Extermination of wild animals. Why are animal species disappearing?
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URC "LYCEUM" No. 7
Abstract in Biology on the topic:
"Extinction of animals and plants »
WITHOBSESSION
Introduction
1. Reasons for the extinction of the animal and flora
2. Destruction of rare animals - a look into the past
In global rankings, Brazil is among the top emitters of these gases, and land use change through deforestation to grazing or agriculture is a major contributor to up to 70% of the country's total emissions.
We then introduce a positive feedback loop in which more fires increase the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which causes global temperatures to increase, which in turn increases the frequency of fires. Finally, we are accustomed to understanding fire as destructive and often associated with human activity. But how fire affects the biological composition of a given ecosystem is complex and depends on a large number of biotic and abiotic factors. Thus, the impact of fire on biodiversity can be highly variable and sometimes unexpected.
3. “The Red Book” is a chronicle of rare organisms. Modern problems in the field of protection of endangered animals and plant organisms
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Man has long influenced nature, affecting both individual species of plants and animals, and communities as a whole. But only in the twentieth century, population growth, and mainly a qualitative leap in the development of science and technology, led to the fact that anthropogenic impacts in their significance for the biosphere reached the same level as natural factors on a planetary scale. The transformation of landscapes into cities and other human settlements, into agricultural lands and industrial complexes has already covered more than 20% of the land area. Oxygen consumption in industry and transport is on the scale of the entire biosphere about 10% of planetary photosynthetic production; In some countries, anthropogenic oxygen consumption exceeds its production by plants. Nowadays, human impact on natural systems is becoming a guiding force in the further evolution of ecosystems.
For example, we have long known that the impact of fire on ecosystems depends largely on the intensity and frequency of burning. Intense burning with very long cycles often leads to profound changes in ecosystems, such as boreal forests. On the other hand, low severity burns and shorter cycles tend to have little effect on ecosystem composition, as occurs in forests in Mediterranean regions.
In this environment, it is clear that fire can influence the evolutionary process, causing changes in species composition and in interactions between animal and plant species. In this ecosystem of often poor soils, fire also acts by providing nutrients in the form of ash. For example, many plant species have well-developed underground stem and root systems that store nutrients and also contain buds that support recovery after fire. Many plant species also have thick stems that act as a protective shield for the plant's internal, more living tissues.
The greatest importance is the human influence on renewable resources (those classified as exhaustible). This group includes all forms of living and bioinert matter: soils, vegetation, animal world, microorganisms, etc. The totality of renewable resources is nothing more than the Earth's global ecosystem (or gene pool); it exists on the basis of fundamental laws of ecology. In order for the exploitation of biological resources to be reasonable and contribute to the actual progress of the social, cultural, scientific and technical life of mankind, it is necessary to clearly understand the mechanisms of influence of various aspects of human activity on natural systems, to know the patterns of reaction of biological objects to anthropogenic influences and, on this basis, to proceed to managing ecosystems in order to maintain their sustainability and productivity.
In sites with frequent burns we find a predominant plant community that shows traces of fire resistance, reduction in plant biomass and soil enrichment, while in sites with longer soil cycles the soil is poorer, there is greater competition between species with a predominance of some dominant species and large accumulation of dry matter. biomass often leads to catastrophic fires. In this sense, more and more, the conservation of ecosystems such as the Cerrado, as well as its diversity, is undergoing proper fire management.
I will describe in detail the problem of the extinction of flora and fauna, which occurs under the influence of human activity.
1. Causes of extinction of flora and fauna
For a long time, people plowed the land and cut down forests, grazed livestock and built cities. All this was necessary, but all this influenced nature.
Therefore, in some regions, fire management - that is, small, controlled and planned fires - can prevent large fires and, in some cases, help maintain local biodiversity. With accumulating research on the role of different fire regimes in the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems, we now understand that many animal and plant species require fire for their survival and that proper fire management is fundamental to the conservation of these ecosystems. Thus, it consolidates new area Research: Fire Ecology, aimed at understanding the effects of different fire regimes on the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems.
People, of course, did not understand that they were cutting off the branch on which they were sitting. They often considered wild nature their enemy. In the Middle Ages in Europe, even a “philosophical” justification for the attack on nature, in particular on the forest, appeared: a large amount of forest allegedly testified to the savagery of the country - the forest was opposed to civilization.
Now, of course, it's a different matter. Forests are the wealth of any state, and therefore many countries are constantly working on reforestation. But planting a tree does not mean restoring the original forest - many plants do not appear in restored forests, although they lived in the former ones. The same thing happens when fallow lands are plowed - plants that can live only there disappear.
What we live is many, as are its consequences. There have been five major environmental crises in the past. For each time, resilience was more than double that of the crisis. The ecological crisis, which can be translated into major extinctions, is one of the models of planetary crises.
Signs of the sixth mass extinction
Some have spoken of a sixth mass extinction crisis. We need biodiversity, we depend heavily on it, biodiversity is being hit by an accelerated extinction rate of about a thousand times the normal rate, and if nothing is done it could get worse within the decades to come. Each alternation between glacial and interglacial phases was characterized by landscape changes characterized by profound changes in the dominant plant stands and, logically, in the animal communities that depended on them.
