For thousand animals have been hunted and used for human needs and purposes, but where do we draw the line? Well for starters there's a difference between regular hunting and poaching. Poaching, illegally hunt or catch (game or fish) on land that is not one's own or in contravention of official protection.  Every year thousands of animals across the world are poached, for example Elephants are commonly killed for the ivory inside their tusks. Reptiles have been used for different types of handbags and many other species are used as trophy items for big game hunts where the sole purpose is to kill for display. In the United States, the antlers of the bighorn sheep are especially prized and may sell for as much as $20,000 on the black market. The black market animal trade is the illegal buying and selling of animals for human purposes. Black market animal trade occurs outside the laws and regulations set by governments. Animals both alive and dead, ­whole animals, and products sourced from animals, such as skins, meat, feathers, and medicines are sold here. Illegal animal trade is growing and may threaten species with extinction. Animals being sold on the black market is bad because these animals normally tend to have dwindling numbers in their species and hunting these animals to make profit off of them  to sell to the black market could result in species becoming extinct due to irresponsible overhunting.  

Since poaching has been around for hundreds of years, dating back to the late middle ages, there must have been a positive thing accoralated with poaching, right? According to an article by David E. Newton, “Poaching often disrupts local communities that depend on poached animals for their local economy and culture or on tourism as a major source of income. Local residents may have their lives disrupted by being drawn or forced into a poaching operation or by economic disruptions of the local culture”. Many communities rely on poaching to survive whether that is due to needing to make income from tourism or the economy, but that still doesn't make up for the fact that there's thousands of animals who are endangered and killing these animals could result in extinction of these species. For example take the orchids in the Florida Everglades they were once a very common plant there but due to visitors illegally removing these native plants that have now completely disappeared from the Florida Everglades. Proving the point in which overhunting species, even those who had a good population number can result in extinction. 

  Another example of why poaching is harmful is that it can affect the structure of ecosystems. If an animal species is over hunted due to poaching and the species becomes nearly or completely extinct, it can disrupt the food chain. Which can lead to problems with other species such as overpopulation and underpopulation. 

Our world is very beautiful and there are many different types of biomes in nature such as the Savanna, Rainforest, Tundra, and many more. All of these biomes and environments contain a diverse amount of animals so it is our job to protect these animals and plants from becoming endangered and extinct so we must prevent poaching to stop the illegal trade of animals for profit for our own use. Around the world today there are many people and groups who advocate for the protection of animals like the black mambas who take down different traps and patrol the savannah for poachers.  In conclusion, poaching animals who are at risk of becoming endangered or are endangered can lead to the extinction of the species as a whole. Would you like to see tigers in the dinosaur section of the museum?