One of the biggest threats that wildlife faces, other than habitat loss, is direct persecution from humans. The illegal trade in wildlife is still a huge industry in many parts of the world, particularly southeast Asia, and this unsustainable harvesting of wildlife poses a real threat of extinction to many species.

Tigers and rhinoceros are species which are under great threat of total extermination due to poaching for parts involved in traditional medicines and even in developed nations such as the United Kingdom, direct persecution is still a problem for raptors, especially the Hen Harrier.

On thaibirding.com I have catalogued persecution events of birds as I have heard of them or discovered them myself and unfortuantely there will be many hundreds of cases that I am unaware of: Bird Persecution. In Thailand birds are captured for food, to prevent them from eating farmed fish, for the cage bird trade and for releasing to make merit in Buddhist culture.

Unfortunately, as well as suffering loss of habitat at an accelerating rate, wildlife is still under direct threat of destruction at the hands of humans.