preview

Is Nurturing Nature Necessary Or Does It Have Negative Consequences?

Good Essays

Is nurturing nature necessary or does it have negative consequences? In 1914, the last passenger pigeon, a bird that was catalogued at one time by famous ornithologist John James Audubon (who is still remembered through the Audubon guide series), died. There are and never will be any more. As a species, the Passenger Pigeon was hunted to extinction because they were noisy, messy, and disruptive. They would fly in huge (like blocking-out-the-sun type of huge) flocks, and one could imagine the towns that were flown over. In Charles Roth’s book, Then There Were None, he details how the extinction of an entire species was possible: the trees and forests (the bird’s natural habitat) were destroyed at nesting sites, which the passenger pigeon was very specific about, and the young were eaten, being more tender and palatable. Unfortunately, humans hadn’t learned yet the reach of their terrible destructive arm. Since everyone was eating the young and destroying forests, the picky passenger pigeon was not only old, they were also unwilling to lower their expectations for a nesting site. Therefore, no new pigeons were born, and there were no replacements for the elderly. Populations decline very quickly when there are no youth. As a result, the passenger pigeon is no more (Roth, 1977). What did we learn from this calamity? Well, according to the bison, beavers, wolves, mountain lions, bears, hawks, owls, ivory-billed woodpeckers, whooping crane, and black-footed ferrets, nothing

Get Access