Animals that die because of humans. Destruction of flora and fauna
In fact, direct persecution wiped out very few species, namely those that were not adapted to resistance.
A classic example of such destruction, and at the same time in the shortest possible time, the sea cow of the Commander Islands remains.
Steller's sea cow was encountered by the Russians only on the Commander Islands and was quickly exterminated there. There is little known evidence that it was widespread on the shores of Pacific Ocean in places much further south. In a note to Chapter XCII of the Beijing edition of the book of Marco-Polo, taken from the Chinese chronicles, the following is said: “Under the year 1267 there is an indication that in the 9th moon messengers arrived from the Khan in Korea with a letter to the king. Khubilai asked for the skin of a special fish called "Akhirho-Munho" which was similar to a cow. The messengers were told that since the khan’s feet were swollen, he would benefit from boots made from the skin of this fish, and the next month the king of Korea sent 17 skins to the khan.” It has been suggested that Ahircho-Munho is nothing more than the sea cow described by Steller. (Book of Marco Polo, citizen of Venice... dictated by the author in 1295 by Rustignan of Pisa, reviewed and corrected by Marco Polo himself in 1397, published by Pothier in 1867, translated into modern French and annotated from Chinese sources by Charignon, vol. 1-3, Nachbaur edition , Beijing, 1924-1928) (French).
Undoubtedly, in very ancient times, the musk ox was exterminated throughout Eurasia by man, as evidenced by the extreme helplessness that this animal shows in front of humans, which is clearly seen from the descriptions of the hunting of this ungulate by the natives of Arctic America. V. Stefanson was one of the few people of science who had the opportunity to participate in such a “hunt” himself, and he wittily compares it to the slaughter of cows on a farm.
As already mentioned, I. G. Pidoplichko convincingly showed the full likelihood of human extermination of the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. Primitive bulls were exterminated by man in Siberia, and this obviously happened much earlier than in Europe, and wild horses, but the speed of their disappearance was associated with unfavorable climate changes. One can also point to the extreme reduction in the distribution and number of sea otters - sea otters and river beavers, but these animals, having survived to our era, have survived and are successfully reproducing.
The speed and possibility of extermination of animals by humans depend on how much the persecuted animal is valued. In order for the hunt to be carried out, the earnings from what was caught per day must justify the work of the hunter. As an animal becomes rare, its extraction becomes more labor-intensive and the profitability of the fishery decreases, even though the cost of the catch increases. Thus, the reduction in numbers caused a decrease in production, fishing lost intensity, and the species received a respite.
The stocking level at which fishing declined or ceased varied and depended on the value of the pelt. In the 17th century, Russian hunters stopped hunting sable when the “dinner” (hunter’s share) of a member of the artel reached another 10-15 animals. This was explained by the high cost of flour and hunting equipment and the high costs of long trips to the lands, which made such production unprofitable. In the 19th century, this size was 3-5 sables. At the beginning of the 20th century, 1-2 sables per season were considered an enviable catch. At the same time, sable became so rare and was preserved in such inaccessible areas that only individuals could catch it, who went to this difficult and dangerous fishery not so much because of the earnings themselves, but rather driven by an ineradicable hunting passion and habit.
Another example is the squirrel. In Siberia, in most areas, 18-20 animals per day were considered good catch, and -15 was considered small. When hunting 8-10 squirrels a day, hunters had little to eat. The prospect of catching 5-6 animals was considered a “complete absence” of squirrels, and this view persists in the main hunting areas to this day. Meanwhile in the north European Russia, in conditions of greater need of the population and significant development of upland game production, which provided satisfactory income, protein farming with a yield of 1-2 squirrels per day was considered appropriate.
In some cases, the rapid reduction in the number of animals itself served as the cause of a process that prevented their complete destruction. This happened in Siberia with the deer. The high cost of antlers caused fierce persecution of this animal, and already in the middle of the last century it was almost completely destroyed. But inquisitive Siberians created a unique economic industry - deer breeding, the development of which gave the market a large number of antlers, their price fell, the very labor-intensive pursuit of wild antlers became unprofitable, and the deer received a serious respite. Without this, the deer would hardly be found among the animals of the Siberian fauna now.
