Wildlife Endangerment Due to Human Intervention in Nature
"The driving force behind today’s alarming decline in species is the destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitat due to our increasing human population and wasteful consumption of resources."1 Everyday wildlife is forced to seek refuge in very remote, small areas. As the human population increases, land that was once inhabited by wildlife is urbanized to suit human needs. In other words, the land available for wildlife to survive on keeps diminishing. As houses and roads are constructed, forest are cut down and cleared; consequently eliminating the natural habitats of wildlife. This causes animals to migrate to new areas and seek refuge. Under certain, harsh circumstances, the animal may become extinct. Due to the propagation of the human species, greater and greater amounts of land are taken away from wildlife. Eventually all land will be commercialized for human needs, thus leaving wildlife lost in the shuffle. Human intervention in nature has caused disastrous effects to wildlife and will continue to occur until humans realize the outcomes of their actions.
Urbanization and habitat destruction play a large role in the decrease of wildlife. When Columbus discovered America, forests and grassy fields covered the land. As the years passed by, people began moving to the New World, thus increasing the demand for houses to be built. Since then, the human population has grown to an extremely large number. Today, the majority of land is commercialized either for humans or livestock. Urbanization is very dangerous, in respect to the preservation of wildlife. Along with decreasing wildlife populations, many plant species are destroyed in the process.
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The effects of deforestation around my home and throughout my state are becoming more evident every day. When a deer or other wild game loses its home, they move into cities, urban areas, and parks; thus causing issues with the human population. Most people living in Illinois have hit or nearly killed a deer driving on Southern Illinois roadways. This common occurrence could be kept at bay or maybe even avoided if the deer and wild game had more space to reside. There are many points that coincide with this reality but the main issues are the small subtle ones that affect everyday life and are often overlooked. Picture the Illinois we will leave for our children. Do you see a lush green forest or miles and miles of concrete and steel?
Overprotection of Biodiversity "Extinction is normal"(pg26, 1st paragraph). However, the rate this process is happening is up to us, to some extent. In this article, two sides are discussing this rate. One side is arguing that biodiversity is overprotected and the other the opposite. The first argument, against protection of biodiversity, states that "at a macro level, there is a tradeoff between production/consumption of timber and production/consumption of related environmental amenities"(pg28, 2nd paragraph).
Emma Marris’ blog, “In Defense of Everglade Pythons,” exhibits that humans have controlled the relationships between the already existing ecosystem within the Florida Everglades, by the latest introduction of pythons, “It’s the blame-the-invasive species narrative…”(Marris). One major method that people have favored unknowingly at times to manipulate nature is introducing a new species to an already working ecosystem. Therefore, people have controlled nature significantly in the U.S. since 1492, when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Humans have altered environments and how that new species will develop. They have overpopulated and underpopulated current places and animal inhabitants. And they have even changed environments for
Through millions of years of evolution, well-balanced habitats have co-evolved to provide for the wide variety of species and their needs. Trees have adapted to weeds, weeds have adapted to the predation from herbivores, and so on up the food chain. Similar scenarios are seen throughout the world. Through the process of natural selection, specific species or broad species families will go extinct. However, these occurrences have largely been due to the natural flow and evolution of time. It wasn’t until recently that dominant species, such as humans, have taken the course of nature into their own hands.
In Thinking Like a Mountain, the author, Aldo Leopold, writes of the importance of wildlife preservation through examples of the symbiotic relationship of animals and plant-life with a mountain. He asks the reader to perceive the processes of a mountainous environment in an unusual way. Aldo Leopold wants the reader to "think" like a mountain instead of thinking of only the immediate, or as the hunter did. Taking away one feature of an ecosystem may eventually destroy everything else that that environment is composed of. Nature and wildness is essential for the well being of life on this earth.
