The Sloth
The sloth is a tree dwelling mammal that is found in central and South America. They vary from five to ten pounds and stand from one to two feet tall.( "EDGE of Existence.") Deforestation has caused the total sloth population to decline and the sloth is now considered an endangered species. Sloths live in the trees on which they feed so deforestation destroys their home and food at the same time. Sloths take around a year and a half to have one baby become fully grown and sloths only have one baby at a time.( "EDGE of Existence.") The sloth reaches maturity at around three years of age. this means the population will take some time to grow. ("EDGE of Existence.")
Deforestation's Effects on the Sloth Population
The sloth population in South America is being decimated by deforestation. If the deforestation is not stopped sloths will lose their habitat and become extinct. Deforestation, if not controlled, will destroy not only sloths but countless other unique species indigenous to the South American rainforests. If the current rate of deforestation continues the worlds rainforests will be completely destroyed in one hundred years. The problem of deforestation needs to be addressed now in order to preserve the worlds rainforests. Steps must be taken in order to insure the survival of the worlds rainforests and preservation of the Earth's bio-diversity.
Areas and Locations Being Affected
The main areas where the sloth populations are being affected the greatest are the northern and eastern coasts of South America. The three-toed sloth is most commonly found in red mangrove forests where the land and sea meet. These areas are also where deforestation is most prominent. sloths live in the trees on which they also feed. ...
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...s been happening for thousands of years. If deforestation continues all of the planets rainforests will be destroyed within one hundred years. Many negative effects come from deforestation. Climate change, extinction, desertification, flooding, and deaths can all occur from deforestation. People, businesses, and governments can all work together to stop deforestation and save the sloth. Regulations and laws can slow and prevent deforestation. businesses can choose to only receive from less environmentally harmful suppliers. Consumers can buy environmentally friendly materials. Finally voters can vote those into office who wish to stop environmental degradation and save natures most biologically diverse ecosystem and the sloth along with it. We can stop deforestation and help the sloths population grow. With each person working together the sloth can make a comeback.
As of now, the Pygmy three-toed-sloth are critically endangered and weak law enforcement, deforestation, and poachers are to blame. The Pygmy three-toed sloths are described to have buff-colored faces with dark circles that surround the eye and go outwards to their temples. Like all sloths, they are always in doldrums, which can be very unbeneficial to them. They have clay-orange fur that covers their face and their hair is long and bushy. “Long hair hangs forward to the forehead, giving the impression of a hood” (Grzimek 161).
The Brazilian Three Toed Sloth is the largest of the four species of sloths. They are called three toed because they have three digits on their arm. They are also known as the Maned Sloth. The Maned sloth has black fur that grows longer than the rest of the fur. Its mane starts from the nape of its neck and then runs down to its shoulders. This gives the sloth a mane like appearance. The Maned Sloth’s scientific name is Bradypus torquatus and they are in the Class Mammalia, Order Pilosa, and Family Bradypodidae. The sloth is only found in the coastal Brazilian Atlantic rain forest within the states of Bahia, Espirito Santo, and Rio de Janeiro. The sloths spend almost their entire lives high up in the rain forests tree’s canopy where most of the sunlight is. They are the funniest, cutest, and scariest animals in the world (in my opinion of course)! Their body shape is weird yet fascinating. They have a short torso, pudgy tail, long lanky arms with super long nails, and an extremely roundish head with a flat face which make them, super funny! They also have long ruffled fur, which feels hard. The fur is somewhat a grayish-brownish color that is stained green from algae being grown on them.
Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are marine mammals capable of spending their entire lives in water. Being carnivorous in nature, they feed on sea urchins, crabs, fishes, mussels and clams. They are referred to as keystone species due to their profound impact on marine ecology. The interaction between sea otters, sea urchins and kelp forests has been studied as a model for the impact of predator-prey interactions on community ecology. Sea otters are keystone predators, whose presence has a far-reaching influence on the marine food web by affecting the populations of sea urchins, which indirectly affects the populations of kelp forests & other marine organisms. There has been a steep decline in sea otter populations due to water pollution and exploitation for furs. This has affected marine ecology adversely. It is therefore suggested that sea otters should be included in the endangered species list to protect them from further exploitation. This study focuses on the community ecology of sea otters and their impact on marine ecology. The need for their inclusion in the Endangered Species list and the implications of such an intervention are also evaluated.
Sloths are very cool animals that have many structures with different functions for them. A structure is a part of an animal's body, and a function is what the structure does. One of the structures is the sloths sharp teeth they allow the sloth to chew sticks and twigs they eat. Another structure is brown and green fur. Their fur allows them to camouflage and be hidden from predators. Also another structure is their big claws that the use when threatened by an predators when on the ground.
The sloths of today are different from their ancient ancestors. They have shrunk in size and speed in comparison to the sloths the past. The ancient Megatherium americanum measured roughly 4 meters long from tail to head and had a shoulder height of 2.25 meters (Argot, 2008). A modern-day descendant of M. americanum is the Southern two-toed sloth, also known as Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus) and it pales in comparison to its ancestor in size. Of course, the M. americanum isn’t the only ancestral sloth, but it is one of the only Megatharium species that is described in detail (Pujos & Salas, 2004).
