Environmental - Animal

Clarinda clare linusdms003/11 January 2011Lecturer : Ms Asha

Introduction

The sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including natural forces & other living things,

which provide conditions for development and  growth as well as of danger and damage.

Synonyms : ecological

Introduction

A report from the global conservation organization, WWF, has suggested that since 1970 the pressure we exert on the planet has almost doubled and the natural resources upon which we depend have declined by more than 33%.

Animals goes extinction…

Scientists recognise that species continually disappear at a background extinction rate estimated at about one species per million per year, with new species replacing the lost in a sustainable fashion.

All these disappearing species are part of a fragile membrane of organisms wrapped around the Earth.

Declining Number Of Tigers

The population of tigers is believed to have declined by 95 percent in the last century.

Tigers continue to face challenges imposed by poaching, retributive killings and habitat loss.

Tiger bone is also in high demand for traditional medicines in China and some other parts of the world, often based on mistaken beliefs, or weak evidence for their effectiveness.

Scientists noticed that tigers have disappeared from over 90% of their historic range over the past century. They add that recent estimates suggest less than 1,000 scattered over India and fewer than 40 are left in China.

Declining Number of Lions The lion, is also dwindling in numbers.

The BBC reports (October 2003) that fewer than 20,000 lions now survive in Africa, compared to 200,000 in the early 1980s.

Sport or trophy hunting was cited as a major cause of the decline with males — young or old — primarily targeted. Another reason was the population pressures that have meant encroachment onto lands closer to lions.

Tourism had not really benefited the people of such communities, and so they do not see the benefit in preserving them.

But a decade later, by 2013, some nations are seeing a shift: Zambia decided to ban hunting of lions and leopards as it sees tourism for

viewing the animals alive more lucrative than blood-sport tourism.

Declining Number Of Rhinos

Although almost all species of rhinos have been recognized as critically endangered for many years, the conservation organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) noted in 2009 that rhino poaching worldwide is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by Asian demand for horns.

Rhinos are often killed just for the horns. In some Asian countries it is wrongly believed the horns have medicinal value.

The IUCN is finding some 3 rhinos a month are being killed. In some places that number is even higher. In Africa, the total rhino population is estimated to be around 18,000 and in India/Nepal only 2,400.

Extinction Of Vultures BMA News, published by the British

Medical Association (BMA), reported on the near-extinction of several vulture species in India (July 9, 2005).

The BMA noted that in the 1980s, these birds were the most abundant large birds of prey in the world. However, in the last 12 years, the population had crashed by 97%.

How did this happen? The anti-inflammatory, diclofenac,

(similar to ibuprofen), was used by cattle farmers as a popular cure-all to treat a variety of diseases.

Vultures feeding on carcasses of cows treated with the drug died of kidney failure as it was a poison for the vultures.

Declining Number Of Polar Bears The World Wildlife Fund for Nature

lists toxic pollution, oil exploration, and hunting, as well as climate change, as the threats polar bears face.

Earlier in 2006, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) had already put the polar bear on their Red List of Threatened Species.

Declining Number Of Penguins?

In the Falkland Islands alone, the species numbers have dropped from 600,000 to 420,000 in just 6 years, and down from 1.5 million in 1932. But from all their habitats millions have recently vanished.

Scientists are struggling to wonder whether it is starvation due to overfishing, climate change, a combination, or some other factors affecting this species.

Declining Amphibian Populations

Amphibians are particularly sensitive to changes in the environment.

When they are stressed and struggling, biodiversity may be under pressure. When they are doing well, biodiversity is probably healthy.

Unfortunately, as has been feared for many years now, amphibian species are declining at an alarming rate.

The Golden Toad of Montererde, Costa Rica was among the first casualties of amphibian declines. Formerly abundant, it was last seen in 1989.

Declining Number Of Monkeys, Apes And Other Primates

A report by the world’s foremost primate authorities, the International Primatological Society, presented the state of primates around the world. They found that of the world’s 634 kinds of primates almost 50 percent are in danger of going extinct.

Percentage of primates fell into the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List classification for species as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered:

Africa: 63 species and subspecies (37% of all African primates)

Asia: 120 species and subspecies (71% of all African primates)

Madagascar: 41 species and subspecies (43% of all Malagasy primates)

Neotropics: 79 species and subspecies (40% of all Neotropical primates)

New Species Still Being Found;

As reported by University of California, Berkeley, using DNA comparisons, scientists have discovered what they have termed an “evolutionary concept called parallelism, a situation where two organisms independently come up with the same adaptation to a particular environment.”

New Species Still Being Found; In June 2002, it was announced that two never-

before described species of monkey have been found in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. 

In October 2004, the BBC reported that a new giant ape has been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, similar to a giant chimpanzee but behaving much like gorillas.

In December 2004, a new species of monkey was discovered in India. These remarkable finds shows that there is still much to discover and learn about biodiversity in general.

New Species Still Being Found; In February 2006, scientists revealed that they

had discovered hundreds of new species in a remote mountain rainforest region of western New Guinea.

These species included birds, frogs, butterflies, palm trees, and many other plants yet to be classified. Other animals such as tree kangaroos, wallabies, and anteaters—all extremely rare elsewhere—were also found.

In addition, scientists noticed that many of the animals were not afraid of humans, and some were even easily picked up, suggesting they had generally not encountered humans before.

References

http://www.globalissues.org/article/177/nature-and-animal-conservation#ItsanUphillStruggletoConserve

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/animal-extinction--the-greatest-threat-to-mankind-397939.html