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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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.
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:
Wildlife crimes are unfortunately becoming an increasingly more common occurrence around the world. There are many different types of wildlife crimes, but they all share the unfortunate consequences of degradation of our environment, our natural ecosystems, and our way of life. In this essay, I will be looking at what exactly is wildlife crime, some of the reasons why wildlife crimes committed, and what can be done to reduce or even eliminate wildlife crimes as a whole.
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.
Some main causes of Endangerment are habitat loss, pollution, hunting, competition from non-native plants and animals, plant collecting, logging, clearing forests, and trading animal parts. The growing population also causes some effect because man cause most problems. Diseases or viruses are al...
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