The Harms of Losing Predatory Animals

The Deciduous Forest, also known as the temperate forest, is the home of many wild animals. With the weather reaching up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and the precipitation ranging from 30-60 inches a year it is the perfect habitat for many animals and plants. In the Deciduous Forest, you can find: oak and maple trees, shrubs, bear, deer, skunk, rabbits, birds, etc… Located in the Eastern United States and Europe, these animals depend on the Deciduous Forest for their homes. When we go into these forests and cut down these trees, we are cutting down the homes of many living organisms. Without trees to use as shelter, camouflage, or a source of food, many of these harmless animals will die and soon become extinct due to our lack of care and own self-interest.

When herbivorous species such as white-tailed deer and elks are the main predators in a habitat, they create an imbalance in the habitat, and force other species in the habitat to go extinct. Natural predation also has a stronger impact in stabilizing or reducing the population of white-tailed deer than human hunting alone. One of the main reasons for the overpopulation of the deer was the extinction of their predators. Every animal in the food web is highly important in keeping the balance in the ecosystem. Yellowstone National Park was a great example of how every species support the

If a predator organism was removed from an ecosystem, it would allow the prey population to increase which could lead to not having enough food for these organisms to eat. For example, if wolves were eliminated from the taiga biome than there would be a dramatic increase in the population of moose. This would result in the moose not having enough jack pine and could lead to starvation. The wolves would then have to eat more rabbits, elk, and voles which would decrease their population and starve the organisms that rely on these animals.

The absence of wolves has allowed for smaller predators to increase in population and range, such as coyotes and raccoons. These species in turn cause greater exploitation of their specific food sources. Coyotes have now assumed the position of top predator in California, making populations of foxes dwindle as they compete for the similar food sources.

One cause why some animals are going extinct is because of hunting. The animal(s) kills other animals and people then kill that animal(s). According to U.S Department of Agriculture it mentions that, “In 2010 wolves killed 570 adult cows and 1,990 calves (baby cows) in Idaho. Montana had 440 adult cows die and 852 calves. Finally, then Wyoming with 74 adult cows and 511 calved dead from wolves.” There are more wolves in Idaho then Wyoming and Montana which also means that more

The effect of the new wolf population was a miracle beyond hope, the ecosystem began to recover and diversify greatly. When the wolves were introduced it was found that they killed elk and restored their numbers to something the ecosystem could carry in conjunction with other species who feed on similar resources. In this way a surge of beaver population can be noted, as a result of beaver population increase the rivers became more stable and lodging was created for a half dozen species. It was also found that with the hunting of elk wolves left behind food for other animals whose populations also greatly benefited from this new predator. With the reintroduction of this alpha predator, the ecosystem made great strides toward recovering and diversifying, stream traveled slowly, meandered less and forest began to grow anew. Despite some arguments that Grey Wolves are a menace to the area or sensationalist report trying to discredit the wolf the results are clear. While man was responsible for the over hunting of the Grey Wolf in the 20th century, at its end the mistakes were rectified and the ecosystem shifted back into

The cause of the local big game population dropping isn’t because animals are not reproducing. It is because wolves are killing too many big game animals and killing the ecosystem of the North Western United States. The population of Mule Deer in SouthEastern Idaho was cut in half in only 8 years, from 1995 to 2003 (IFG, 2006). What caused this sudden decline? Wolves did. Deer are not the only species suffering. Elk populations are seriously struggling to keep their numbers up. Wolves are killing them too fast and elk cannot keep up.

Reintroduction of wolves brought about recovery of plants and animals in Yellowstone National Park. In 1990s, deer were overpopulated due to absence of its predator, wolves. Regardless of people’s efforts, the number of deer kept increasing. As a result,

Summarize: The result of one species extinction could potentially be fatal to the environment. In the animal kingdom, there is a food chain. Keystone animals, are the key ingredient to the food chain. When that keystone animals goes extinct, it sets off a chain reaction on the other animal’s food source. This causes one species to flourish and another to dwindle. The environment needs a healthy checks and balance system to keep each animal population under control (Stuart, 1990 ). Humans can cause the keystone animal to become extinct and therefore, responsible for rise and decline of other species, ultimately, throwing the food chain off balance.

