The importance of conservation to wildlife.
The importance of conservation to wildlife.
1st November 2013
Contents
1 Introduction
This report is being wrote to give some reasoning on why wildlife conservation matters and is important. The meaning of conservation is the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and of natural resources such as forests, soil, and water (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 2000). Human efforts are to prevent the loss of present populations using different techniques such as controls on hunting, importation of non-native species and pollution. Wildlife conservation is important and is not to be mixed up with preservation, preservation suggests wildlife should be left alone with no contact from humans whereas conservation will use human involvement to restore habitats for example.
2 The importance of conservation to wildlife
2.1 The Dodo
As the human population has climbed, the extinction rate of other species has also gone up; indeed, humans began causing extinctions about 45,000 years ago (Conservation of wildlife populations 2007, L.Scott Mills). The Dodo bird Raphus cucullatus is an extinct flightless bird which once occupied the island of Mauritius (Figure 1) Sailors hunted the bird to extinction and the bird is now recalled as stupid and dumb for not getting out of the way of humans causing their extinction. Many of our other species today are dodos and cannot get out of the way, leading to their extinction if we do not do something about it and protect them and their habitats. (Peter.B.Moyle 1997)
Figure 1 – by Pearson Scott Foresman
2.2 The Ecosystem
It is important to conserves wildlife to conserve our ecosystems. Ecosystems include abiotic factors; temperature, light, humidity, ground structure, rainfall, soil nutrients, wind speed and biotic factors; competition, predation, herbivory, pollination, seed dispersal, symbiosis. The ecosystem keeps nature balanced. When
1st November 2013
Contents
1 Introduction
This report is being wrote to give some reasoning on why wildlife conservation matters and is important. The meaning of conservation is the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of wildlife and of natural resources such as forests, soil, and water (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 2000). Human efforts are to prevent the loss of present populations using different techniques such as controls on hunting, importation of non-native species and pollution. Wildlife conservation is important and is not to be mixed up with preservation, preservation suggests wildlife should be left alone with no contact from humans whereas conservation will use human involvement to restore habitats for example.
2 The importance of conservation to wildlife
2.1 The Dodo
As the human population has climbed, the extinction rate of other species has also gone up; indeed, humans began causing extinctions about 45,000 years ago (Conservation of wildlife populations 2007, L.Scott Mills). The Dodo bird Raphus cucullatus is an extinct flightless bird which once occupied the island of Mauritius (Figure 1) Sailors hunted the bird to extinction and the bird is now recalled as stupid and dumb for not getting out of the way of humans causing their extinction. Many of our other species today are dodos and cannot get out of the way, leading to their extinction if we do not do something about it and protect them and their habitats. (Peter.B.Moyle 1997)
Figure 1 – by Pearson Scott Foresman
2.2 The Ecosystem
It is important to conserves wildlife to conserve our ecosystems. Ecosystems include abiotic factors; temperature, light, humidity, ground structure, rainfall, soil nutrients, wind speed and biotic factors; competition, predation, herbivory, pollination, seed dispersal, symbiosis. The ecosystem keeps nature balanced. When
References: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Available at: www.thefreedictionary.com/conservation [Date accessed 28/10/13] John Muir, 1911, My First Summer in the Sierra. John Muir, 1912, the Yosemite. L.Scott Mills, 2007, Conservation of wildlife populations. Peter.B.Moyle, June 1997, A Reader for WFC 10, Wildlife Conservation and Ecology. Niharika Bhati, 2011, why should we conserve our wildlife?, Preserve Articles. Janine R. Clemmonds & Richard Buchholz, 1997, Behavioural approaches to conservation in the wild. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2008, Conservation and use of wildlife-based resources: the bushmeat crisis.