Urban Sprawl can cause bad health conditions such as obesity, which is linked to diabetes and can shorten the life expectancy of a person. 78% of Americans do not meet basic activity level recommendations and there has been a 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 years old since 1990 in America (Collins). In 1962, research statistics showed that the percentage of obesity in America’s population was at 13%. By 1980 it has risen to 15% -- by 1994 to 23% -- and by the year 2000 the obesity progression in America had reached an unprecedented 31% (American Sports Data). Now, over a 20 year period (1970-1990), the 100 largest Urbanized Areas in the United States sprawled out over an additional 14,545 square miles. That was more than 9 million acres of natural habitats, farmland, and other rural space (Key Statistics Of Urban Sprawl). As you can see, as Urban Sprawl increases, so does obesity. With all this land being converted to cities and neighborhoods, the natural environment is being destroyed. Where do all the animals go that used to live in this space? They are just left to die off or live in a more dense population somewhere that has not been developed yet. By cities ...
Over a century ago, humans fought animals for dominance of the landscape and we regrettably won, now they’re in need of our protection. The Government and Organizations have come to the rescue of wildlife species all across the U.S. Their main goal is to protect wildlife species from over harvesting and also their loss of habitat due to industrial and residential development. The beauty and curiosity of wildlife captivates all of us for different reasons. For certain species, they are the link to our existence Animals are not being hunted into extinction because the government is protecting certain wildlife areas and are controlling the animal populations within those certain areas. While increasing a wildlife species population and removing from the endangered species list, a predator such as the gray wolf, is sure to be seen as a success to some and a threat to others.
In both positive and negative ways, human’s actions are always affecting the lives of animals as well. To reduce future endangerments, we can work to decrease competition between humans and animals (Wyatt, Tristram D. 110). We can also work to understand interactions and aspects of animal behavior that can help us to protect threatened animals. (Wyatt, Tristram D. 113). Scientists can work to learn more about the effects of climate change due to humans and they can campaign to bring awareness to the negative effects we have on wildlife (Wyatt, Tristram D. 114). When humans are more informed about how we affect animals and how we can protect them, there is a much greater chance that they will survive or avoid
Thousands of years ago, hunting may have been the cause of the extinction of the North American large land mammals. “Moving up into the 1940’s and 50’s some of today’s most prominent game animals were almost non-existent.”(Kerry G) Over-hunting will directly cause the decline in the particular animal’s species. This will effect everything around it, for example ...
Humans are destructive. Not a lot of us think about how what we do affects the world around us. We almost act like we are the only ones on this planet. We go around polluting and destroying our world with no regard for our actions. The things that live out in the wild are paying the price for it. Every day that passes there is another animal or plant that is placed on an endangered list. This is happening at an alarming rate. Because of man’s desire to expand and conquer their surroundings, there are animals and plants that are on the brink of extinction that will not be around for our kids and future generations to enjoy if something is not done about it now. This problem has been going on for hundreds of years. There are animals and plants that can only been seen in paintings or early photography. It is because of our early ancestors that we have this problem today and we have to do more to prevent more animals and plants from disappearing forever.
In this new age of technology and advances in every possible field of study, many people forget about the environment. Some will just throw their trash all over the place with no concern for the possible consequences. Of course, there are many consequences, but only one comes to my mind. That is the demolition of species’ homes or habitat destruction. Habitat destruction or habitat loss is the altering or elimination of the conditions that plants and animals need to survive. “The primary threat to the world’s biodiversity is habitat destruction” (Okey p.1). Prairies have been greatly affected. The “loss of prairie habitat ranges from 20 to >99 percent depending on the region” (Benedict, Freeman, & Genoways, p.161). Habitat destruction can be caused by many things. These include:
Everyone’s all seen those wildlife shows on tv. The shows on National Geographic and such, showing animals in beautiful environments, everything lush and growing and nothing at all wrong that could threaten these creatures and places. But, have anyone seen the other side? The side where all these beautiful creatures and plants starve, are decimated by predators that have never been there before, and sometime even become poisoned by their very own homes and habitats? Of course no one has. That doesn’t mean that its not happening. It is happening, and its happening everywhere. And guess who is to blame? People. Society. Humans as a race pollute the environment, hunt animals simply for their parts, fish way more than humans will ever need just for the sake of money, introduce new species to new places for our own gain, and even purposefully destroy entire regions just for human expansion. And its starting to take its toll. While it is true that nature is constantly in flux and certain species come and go, humans are causing more species to disappear in the past few hundred years then nature has ever caused since the age of the dinosaurs, and therefore it is up to humans to repair the damage caused, be it cleaning the environment and habitats of these creatures, or taking more direct action to protect and preserve the species that are on the brink of extinction.
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