For instance, gray wolves, according to the authors of “Using Small Populations of Wolves for Ecosystem Restoration and Stewardship”, “...influence the abundance of ungulates, which in turn affects the structure and composition of plant communities”(Licht et al. 2). Wolves prey on herbivores such as deer and elk, keeping their population under control and thus allowing more plant species that the prey feed on to grow and reproduce. If wolves were to go extinct the prey populations would soar. There would be no predators to hunt the animals, so they would spend less time worrying about predators and more time feeding. This would drastically reduce the population of plant species that the prey animals feed on until there is not enough food to sustain the ever growing prey species. The prey species population would begin to die of starvation and the few animals left would develop a variety of diseases due to malnutrition and genes that were passed through generations of animals. The genes would have not passed through the animals if the wolves had not gone extinct. This is due to the fact that wolves would have eaten the weak prey animals, therefore reducing the chance of weak and sickly offspring and improving the health of future generations of prey animals. Additionally, with the plant

Then, smaller animal populations, such as rodents, rabbits, and insects decreased because the plants they depended on for food were now less abundant. In addition, the number of foxes, hawks, and owls that prey on smaller animals and the number of ravens, eagles, and other scavengers that eat wolf kill decreased. Therefore, the initial disappearance of wolves resulted in communities with considerably less biodiversity. However, once wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, substantial changes occurred for other species in the park. The top predators’ effects have ranged from altering relationships among predator and prey species to transforming vegetation profiles. For example, coyotes are potential prey for wolves, and wolf packs have decimated some coyote populations. The reduction in coyotes had allowed populations of the coyotes’ prey, such as ground squirrels and chipmunks, to increase. Also, scavengers such as ravens, bald eagles, and grizzly bears have benefited from eating the scraps from wolf kills. In addition, it is predicted that a decrease in wolves prey such as elk should cause broader, long-term impacts. A decline in elk population would

This loss is due to many reasons such as clearing of ecosystems for other uses animals have less space to live than they used to. This leads to overcrowded population in certain places and not enough food for animals and therefore starvation as well as many other problems arise. Trophy hunting helps to keep the levels of threatened and endangered animals with overcrowded populations down. Trophy hunters also often target older males who can no longer reproduce or males who have reproduced enough so they don’t hurt the species important contributors when hunting

Poaching causes animals to die at a rapid pace and is the main reason animals go extinct. There are other reasons for animals going extinct but usually it’s due to poachers and their selfish ambitions. One of the other big reasonings for rapid decline in animals

Since the beginning of life itself, some species have lived and prospered while other species have gone extinct never to be seen again by mankind. Because of this, some would claim that extinction is natural and not significantly problematic to the world that we live in. Others, however, understand that due to climate change, habitat loss, and poaching, more and more species are becoming endangered which leads to a chain reaction that can be devastating to ecosystems. Species such as the Chinook salmon, gorillas, tropical sharks, and polar bears are all directly affected by climate change, species such as northern spotted owls, Sumatran tigers, and lemurs are greatly harmed due to habitat loss, and species such as the sea turtle, Javan rhinoceros, African elephant, and the Red-Fronted Macaw are all affected by poaching driving them all closer and closer to becoming extinct.

Habitat destruction, deforestation, ozone depletion, global warming, and poaching. These actions and ecological happenings are creating a world where animals are going extinct at rapid rates. Our world is on the brink of what scientists believe is the sixth mass extinction. Unlike the five previous mass extinction, the latest one killing a majority of the dinosaurs, the main causes for this current extinction are anthropogenic reasons, not natural events.