If the history of Siberia knows cases of destruction of entire species of mammals, then the bird fauna gives us almost no such examples. This is explained by the fact that feather hunting in Siberia never had much economic importance and was a purely incidental activity. Two facts can be mentioned. Firstly, the fate of the pelican in the Baikal region. As V.V. Lamakin established, this beautiful bird lived in significant numbers on Goose Lake in the Selenga River basin at the beginning of the 18th century, but by the end of it it was no longer found there at all. Archpriest Avvakum, and later Georgi, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the 18th century, discovered the pelican on Lake Baikal, where later it was not found at all until the flights to last years, which was established by T. N. Gagina. Obviously, the pelicans' nesting sites were destroyed and the birds were exterminated.
The second example is the fate of the lamb. Thoroughly collected facts led T.N. Gagina to the conviction that the disappearance of this giant predator from the Eastern Siberia was caused by persecution by humans, since lamb feathers were of great value in the distant past. There is no other explanation for his disappearance yet.
It is especially necessary to consider the importance of direct extermination of animals by humans in the process of combating predators and pests. Such a struggle was already carried out in ancient times, and in the literature it is considered proven that in this way, for example, lions were exterminated in Europe and Asia Minor even before our era, as well as wolves in England in the 15th century. However, in Siberia, examples of this kind are found only in the modern period, and we will talk about them in their place.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
Global environmental problems include problems of the animal world, which is an integral component of the biosphere. Animals take part in the biotic cycle of energy and substances on the planet. All other elements of ecosystems depend on the stability of fauna. The problem of declining animal populations occurs not only because the environment is deteriorating, but also because people use them as food.
In nature, absolutely all representatives of the fauna are needed: small insects, herbivores, predators, and large marine animals. There are no harmful species to get rid of. Only populations of ticks and rodent pests need to be controlled.
Causes of animal environmental problems
There are several reasons why not only the reduction of species occurs, but also their extinction:
- disturbance of fauna habitats;
- excessive killing of animals not only for food;
- movement of some animals to other continents;
- killing animals for fun;
- unintentional killing of animals;
- pollution of fauna habitats;
- destruction of plants that animals feed on;
- contamination of water that animals drink;
- Forest fires;
- use of animals in the economy;
- negative influence of biological bacteria.
When the place where animals live changes, be it a forest, steppe or meadow, the animals must either adapt to a new way of life, find new sources of food, or move to other territories. Before you get new house, many representatives of the fauna do not survive. All this leads to the death of not just a few, or even hundreds, but to the disappearance of thousands of representatives of the animal world.
How to preserve the world of fauna?
Many people are aware of the problem of animal extermination, and therefore are actively involved in protecting the fauna. One of the largest organizations in the world that rescues animals is Greenpeace. Many countries around the world have local units so that fauna can be conserved at some local level. In addition, it is necessary to act in the following directions:
- create nature reserves in which the maximum possible natural conditions life;
- organization of reserves - territories where animals are protected;
- creation of reserves - they operate for a certain time, essentially similar to nature reserves;
- organization of natural national parks.
Bison hunters on the Great Plains of North America reduced their numbers from 75 million to several hundred individuals between 1800 and 1900. In the 1800s The American government approved the killing of bison in order to starve the indigenous Indian population. The last truly wild bison was killed in 1919. The new herds are descendants of animals kept in zoos; they live in reservations, in particular in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Poland and Belarus, and the Prioksko-Terrasny Nature Reserve in Russia.
During the period from 1700-1800's. sea otters were brought to the brink of extinction due to hunting for them, or rather for their valuable fur, which was also called “soft gold”.
In 1984, 10,000 migrating caribou drowned in Canada when dam floodgates opened.
