Reflective Essay: Conservation of Endangered Species and My Role

This reflective essay examines the critical issue of endangered species and the importance of their conservation. The student begins by defining endangered species and providing a comprehensive list of animals at risk, drawing from various sources. The essay then explores the reasons behind species endangerment, emphasizing the detrimental effects of human activities such as habitat destruction, pollution, and the overuse of resources. The student reflects on the impact of these actions, highlighting the interconnectedness of ecosystems and the potential consequences of species extinction. The essay details the student's personal initiatives, including generating awareness, reducing plastic use, and promoting public transportation. The student also discusses the application of the Peter Senge Model of Change, highlighting the importance of building a shared vision, systems thinking, mental models, team learning, and personal mastery in driving conservation efforts. The essay includes challenges faced and how these were overcome, and concludes with observations and reflections on the student's changing perspectives and actions towards wildlife conservation.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Reflective Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Before I start narrating my opinion about the endangered species and my initiative in
conserving the endangered species, I would first like to highlight the basic information which
helped me to enlighten my knowledge horizon about endangered species. According to The
National Wildlife Federation of America (2019), an endangered species is an animal or plant
that is considered at a risk of extinction. A species can be listed as endangered either at the
state level or federal level or at the international level. Some of the species which are facing
the risk of extinction as per the list of Animal Planet (2019) include African Wild Dog, Amur
Leopard, Asian Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Black Rhino, Black Spider Money. Blue Whale, Fin
Whale, Chimpanzee, Eastern Lowland Gorilla, Giant Pandas, Galapagos Penguin, Green
Turtle, Indian Elephant, Pangolins, Sea Lions and so on. I found the list enlisted in the
official website of Animal Planet about endangered species to be never ending. After
scrolling through the exhaustive range of the endangered species, I started researching about
why the conservation of endangered species is important. As per the Endangered Species Act,
applicable on the federal level in America, conversation of the endangered species is
important in order to maintain the bio-diversity of the earth and thus helping to sustain a
healthy life. Active initiatives taken by the mankind can prove to be helpful behind the
conservation of the wildlife species for are facing the threats of extinction. The following
reflective essay will focus on my personal attempts in order to bring change in the day-to-day
practice for promoting conversation of the endangered species by the effective
implementation of the change management model.
Thorough reading about the endangered species helped to open my eyes about the
importance of the conversation of the endangered species and how it can be done by taking
simple personal initiatives. I am not an environmentalist, but I respect all the creatures
created by god in this land of earth. My knowledge about evolution helped me to understand
that as we the humans grow, we tend to expand on a large scale and thus occupying the major

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY
portion of the earth. The activities of this ever expanding species (humans) like increase use
of the mobile phones or establishment of the mobile phone towers, use of plastics,
deforestation for the use of teak and timber or for building buildings create an imbalance in
the equilibrium of the bio-diversity and thus increasing the risk of species extinction. Once
the species have extinct, they are gone forever and there is not looking back. Losing even a
single species can have a deleterious effect on the natural ecosystem, because the overall
effect of extinction will be felt throughout the food chain. From giving cures to the fatal
diseases to preserving the natural ecosystems and for improving overall quality of life of the
humans, the benefits of preserving threatened and endangered species and invaluable (The
National Wildlife Federation of America, 2019).
Sparrows are commonplace bird but lately I have noticed that the numbers of
sparrows are being reduced. The study conducted by Shende and Patil (2016) highlighted that
the gradually extinction or decrease in the number of sparrows is due to loss of habitats.
Sparrows mainly resides on hedge type of habitat but present fad for landscape beautification
caused replacement of natural hedge habitats by steel solid fences thus resulting in loss of
habits. The rising environmental pollution, effects of pesticides used in grains or to kill
insects, is also endangering the feeding options for sparrows. Lastly, the electromagnetic
radiation emitted from the mobile phone towers is causing premature deaths of sparrows and
thus promoting extinction. I used to think, how can a small bird like a sparrow be important
for our living but reading scientific articles helped me to understand that sparrows also play a
major role in environment and ecosystem as it act as a natural pest control by feeding insects
and on larvae of mosquitoes (Shende & Patil, 2016).
Since, schools we were taught that plastics are non-biodegradable and are harmful for
nature. However, I have never thought deeply about how the use of plastics is leading to
extinction of numerous marine animals. My basic research through the scientific articles and