The Amazon Rain Forest Is in Danger of Being Destroyed" by Devadas Vittal. Rain Forests. HaiSong Harvey, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2002. Reprinted from Devadas Vittal, Introduction: What Is the Amazon Rainforest? Internet: http://www.homepages.go.com/homepages/d/v/i/dvittal/amazon/intro.html, November 1999, by permission of the author. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010021212&mode=view
In today’s society, most individuals misunderstand the vice of sloth for mere physical laziness. Very few would say sitting on a couch eating a bowl of ice cream is a sin, let alone something that belongs on the list of deadly vices. Sloth does not only belong on the list of the seven deadly vices, but it is in fact the most destructive of all the vices.
On average millions of hectares of forests are destroyed each year resulting in severe consequences that will affect not only our lifestyle, but also all the animals with which we share our planet. Many species of animals and plants will become extinct and if we continue with the destruction of our forests, earth will be unable to sustain life.
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
In South America lies the largest and most wondrous rainforest in the world, the Amazon Rainforest. This 1.4 billion acre forest represents over half of the planets remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most bio-diverse tract of rainforest in the world. Ten percent of all known species on the planet are found in this rain forest, most of which have yet to be discovered. For the past century, the Amazon has been gradually decreasing in size due to agricultural expansion, ranching, infrastructure projects, energy exploration and illegal logging. At its current state, the Amazon is losing land equal to the size of the state of Delaware every year. The destruction of this forest releases 340 million tons of carbon per year according to the World Wildlife Foundation, or WWF, which in turn cause climate changes everywhere around the world. Undiscovered species can hold the key to curing a plethora of diseases, but if those species become extinct those keys are lost forever. If nothing is done to prevent this, the world’s treasure trove of bio-diversity will cease to exist, creating irreversible damage to not only the South American people but also the rest of the world.
They don’t live as long as humans do, but they get a pretty long life. An average sloth can live anywhere from 10-16. If they are in captivity they can live up to their mid-thirties. Sloths are not very big they can get anywhere from 50-60cm long. Their tails can get to 6-7cm long and are very stuby. There are two kinds of sloths a two-toed sloth and three- toed sloth. All sloths actually have three toes, but the two-toed sloth has
The likelihood of the four-toed hedgehog going extinct is very improbable. They have an extensive range and are very stable in regards to their wildlife population. They continue to grow in the wild and animal experts have not seen any alarming declines in the population rates. Hence, they have a minimal conservation status. But with the four-toed hedgehog’s development into a popular exotic household pet, there have been some concerns about the threatening of the native populations in Africa. Luckily, there is a breeding stock that is present in the United States that supplies this pet demand. Furthermore, it is prohibited to transport the four-toed hedgehog animals out of Africa to the pet trade market. These regulations allow for the native populations to flourish (Nichols 2014)
The Human Impact on Rainforests Human Impact on Rainforest is it a necessity? Rainforest are the beautiful gift of Mother Nature. It consists of the most magnificent species and plants in the world. 4.2% of the world’s animals live in the rainforest. This statistic it self shows how bad it would be to destroy such essential part of the worlds biodiversity.
Deforestation, defined by biologist Charles Southwick as "the destruction of forests; may involve clear-cutting or selective logging" (p. 365), is a predominantly human-driven process that is dramatically altering ecosystems worldwide. "Clear-cutting" involves the indiscriminant removal of every single plant and tree species from within a selected area. The other major process of deforestation, "selective logging," focuses removal efforts on only specific, predetermined tree species within a chosen area. The statistics gathered about human deforestation over time are considerable, and they can be somewhat controversial. Depending on the source and the location selected, the magnitude of deforestation varies. Southwick estimates that, approximately 10,000 years ago, 6.2 billion hectares (23.9 million square miles) of forest existed on earth (p. 117). That figure is equivalent to 45.5% of the earth's total land. He further estimates that, by 1990, this amount had declined 30%, with only 4.3 billion hectares of forest remaining (p. 117). Southwick also acknowledges other estimates that place the total amount of deforestation between 50% and 75% (p. 117). NASA has similar deforestation statistics that confirm these trends. According to their website, 16.5% of the Brazilian Amazon forests have been destroyed. They also note similar magnitudes of deforestation in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), despite the significantly smaller total area of forest within these countries. These grim figures are somewhat tempered by the NASA finding that, over the past ten years, the deforestation rate has declined from 6,200 square miles per year to 4,800 square miles per year. Though this trend is n...
The Disappearing Rainforests Conserving the rainforest is a global issue of great importance. Tropical rainforests provide a habitat for animals, a unique ecosystem for vegetation, and an abundance of resources for humans, yet they are being destroyed at an astonishing rate. Experts estimate that if these endangered territories continue to be consumed in this manner, no more will be standing in forty years (Rainforest). Examining the social, environmental, and economic costs of the continued destruction of the Earth's tropical rainforests will prove that deforestation for short-term profit is ultimately not viable.