Early 1900s there were about 50,000 tigers. Their current number is less than 6,000, half of which are found in India. In 1945, only 50 Amur tigers remained. Now there are about 400 of them on the reservations.
Thousands of Tasmanian wolves were wiped out in the late 1800s. because they hunted sheep. The Tasmanian wolf was a predatory Australian marsupial that became extinct in 1936.
In France alone, more than 150,000 hedgehogs die annually under the wheels of cars.
Sea Steller's cows were large sirens of the North Pacific - up to 9 m long and weighing up to 6,500 kg. They were completely exterminated by humans in the 18th century. 90% of manatees living off the coast of Florida have scars on their bodies from motor boat propellers.
Due to hunting and deforestation, the number of giant pandas living in the wild in southeast China has dropped to less than 1,000. In the 1800s Nutria were hunted almost to the point of extinction - because of their thick, soft fur with individual hard hairs. Once widespread across southwest Asia and India, today the only lions left in the wild outside of Africa live in India's Jhir Wildlife Sanctuary. There are much fewer sharks now than before. The numbers of many species are rapidly declining, some are on the verge of extinction. Many die after getting caught in nets set up to protect swimmers from attack, and those caught for sport are usually released into the wild, after which they soon die. Some sharks and related species are threatened when natural coastlines and river deltas are developed and developed. This destroys nursery areas where sharks lay eggs and raise their young.
Notable sharks that are critically endangered include great whites, whale sharks, and basking sharks. The Ganges shark, which lives in the Ganges River in India, is the closest shark to the brink of extinction.
If a species is on the verge of extinction, then there is a danger of complete extinction and becoming a fossil species. When a species becomes a fossil, it means that its entire population has died out and it will never exist again.
It is already known that over the past 300 years the extinction period of one particular species has sharply decreased. According to rough estimates, since 1600, about 60 species of mammals, more than 100 species of birds, and approximately 170 species of vertebrates have become extinct. According to certain data, 1 species is currently disappearing every day, and according to others, this number is increasing several times. The disappearance of even one species cannot go unnoticed by nature, since all ecosystems are closely connected with microecosystems and with each other. As a result of this, others may also suffer, and ultimately, some cases may be accompanied by a chain reaction, which ultimately, one way or another, will affect the person.
Man is the first inhabitant of the Earth, who really threatens almost all of his neighbors on the planet and even the very existence of the biosphere that gave birth to him. The development of mankind was accompanied by the destruction of the habitat of organisms, changes in natural landscapes, and the increasing exploitation of biological resources. Even during the Paleolithic period (ancient Stone Age - more than 12 thousand years ago), the use of fire by people for driven hunting had a detrimental effect on nature. In tropical and temperate latitudes, huge tracts of forests were destroyed by fires, in the place of which savannas and forest-steppes arose.
A SERIES OF TRAGEDY
Already primitive man hunted mammoths, bison, horses... Gradually, people began to domesticate wild ungulates - this is how cattle breeding arose.
One of the ancestors of many breeds of livestock was the wild bull - the aurochs. Herds of aurochs grazed across vast territories of Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa. For humans, a powerful bull was a desirable prey. Bows and weapon handles were made from its horns, shoes and armor were made from thick skin, and the meat was salted and smoked. In Egypt the tour disappeared towards the end Ancient kingdom(until 2400 BC), in Mesopotamia it was exterminated at the beginning of the Assyrian kingdom (VI century BC). The last tour in Europe was killed near Warsaw in 1627.
Approximately the same fate befell the wild Tarpan horses that lived in the steppes and forests of Central and Southern Europe. They lasted longer than the tours and occasionally met at the beginning XIX century in forests Western Europe and Black Sea steppes The last forest tarpan was killed in East Prussia in 1814, and the steppe tarpan - in 1879 near the Askania-Nova reserve. True, one steppe tarpan lived in captivity at a stud farm until 1918.