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY
post published in U.S Fish & Wildlife Service helped me in understanding that use of plastics
and lack of proper disposal of plastics is leading to extinction of the species like sea turtles,
sea lions, blue whales and dolphins. My research also enlightened me that over use of the
automobiles not only causing global warming, because of global warming, the polar ice caps
are melting, endangering the existence of the polar bears (Chaudhary et al., 2015). My
exhaustive reading about species extension and endangered species also helped me to
understand that irresponsible activities of human is one of the cause behind the extinction of
white rhino last year.
I felt extremely said about the entire animal community after getting to know that we
the human beings are responsible for their gradual extinction. Just because the animals cannot
speak and rise their own concerns like us, it does not necessarily means that they have not
right of live in this earth. As feel as a responsible citizen of the country, it is our duty to come
forward and take active initiatives in order to conserve the wildlife. Some of the basic
measures which I think will be helpful for save the wildlife include conservation of the
wildlife habitats, reducing the use of chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, reduction in
the excessive use of the automobiles and telecommunication and complete banning over the
products made of animal skins and bones like leather bags or shoes, woollen garments made
of furs or ivory engraved wall or room décor. I feel that first and the foremost step towards
applications of the minimal initiatives for the wildlife protection is generation of awareness.
Awareness campaigns can be designed targeting the school children, community dwelling
adults and in other social gatherings in order gain comprehensive outcome in the wildlife
preservation.
As charity begins at home, my first initiative towards the conservation of the wildlife
is generating awareness within my friends and family members about the endangered species
and the initiatives that we can adopt to prevent the risk of extinction. I personal initiatives

4REFLECTIVE ESSAY
take by me apart from generating awareness among my peers include less use of the plastic
made products, availing public transport only when travelling long distance and choosing to
walk to cover small stretches rather than taking cars. I also encouraged my family members
and my friends so follow the same.
The Managing Change helped me to gain knowledge about various change
management models like the Kotter’s 8-step change model and Peter Senge Organisational
Model of Change. I mainly used the Peter Senge Model of Change in order to implement the
change in practice for protection of the endangered species. This model is based on five
different disciplines first include building of the shared vision. According to the mode, the
vision must be created through effective communication with the employees of the
organisations (Jackson, 2017). This effective communication help the member to take active
initiatives towards implementing the change and also believing that change will help to bring
a positive output in the long-run. In order to build shared vision, I indulged in effective
communication with my closed peers in order to make them understand the importance of the
endangered species conservation. However, I faced certain challenges in generation shared
vision initially, few of my friends told that, “Why will I walk, when I can use my car to reach
the destination on time, I don’t care about species extinction”. In such scenarios, I made them
understand that walking to cover small distance is not only helpful for the conservation of the
species but also will be helpful for maintenance of the health and well-being. This
understanding motivated him to take waling small distance rather than using cars.
The second stage of the Senge Model of Change is systems thinking and it vouches
that instead of focusing on the individual issues, systems thinking reflection on the
observational process of an entire system (Jackson, 2017). Thus on focus on the
individualised actions, I mainly projected on the bigger picture. My projection towards the
bigger picture is helped me to understand that taking small-initiative in day-to-day living like

5REFLECTIVE ESSAY
banning the use of plastics and instead choosing paper made bags will help to promote
conservation of the endangered species and at the same time will help to reduce the threats of
floods and environmental pollution. I also helped my peers to understand the use of paper
made bags is eco-friendly and will helpful for the species conservation in the long run.
The third step of the model is mental models and promotes aligning the change
principle with the personal values of the employees (Mosimane et al., 2014). My personal
values is to reside in a world where the right of living of every species both human, animals,
birds and plants are conserved. I also channelized the same in my family members and the
peers. Few of my family members asked me, “why should I conserve species…tigers always
feed on humans, it kills us, it is better to get to them extinct”. This sudden question kept me
awestruck. I studied why the preservation of tiger is important. I found that numerous studies
have highlighted that tigers mainly feed on deer that in turn feed on grasses and green shrubs.
The extinction of tigers will lead to increase in the number of deer. More will be the number
of deer, more they will feed on the greeneries leading of loos of green grass and thereby
creating oxygen depletion (Yumnam et al., 2014). I explained the same to my friend who
raised the topic and this helped to implement the mental model and thus helping to bring the
change in practice.
The fourth and the fifth step of Senge Model of Change are team learning and
personal mastery respectively. Team learning is an amalgamation of personal mastery and
shared vision (Jackson, 2017). Personal mastery occurs when the individual has a clear vision
in order to bring the change. My mission was to bring change in personal practice for the
conservation of the endangered species and this helped to motivate and direct my peers in the
required direction and thereby helping to implement the change. For example, when I was
visited zoo with the friends and family, I saw my family members walking down the street to
visit the zoo (zoo was 20 minutes walking distance from my home). This initiative helped to

