America 's Big, Wild Animals

Luckily, humans have put in efforts to understand and sometimes reverse the damage done. Wilcove describes ecosystem restoration, where usually humans put concentrated effort into recreating original habitats to restore indigenous populations. This is, unless “a very different assemblage of species has taken hold of the land and cannot be dislodged,” also known as a new “steady state” (Wilcove, 2000, p. 12). Wilcove himself joined the effort by studying the impacts humans have caused on woodland critters. He surveyed an area in Maryland to detect predators by setting cardboard coated in masonry powder to record footprints. He concluded that there were “six predators: opossum, raccoon, striped skunk, dog, cat, and blue jay. All are animals that benefit mightily from their association with people”(Wilcove, 2000, p. 42). He also mentions how extensive data can only be collected when looking at the observations of many people over the generations. He talks about “generational blindness,” which means how observers of a current generation cannot make conclusions on populations without the help of data collected from the past (Wilcove, 2000, p. 13).

The goat was the first ruminant to be domesticated. A ruminant is an animal that has more than one compartment in the stomach. Goats began arriving in Plymouth in 1623. In A History of Domesticated Animals, goats were a good source for milk, meat, hides, and some

John Wiens, an evolutionary biologist at Stony Brook University in New York says, “There is a terrible urgency to saving threatened species and habitats.” He continues in saying “As far as I can see, there is little urgency for bringing back extinct ones. Why invest millions of dollars in bring a handful of species back from the dead, when there are millions still waiting to be discovered, described, and protected?” This is a problem for many scientists and Paul R. Ehrlich states in his article, The Case of De- Extinction:It is a Fascinating but Dumb Idea, says that “It is much more sensible to put all the limited resources for science and conservation into preventing extinctions, by tackling the causes of demise….” This is proving that de-extinction is a bad idea because of the facts that it is more important to put money and research into conservation efforts. By focusing on de-extinction. We are tearing away our focus on these efforts and putting it into something that may or may not work. Something never tested that could possibly hurt not help the environment. Paul R Ehrlich also states that “De-extinction seems far- fetched, financially problematic, and extremely unlikely to succeed.” With de- extinction hindering conservation efforts and being unlikely to succeed it is clear that we should not even attempt de-extinction. However hindering conservation efforts is only one way that de-extinction is a bad

Summary and Critique of Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America

back extinct animals is very controversial but we need to bring them back to restore ecosystems

This last week in Professor Acebedo-Gonzalez’s class we read Chapter 1 in The Wilding of America: Money, Mayhem and the New American Dream. In the beginning of Chapter 1, Charles Derber gives us a clear idea of what “wilding” is and the different types of wilding that exist today. According to the book, wilding is “self-interested or self-indulgent behavior that hurts others and weakens the social fabric” (Derber, p.11). Also described in the book are four types of wilding: expressive, instrumental, incipient, and petty wilding. Derber however, focuses on one and is concerned with one in particular: instrumental wilding. It’s the type of wilding in which is most connected with Americans and the American Dream, and no one realizes what effect it can have on each other (Derber, p.7). Throughout the chapter, Derber provides stories as examples for each type of wilding that supports the definitions. On page 7 he states, “A wilding epidemic tears at the social fabric and threatens to unravel society itself, ultimately reflecting the erosion of the

In contrast to the upheaval of animals in a development area, humans also make efforts to preserve biodiversity and forests by creating wild life

The conquering and development of natural land has in the past, been seen as a mark of human civilization. In the United States, our progress is often measured by growth and development, but should this be re-examined? There are many opinions on the subject of urban sprawl and its effects on wildlife, but one thing is for certain, we are expanding. From 1955 to 2005, urban and suburban areas grew by 300%, however, the population only increased by 75% over the same period (Ewing, Kostyack and Chen). According to NatureServe, a non-profit conservation organization, urban sprawl threatens one of every three endangered species in the United States. NatureServe’s analysis states, “rare and endangered species data shows that three-fifths (60

In 1993, Steven Spielburg’s Jurassic Park introduced the concept of bringing extinct species back. In 2003, a team of Spanish and French scientists took Spielburg’s movie to the next level—they successfully brought back the Pyrenean ibex, a species of wild goat (93). With increasing rates of extinction, the scientific community is debating whether or not this process of de-extinction should continue to be pursued. Although it would be remarkable to visit an exhibit featuring a saber-tooth tiger or woolly mammoth, these animals went extinct for a reason; humans should not bring back extinct animals, but instead use the funding for more practical purposes.

The scale and pace of change is dramatic; for example, the extinction of species is occurring at around 100-fold pre-human rates4. The population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, declined by half over the last 45 years5. More than 2.3 million km2 of primary forest has been felled since 20006. About

When sometimes around twelve thousand years ago climate started to become warmer and ice started to melt, it created a great allowance for ancient hunters to reach North America. Native Americans started to hunt in the wider areas and supply their community with a lot of meat. When people started to have more food, especially meat that caused a fast growth of population. For some unknown reasons, at the same time big mammals and mastodons started to disappear from the Earth. It is a possibility that the climate warming and lack of water sources played a role of the disappearance these big animals. Lack of water put animals in the situation when survival is not possible. The climate change also made a big adjustment in human’s ration and style of life. When people started to spread to North America, they discovered a lot of new food sources like small animals, fish, different kind of nuts and berries.

In a summary, Kolbert explains the extinctions of a variety of different major animal species that became extinct. She also explains that if trends in the environment continue that the biggest extinction in history will occur soon. If global warming, deforestation, and glaciers continue to melt she says that more and more species will continue to become extinct. She explains how humans need to be more conservative and careful with what they’re doing to prevent extinction.

These animals look like bulls. They are dark gray or black. These large animals have two horns and they belong to Bovidae family. They are herbivores and eat vegetation especially grass, herbs and aquatic plants. There are two species: the African and Asian. The ones living in Asia mostly spend their time in water and they have large hooves to prevent them form sinking into mud at the bottom of the river, swamps and ponds. The ones living in Africa live near water resources in grasslands, savannas and swamps. They like to have a nap under trees and graze in the cool air at night.

Occurring about 12,800 years ago, The Younger Dryas Climate Event was an abrupt climate change that dropped the Earth temperature by about 10 degrees, bringing dry winds (“Abrupt Climate Change”, 2003). This event followed a warming trend that had resulted in glacier melting. As the melting water filtered down the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico, its route suddenly diverted, carrying the water east into the Atlantic Ocean. This change in the water path disrupted both the salinity and the flow in the ocean system, thus changing the climate of the Northern region. Unfortunately, 30 species of animals became extinct as a result of the changes, and nearly 80 percent of North America’s large animals disappeared (video). Ending abruptly, the Younger Dryas officially

Bill Freedmen, author of “Endangered Species—Human Causes Of Extinction and Endangerment” notes, “scientists approximate that present extinction rates are 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the average natural extinction rate.” These distressing numbers should be acted upon to save the endangered species and avoid the catastrophic change to this planet if these species were to become extinct. In order to produce change, people need to recognize that habitat loss, climate change, and poaching are all factors in why our animal species are going extinct.