The tragic story of a unique marine mammal- sea cow (“relatives” of living dugongs). Members of the second expedition of Vitus Bering landed on November 6, 1741 desert island, which later received the name “Bering Island” (Commander Islands archipelago). The next day, naturalist Georg Steller discovered, not far from the shore, among thickets of “sea kale” (brown kelp algae), huge animals unknown to science. They were about 8 m long and weighed more than 3 tons. The meat and fat of the animals turned out to be palatable, which saved the expedition members from starvation.
Soon, ships of hunters came to the Commander Islands, where in addition to sea cows (they were also called Steller's cows) there lived many other animals (seals, sea lions). Hundreds of harmless, slow-moving animals were slaughtered for meat. Just 27 years after the discovery of the sea cow, they were all exterminated by humans.
This sad fate befell many species of large animals that lived on the islands and other parts
Sveta. In New Zealand until the beginning of the 17th century. lived moa - flightless birds, whose height often exceeded that of a human. All moas became extinct by the beginning of the 19th century due to excessive hunting. Another giant, Epiornis, lived on the island of Madagascar and was the largest bird that existed on Earth. Its height reached 3-4 m with a weight of 450 kg, and one egg could hold a bucket of water (9 liters)! Epiornis disappeared by the end of the 18th century. due to hunting and destruction of tropical forests.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1507, a wingless pigeon, the dodo, or dodo, lived on the Mascarene Islands. These large birds moved slowly and were not at all afraid of people. Sailors caught them to replenish
Passenger pigeon.
African fauna, including lions, suffer a lot from lovers of exotic trophies. The Asiatic lion (right) is protected and no longer threatened by hunters' bullets.
provisions, and rats and pigs brought on ships destroyed eggs and chicks. By the end of the 17th century. the dodo disappeared in Mauritius, and a little later the same fate befell its closest relatives in neighboring islands. Nowadays, it is a rare museum that can boast of having an entire dodo skeleton (among them is the Darwin Museum in Moscow).
Not only the relatively small inhabitants of the islands were subjected to predatory extermination. The once most numerous representatives of the fauna of some continents also suffered from human greed and the desire for profit. The destruction of wild animals occurred especially quickly during the development of North America. Thus, the most numerous bird on the planet was the American passenger pigeon. At the beginning of the 18th century. There were about 2.5 billion of these birds. Migrating flocks of pigeons darkened the sky for many hours, and the branches of mighty oak trees broke under the weight of their nests. Passenger pigeons were hunted with all types of weapons: they were shot from cannons, shotguns and pistols, as well as nests were plundered and chicks were caught. In 1861, about 15 million birds from one of the colonies in Michigan were sold in the markets of Chicago and New York alone. The extermination of birds and the cutting down of the oak forests in which they lived led to the rapid extinction of the species. Already in 1909, a prize of $1,500 was announced for indicating the nesting site of at least one pair of passenger pigeons! The prize was not claimed, since by this time in North America the passenger pigeon was “preserved” only in the form of stuffed animals.
Another tragedy took place on the prairies, where at least 60 million bison grazed over a vast territory, providing life for more than 100 thousand Indians. With the arrival of Europeans the situation changed. A grand hunt began on the prairies. The massacre took on unprecedented proportions during the construction of the transcontinental railway in the early 60s XIX century As a result, by the beginning of the 20th century, no more than 1 thousand bison remained in America, some of which already lived in national parks under the protection of the law.
In Africa, after the Europeans moved there, the quagga zebra and savannah zebra, blue antelope were destroyed. The number of rhinoceroses, elephants, hippos, lions and leopards, many species of antelope and monkeys, ostriches and other animals has greatly decreased. Now representatives
Most of Africa's wild fauna can only be found in national parks. In Asia, the Asiatic lion, the Asian rhinoceros and the wild ox kouprey have practically disappeared, and many species (Asian elephant, orangutan, gibbon) are on the verge of destruction. In Australia, due to mass hunting, the number of many species of kangaroos has decreased, and in South America The vicunas, related to lamas, were almost completely destroyed.
