@Hawthorne - Yes, and the threats endemic species' homes are often created by people.

People contribute to this by destroying ecosystems with deforestation, by polluting the environment, by causing global warming, and perhaps the most damaging for a species to remain endemic: introducing species of animals that aren't native to that environment.

An example of a non-endemic species taking over is Africanized bees, commonly known as killer bees. Africanized bees were once native to Tanzania, but they were brought to Europe and accidentally released into the wild by a Brazilian beekeeper in 1957.

Just 26 queens escaped, but those 26 queens were enough to start hives of Africanized bees in Europe. Africanized bees are an example of a species that arose right where it is now -- they are the hybrid results of interbreeding between European bees and the original Tanzanian bees.

Africanized bees are so aggressive that not only do they swarm and often kill livestock and even people, but they also assault European bees' nests, killing the bees inside and doing a hostile takeover.

In this way, Africanized bees introduced by humans have damaged the endemic European bees' chances of surviving. We need to be more careful, or we could cause some serious damage.

Does anybody else notice how endemic animals tend to be on the endangered species list more than other animals do?

People are partly to blame for this, but so is environmental change. See, endemic species, because they only have one place that they are native to, are susceptible to extinction if their limited environment is threatened. Imagine how fast koala bears would go extinct if the eucalyptus tree went extinct!

@VivAnne - You said it yourself -- species tend to become endemic when they are in an area of ecological isolation, such as islands and the Australian continent.

There are actually two different kinds of endemic species: neoendemism and paleoendemisn.

Neoendemism is the term for species that used to be widespread but ended up isolated down to one location. This is how animals can have "cousins" across the world from them that have evolved into slightly different species because the two populations have been separated from each other for so long.

Neoendemism is the term for species that never used to be widespread, but simply evolved in the location that they are currently endemic to and haven't spread out of it, either. This is how animals can be unique to one place on the entire planet.

So to answer your question with endemic species examples, animals like the duck-billed platypus and the kangaroo are neoendemic, while animals like Australia's dogs and alligators are paleoendemic -- they likely have the same ancestors as the dogs and alligators across the world, but their populations were separated long ago.

I would imagine a mix of paleoendemic animals and neoendemic animals is caused because the paleoendemic ones get isolated before the neoendemic ones evolve in the same location.

@seHiro - Australia is a great example of this. How do species become endemic, anyway? I mean, animals like the kangaroo and the duck-billed platypus are so unique they don't even have distant cousins on other continents.

It's like somebody just dropped them on that one spot on earth and they never wandered anywhere else because the continent was isolated by wide expanses of sea on all sides. But some animals in Australia, like dogs and such, match animals elsewhere on earth.

Why is that? Why are only some of the animals in Australia endemic? Or did humans introduce all of the non-endemic ones as they came and settled over the places the native Australians had been living? I somehow doubt the British brought along the alligators, though, and those aren't endemic to Australia...

I think some of the most obvious and dramatic examples of the endemic species definition are the unique and wonderful animals that live in Australia.

Australia is the only place in the world where marsupials are a native species. Kangaroos, koala bears and wombats are all marsupials -- and all endemic to Australia. They are so exclusive that the very sight of any of these species is synonymous with Australia.

Also endemic to Australia are monotremes. If you've never heard of this type of animal, that's because it's one of the smallest animal families in the world: there are only two members, the duck-billed platypus and the echidna. Both are mammals with beaks that lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young.

These are just a few examples of endemic Australian animals. I think endemic species are very important to maintain genetic diversity worldwide. They've been separated for so long; we should be respectful of the natural order that things have ended up in and be careful not to introduce animals to places that don't belong in.

If one of these endemic animals happens to end up somewhere outside of its normal environment, how are they able to adapt? I read somewhere a while back that rats came to North America as stowaways on ships, and they seem to have adjusted very well unfortunately.