“The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will…” (Theodore Roosevelt). Conservation of wildlife is very important otherwise these endangered animals will become extinct. This is important to me because we need to be the voice for the wildlife since they cannot be. I was raised to have values and to believe in whatever I was passionate for. I believe that we need to help conserve these animals before it is too late. I will show how conserving wildlife can be hard, why it should be done and how the conservation of wildlife is happening all around us.
My family raised me in a Christian home and with a lot of values and beliefs. I was also taught that everything is God´s creation and that it should not be destroyed. That is one thing that lead me to this topic, we should be conserving these animals not destroying them. I believe this to be true because of all the killing and selling I see of these animals. Human disturbance happens every day to some of these animals and it is causing more harm.
In the United States there are conservation banks for all rare or endangered species. According to the “Status of Species Conservation Banking in the U.S,” they define conservation banking as a parcel of private property that is conserved and managed in perpetuity under a conservation easement for the benefit of the rare species. This is what they found, several bank owners expressed intrinsic value of owning property that made a spiritual and ecological contribution to the larger landscape and the owners had a great deal of pride and satisfaction when reflecting on the ecological contribution their banks had made (Fox and Murcia). Anyone who is spiritual or ecological would find banking a great opportunity to give back to the land. The article also found that although this is a great opportunity to give back, banking can be a very hard task. Financial burden of land management and property taxes of owning a conservation bank was more than some owners were prepared to handle (Fox and Murcia). When owning a conservation bank, the owner must be sure to meet all of the regulations and guidelines. According to the “Status of Species Conservation Banking in the U.S.” the federal guidance enforces that banks should be large enough to ensure the maintenance of ecological integrity and should be located adjacent to a conservation park or an area that is managing the conservation of that species. The guidelines for owning a bank is basically to make sure that the owner can support the species instead of do more harm. Overall, 49% of banks with habitats covering over 27,000 acres that would have been most likely destroyed or seriously degraded by competing land uses, if banking was not an option (Fox and Murcia). Some conservation banks actually can choose if they want to hold activities there. 66% of conservation banks allow for multiple uses including cattle grazing, horseback riding, hunting, fishing and biking (Fox and Mucia). According to the “Status of Species Conservation Banking in the U.S.” the only way to really see success in the conservation bank is to look at the banks credit transactions that can be traded or used to help the species, if there aren’t much credits being used then the bank might fail. Banking is something most people wouldn’t even know was going on where they live but it is definitely an option to consider when conserving rare species.
Although the main idea of conservation is to help rare species flourish, is conservation really helping or hurting the species? According to the article, “Putting Theory into Practice: Wildlife Health in Conservation,” infectious and noninfectious diseases are being recognized as an increasing challenge to the conservation of wildlife. Translocation is the movement of any living organism from one area to another, this is important because moving animals together can cause a disease epidemic or serious health problems. Moving all these animals together that are rare are now susceptible for poaching and being captured (Weisman, Karesh and Deem). Another reason to not put all these animals together is because of making “island ecosystems.” Island eco systems function to isolate populations of species geographically and confine them to smaller spaces making diseases easier to spread (Weisman, Karesh, and Deem). According to “Wildlife Health in Conservation,” making all these changes to the animals can put them under stress and are ultimately more susceptible to disease outbreaks that would otherwise run its course without risking extinction of an entire species. The “Wildlife Health in Conservation” found that in developing countries, endangered species are often confiscated and end up in the care of foreign national biologists who lack the resources to screen these animals for disease before release. Thus, many animals are returned to the wild only to expose their new diseases picked up during their rehabilitation (Weisman, Karesh and Deem).
However, the article “Putting Theory into Practice: Wildlife Health in Conservation,” also showed other reasons we should conserve and protect these animals. Human interaction and disturbance is a huge reason we need to conserve endangered species. Humans causing alterations in landscapes and habitats amplifies the role of disease as a factor in species survival and environmental contamination (Weisman, Karesh and Deem). This article really opened my eyes to how much damage humans are actually causing our environment and affecting the wildlife. Humans cause oil spills in the ocean and there was one a few years ago that really affected the wildlife. Human disturbance really needs to be limited if atall so these animals can live and survive on their own.
There are many ways to conserve different kinds of animals but here is one way some cities are trying to conserve their urban birds. According to the article, “A Habitat Island Approach to Conserving Birds in Urban Landscapes,” urbanization generally leaves natural settings transformed into fragmented landscapes with urban parks and gardens as sole refugees for many types of birds. I would never think about conserving birds but it is a big deal in the cities where birds don’t have very many places to go to live. This article found that building wooded streets provided another place for birds to go. With the wooded streets the number of species increased and found that it provided another place for the birds to breed (Fernandez and Jokimaki). Also, if the cities expanded their smaller parks and added vegetation the number of birds would increase. One of the big reasons for needing to help conserve birds is from human disturbance. The disturbance actually affects the breeding of birds and decreases more and more if the park is highly visited (Fernandez and Jokimaki). The article “A Habitat Island Approach to Conserving Birds in Urban Landscapes,” found that if you buffer human disturbance it increases the park quality for the birds. This is just one example out of very many how people are trying to help the wildlife around them flourish.