Man often used barbaric hunting methods, which led to the complete extermination of many commercial species. At the end of the 20th century, in some countries, automatic weapons and even aerial bombs were used to hunt waterfowl in wintering grounds. Songbirds wintering in Italy were caught in huge nets to make “crispy chips” from larks and nightingales.
The fashion for skins or bone products generated demand in markets, which led to the destruction of many species. In the middle of the 19th century. Up to 70 thousand elephants were killed annually to obtain ivory. Because of its beautiful feathers, the ostrich was almost destroyed in Africa; in America, herons, parrots and hummingbirds were exterminated.
The capture of animals for keeping them in captivity also causes enormous damage to the fauna. Various species of monkeys, parrots and snakes are particularly affected. Currently, the underground trade in animals and animal products is often controlled criminal groups, because it brings fabulous profits.
In nature, animals encounter big amount threats to their own existence - here are sudden climate changes, and predators who also need to eat something, and unexpected epidemics - but the biggest threat to the animal world has always been man with his ineradicable desire to kill. We selected 10 species of animals that were exterminated by humans. Let's see what we've lost.
Tasmanian wolf
The Tasmanian or marsupial wolf, also known as the thylacine, lived on mainland Australia and the island of New Guinea. For the first time its habitat was changed after New Guinea Dingo dogs were transported by people. The latter forced the marsupial wolf out of its usual habitat, and in our time it “moved” to live on the island of Tasmania.
Local Australian farmers considered it a potential threat to sheep and therefore mercilessly exterminated the wolves, without paying any attention to where they saw it or whether it posed a threat to others.
“Many people believe that the brutal and unjustified extermination of wolves could not lead to the complete extinction of an entire species of animals and blame it on some unknown disease that allegedly wiped out the entire population of thylacines,” says Thomas Prowse from the Australian University of Adelaide.
However, scientists have studied this issue for a very long time and comprehensively, using various models, and found that humans are solely responsible for the extermination of Tasmanian wolves.
It is believed that the last marsupial wolf was killed on May 13, 1930, and in 1936, the last marsupial wolf kept in captivity died of old age in one of the zoos in Australia.
Year of complete disappearance: 1936
Woolly Mammoth
It is believed that this type of mammoth first appeared in Siberia about 300-250 thousand years ago and gradually spread to Europe and North America. The dimensions of mammoths were not as huge as most people not very familiar with history believe: they were only slightly larger than modern elephants.
Mammoths lived in groups, led by the eldest female, and constantly moved from place to place, since an adult mammoth required about 180 kilograms of food daily. Which - and this is obvious - does not imply marking time in one place.
The completely woolly mammoth disappeared about 10 thousand years ago. And while there are many theories about why they went extinct (loss of genetic diversity, climate change, outbreak, etc.), modern research They are increasingly inclined to believe that the final blow to this type of mammoth was dealt by the hand of man.
Time of complete extinction: 10,000 years ago
Dodo or Mauritian dodo
The Mauritian dodo has long been considered a mythical bird whose existence was completely made up and did not actually exist in nature. But after specially organized expeditions to Mauritius discovered the remains of the bird, society had to accept the fact that the bird existed and it was people who caused its extermination.
The dodo lived in Mauritius for several centuries, completely without fear of its natural enemies, which simply did not exist on the island. That is why the bird was flightless - it simply had no one to hide from.
The bird was first seen in 1598 by Dutch sailors, and literally 100 years later it was completely exterminated due to the efforts of both the travelers themselves and the animals that the colonists brought to Mauritius. Just think for yourself how attractive a dinner from a 20-kilogram bird, the closest relatives of which are considered to be modern pigeons, was for sailors.
Year of complete disappearance: presumably 1681
Sea cow
The sea cow or Steller's cow was discovered in 1741 by the expedition of Vitus Bering and received its name in honor of the expedition doctor Georg Steller, who was not too lazy to describe the sea cow from all sides and it is his descriptions that are still considered the most complete.
