Will humans be the ultimate downfall, and eventually cause the extinction of the snow leopard? What can we do to protect these magnificent creatures? Like many other top of the food chain predators, the snow leopard populations are in rapid decline. This is mainly because farmers and their livestock share much of the same habitat as the snow leopards. The snow leopard’s diet includes wild sheep, goats, and other large mammals of comparable size, but is not limited to these larger animals.
Even more are lost each year to other causes such as weather or disease, 21,100 in 2012, plus 3,600 dead from unknown causes. So of a total of 43,000 head of sheep lost in 2012, 300, or 0.698% were killed by wolves. These facts lead me to believe that wolves are not the threat to livestock that many ranchers make them out to be and. In fact, wolves are beneficial to the ecosystem because they effectively regulate prey populations without the need for human intervention, and to the livelihood of the very ranchers who oppose their reintroduction by removing coyotes (the actual number one killer of livestock) from the top of the food chain. After conducting this research, it is my belief that reintroducing wolves to Rocky Mountain National Park will be of benefit to all parties involved, humans and animals
Whitetail deer usually have twins but unfortunately sometimes one of them dies. Male deer also called bucks are very territorial and usually stick to a one square mile radius, when the food conditions are adequate. The bucks grow antlers which fall off yearly and grow back bigger. When the antlers fall off they are called sheds and can be found and used to make chandeliers. The bucks scrape the trees to mark their territory.
Predators such as wolves and cougars naturally keep the deer population in check, but in places where these animals have left or died out hunters feel that they become the necessary predators. Regulating the deer population supposedly prevents human/deer conflicts such as car accidents caused by deer on the road. Deer hunters step into the natural food chain in an attempt to regulate the deer population in terms of the modern unnatural world. These premises might make sense if it weren’t for several crucial flaws. The first, and probably the most important, problem with this argument is that the general objective of hunters is to get a buck and not a doe.
On May 11, 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state to join the United States of America (Minnesota). Early on, the state was filled with vast resources and an abundance of wildlife. Most of the wildlife, such as deer, elk and moose, contributed to the settler’s diet. Natural predators created competition and hardships for the new settlers; one of these animals was the Gray Wolf. The decrease in the amount of large mammals that the settlers consumed left wolves’ preying on cattle.
However the Snow Leopard does compete with hunters who illegally hunt them for the selling’s of their organs. Over Population The Snow Leopard is expected to soon become extinct, and yes there are other species such as some of their small prey seeming to be overpopulating the area. The bunnies are said to be mass producing over in their habitat but only because of how quick bunnies and hare are at reproduction. On the other hand the larger prey are said to never be a problem of over population at this point because the snow leopard feed off them daily and because they don’t have a high
The horses do and don’t have the same significance as they did in the Paleolithic period; yes we still use them to ride but not to for the same reason as nomads did. Today we use them for recreation but the nomads they where a way of life without horses it may have changed their whole culture. The rhinos on the other hand are depicted very much like we see them today. I think that if humans in future viewed a picture of a deer that they would wonder why it was so significant to our culture. A cave drawing of a deer in North America would show that deer have either always been here or where once hear, even if extinct when people
Studies show that even by farmers’ estimates, only one in two hundred lambs fall victim to a fox, whereas between 10% and 24% of lambs die from hypothermia, malnutrition or disease or are still-born. Foxes carry away such casualties and are often seen in the lambing fields hoping to scavage after-birth. For this season foxes are ideal scapegoats for bad husbandry or lazy shepherds. I am totally against hunting as it is a cruel way of killing a fox. Foxhunting has the same purpose as the now illegal pastimes of dog fighting, bear baiting and cockfighting, to provide amusements for
Colorado has had one of the biggest problems with poaching. Well, they did for a while. Since a magnificent bull elk named Sampson was killed in Estes Park in the 1990's, Colorado has increased laws on poaching a great deal (Taking aim). This incident gave hunting a new name. People began to believe that hunters were only killing to "stuff a trophy" or "get a wall hanger" (Taking aim).
The mountain pine beetle epidemic is causing environmental and social impacts to much of British Columbia. Our forests are very important and will no longer be able to maintain their role if changes are not made. The devastation has had a sweeping impact on B.C.’s ecological, and economical well-being. Additionally, recent studies are drawing attention to the carbon-emitting properties of the dead forests, which is a global concern. A popular misconception developed that the current provincial mountain pine beetle epidemic began in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.