threatened to be extinct. Millions of species still need to be assessed to know their status. As a result, the number of extinct and threatened species is definitely much higher than the current estimate. A species of plant or animal is classified Extinct when scientists have concluded the last individual has died. Usually exhaustive surveys in known and/or expected habitat, at appropriate times throughout its historic range failed to record an individual, and the species is listed as extinct.

Not all the extinctions are directly related to human hunting prowess, the passenger pigeon and the near extinction of the American Bison were hunting and food related.  The African elephant population is about 10 millions but is in constant danger due to people wanting to buy ivory.  But a lot of extinctions occur because humans want to move into some other species living space.  We destroyed their habitat.

On the flip side of that, the earth is now home to over 7 billion people.   There are probably over 7 billion rats and 7 billion cockroaches, also.  Truly, we humans are the only large creature that is so numerous.  And while we like other humans better than rats and cockroaches, there are some things about us that are worse than either rats of cockroaches.

Rats don't kill other lifeforms to make themselves look pretty or decorate their lairs.
They carry disease, but so do we.
They don't leave the environment cleaner than they found it, but also don't create trash that kills other animals when they are accidentally trapped in it or eat it.
They don't spray deadly chemicals all over to stop other creatures from sharing what they don't want.
They don't destroy food so other animals can't use it.
They don't kill trees.
They don't blow each other up.

So who cares if there are no tigers or elephants or whales or whatever creature disappears forever so we can use more land, have more erections, eat more delicacies and wear more hides?  What does that matter.  What does that do to humans?

Who knows?