Steller's cow lived off the coast of the Commander Islands and had not only low mobility, enormous size and a complete lack of fear of humans, but also delicious meat. The latter was the reason that less than 30 years after its discovery, the sea cow was completely exterminated.
Sailors ate its meat, used cow fat for food and lighting, and made boats from the skin. In short, they used everything they could get their hands on. At the same time, catching and killing sea cows was often unjustifiably cruel and senseless: “Often, hunters simply threw spears at a sea cow, and then let it swim away, hoping that the animal would die and its corpse would be washed ashore.”
Year of complete disappearance: 1768
Passenger pigeon
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the passenger pigeon was one of the most common birds on Earth, its population numbered up to five billion individuals. However, this number of birds was not enough for the pigeons to survive. Passenger pigeons, which lived in the territory of modern USA and Canada, were the subject of active hunting by colonists arriving in America.
The decline in the number of pigeons took place at a more or less smooth pace until about 1870, after which, in less than 20 years, it decreased simply catastrophically and the last pigeon in wildlife was seen in 1900. Passenger pigeons survived in captivity until 1914, when the last bird, named Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Year of complete disappearance: 1914
North African cow antelope
Cow antelopes are a subfamily of large antelopes native to Africa. There are several species of them, but this particular species practically disappeared from the map of the Earth by the beginning of the 20th century. The hunting for them was so active that during the last few decades of their existence, the last individuals of cow antelopes were found only in truly inaccessible places in several African states, until they became completely extinct by the middle of the last century.
Year of complete disappearance: 1954
Javan tiger
Back in the 19th century, the Javan tiger was found throughout the island of Java and regularly annoyed its inhabitants. Maybe this was one of the reasons for the active hunt for it, or maybe something else, but the fact remains: by 1950, only 20-25 individuals remained alive on the island.
Moreover, half of these tigers lived in the territory of a specially created reserve. But even this was not enough to save the population, and in 1970 their number dropped to seven individuals. Exact time The extinction of the Javan tiger remains unknown, but most likely occurred in the mid-1970s.
From time to time there are reports that a Javan tiger has been seen again in Java, or even a mother with several cubs, but there is no documented evidence that tigers have actually survived in the wild.
Year of complete disappearance: around 1970
Zanzibar leopard
The extermination of the Zanzibar leopard is both similar and different from the extermination of other species on our list. They killed the leopard, they killed it purposefully and very actively, they declared a hunt for the animals and the whole village went after them. However, this was not done for the sake of its meat or skin, and not in order to protect the village and livestock from potential attacks by the animal. The fact is that the population of the Zanzibar archipelago was firmly convinced that these leopards were associated with witches, that evil witches specially bred and trained these animals to help them, and then sent the leopards to do dirty deeds for them.
The extermination campaign began in the second half of the 1960s, and after just 30 years there were almost no Zanzibar leopards left in the wild. Scientists began to sound the alarm in the early 90s of the last century, but a few years later the program to preserve the species was curtailed as unpromising.
Year of complete disappearance: 1990s
Iberian ibex
One of the four species of Spanish wild goat known to science, which, unlike the others, was not lucky to survive to this day. Last famous representative This species died a completely ridiculous death - it was crushed by a fallen tree.
Scientists were able to take samples of its DNA and attempted to create a clone of the ibex, but unfortunately, the cloned cub died shortly after birth due to various birth defects.
Year of complete disappearance: around 2000
Western black rhinoceros
This subspecies of black rhinoceros was declared extinct just a couple of years ago. He became a victim of regular hunting in his habitat, in Cameroon. Rhinoceros horns, used in Chinese medicine to treat numerous diseases, were considered the most valuable to poachers.
Scientists have been actively searching for surviving individuals of this species since 2006. However, since their search for five years was unsuccessful, the western black rhinoceros was declared extinct. Other species of black rhinoceros are also at risk of extinction.
Year of complete disappearance: 2011