6REFLECTIVE ESSAY
reduce unwanted use of the auto-mobiles. I also found that my friends are using paper bags in
the grocery shops and taking active initiative to dispose plastics separately from the
biodegradable trash. The implementation of this change management for the wildlife
conservation in the Punjabi Market helped to come across various new concepts about which
I used to have little knowledge before and this helped me to understand that high cost of
paper bags or the poor availability of the paper bags and increase piracy of the leather jackets
are some of the barriers behind the effective implementation of the wildlife conservation.
When I came to Canada, I saw a completely different environment, I local markets of
Canada, I saw a squirrel roaming freely. This is something unusual because in India, the
markets are so over-crowed there are limited chance of see squirrels. After watching that
pretty black squirrel, I approach towards it with some nuts in my hands. Initially I found
squirrel to look frightened but after observing me for some time, it approached toward me
gradually and took nuts from my hand. This helped me to gain new insight about the animal
and human relationships. Animals will not harm you unless you harm them. The trust
between animal and humans and allowing them their own place to thrive in will help to
prevent the chances of extinction (Cembalo et al., 2016).
At the end, I would like to conclude that use of the change model is effective in
bringing change in practice and going forward I will help to incorporate new initiatives like
exchange of friendly behaviour with the animals and conservation of the animal habitat in
order to promote conservation of the endangered species.

7REFLECTIVE ESSAY
References
Animal Planet. (2019). Endangered Species. Access date: 22nd April 2019. Retrieved from:
http://www.animalplanet.com/wild-animals/endangered-species/about-endangered-
species/
Cembalo, L., Caracciolo, F., Lombardi, A., Del Giudice, T., Grunert, K. G., & Cicia, G.
(2016). Determinants of individual attitudes toward animal welfare-friendly food
products. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 29(2), 237-254.
Chaudhary, A., Verones, F., de Baan, L., & Hellweg, S. (2015). Quantifying land use impacts
on biodiversity: combining species–area models and vulnerability
indicators. Environmental science & technology, 49(16), 9987-9995.
Davis, H. (2015). Life & death in the Anthropocene: A short history of plastic. Art in the
anthropocene: Encounters among aesthetics, politics, environments and
epistemologies, 347-58.
Jackson, B. G. (2017). A Fanatasy Theme Analysis of Peter Senge’s Learning Organization.
In The Aesthetic Turn in Management (pp. 139-155). Routledge.
Mosimane, A. W., McCool, S., Brown, P., & Ingrebretson, J. (2014). Using mental models in
the analysis of human–wildlife conflict from the perspective of a social–ecological
system in Namibia. Oryx, 48(1), 64-70.
Shende, V. A., & Patil, K. G. (2016). Electromagnetic Radiations: A Possible Impact on
Population of House Sparrow (Passer Domesticus). Engineering International, 3(1),
45-52.

8REFLECTIVE ESSAY
The National Wildlife Federation. (2019). Endangered species. Access date: 22nd April 2019.
Retrieved from:
https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Understanding-
Conservation/Endangered-Species
U.S Fish & wildlife Service. (2019). Urban Wildlife Conservation Program. Access date:
22nd April 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.fws.gov/refuges/
Yumnam, B., Jhala, Y. V., Qureshi, Q., Maldonado, J. E., Gopal, R., Saini, S., ... & Fleischer,
R. C. (2014). Prioritizing tiger conservation through landscape genetics and habitat
linkages. PLoS One, 9(11), e111207.