There are also many reasons for the impoverishment of the animal world. In nature, everything is connected, and deforestation or plowing of fallow lands has deprived animals of their original habitats: there is simply no place left for our neighbors on the planet to live. Of course, it is impossible to unequivocally evaluate human actions in relation to nature. But one way or another, the animal, as well as the plant, world began to become scarcer under the onslaught of man.
One thing that has caught attention and raised debate in this overall dynamic is that large species, especially larger ones, have proven to be particularly vulnerable. In fact, the extinction of megafauna has been witnessed: mammoths, mastodons, Dinotherium and other diprotodons disappeared. This extinction, which - everywhere except Africa - has led to most of great, accelerated at the end of the Pleistocene, when they began their last departure.
If the coincidence of their disappearance with the interglacial transition led to the incrimination of climate change, various authors quickly pointed the finger at man and his hordes of hunters. The controversy is not over yet. It is likely that if man were to play a significant role in this extinction, he would be on a fauna already weakened by climate change and subsequent changes in the plant landscape. However, in the case of Australia, where it is a phenomenon other than climate change, it is difficult to absolve people of their responsibility rather than condemn the consequences of hunting or the gradual destruction of habitats by groups of people.
Over the past decades, the technical power of mankind has reached such proportions that its impact on living things on the planet has become unprecedented. The rate of extinction of animals and birds will increase, according to ecologists, tens and even hundreds of times greater than ever before on Earth. Just a few centuries ago, the fauna of Europe was much richer and more diverse. However, if there is a justification for the fact that human economic activity is mostly a vital necessity, then the targeted and senseless extermination of animals has no justification.
In fact, less than ten thousand years after our species colonized this continent, 23 of the 24 endemic genera of mammals, birds, and those weighing more than 45 kilograms had completely disappeared - while the region remained stable and favorable for these species.
Reasons for this disappearance
The factors associated with this extinction crisis, which likely began during the expansion of our species, are well identified. Species habitat destruction and fragmentation and climate change. . These are factors that explain the runaway mechanism of extinction.
Consequences of this disappearance
When we integrate the fact that this biodiversity is organized in networks, we can easily imagine the cascade of extinctions that these attacks on the living planetary fabric could lead to. In short, from the mesh to hide the tears and all the goods and services that he assures us that we need are getting worse.Of course, one cannot and should not deny shooting, which is necessary to regulate the number of animals. Commercial hunting cannot and should not be denied. This is not about this, but about mass hunts in which hundreds and thousands of people took part.
2. Destruction edwhich animals - a look into the past
Commercial hunting led to the complete disappearance of many animals, in particular aurochs, the ancestors of cattle. The last of the aurochs who lived on Earth was killed in the 17th century. Not only aurochs, bison or wild boars and bears were exterminated. Smaller animals were also exterminated. Birds, for example, suffered greatly.
Today biodiversity is in great danger. There are an estimated 10 million species, of which only 1.4 million have been identified. At current rates of extinction, it is recognized that many species are disappearing even before they are discovered. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 23% of mammal species, 12% of birds, 42% of turtles and 32% of amphibians are threatened with extinction!
The four main causes of biodiversity loss. Development Agriculture, deforestation, mining, urbanization and pollution are a consequence of the alteration and fragmentation of the natural habitats of animal and plant species. overexploitation of species. Industrial fishing, overharvesting, or illegal trade in endangered species are examples of human activities that, if not sustained, lead to resource depletion and species loss. spread of invasive species. Exotic species introduced into a new ecosystem can have dramatic consequences. For example, Japanese salmon grow on the banks of our streams at the expense of native plant species. changing of the climate. By using fossil energy sources, humans are responsible for releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which themselves are responsible for its warming. In response to this change in temperature, species move, others reproduce, and others disappear. Fragmentation of ecosystems often prevents the movement of species and accelerates their extinction.
- Destruction, degradation and fragmentation of ecosystems.
- Globalization leads to increased global trade.
- This also makes it easier for species to move between continents.
European fishermen began using seabird meat as bait as soon as they began fishing in the waters of the northeast coast. North America.
“The seabirds not only fed those who sold them, but also contributed to the development of the fishing industry, since there are so many of them that fishermen bait a hook with a quarter of a seabird carcass; some vessels use such bait year after year during fishing trips,” wrote Nicoya Denis, a participant in the attack on the nesting sites. The pressure on bird colonies in pursuit of profit inexorably increased.
Linking nature conservation and poverty reduction
However, humans are part of biodiversity. Therefore, he must support all actions that contribute to maintaining the equilibrium that threatens his activities. What is the extent of biodiversity degradation? As an animal welfare association, our mission is to bring our skills and experience to the service of protecting endangered species and the ecosystems that harbor them, while working to improve the future for rural communities. We put men and women at the center of our action on biodiversity.
In 1580, more than 300 European vessels were fishing in the coastal shipping zone of the Northeast Atlantic, and by 1700 their number had quadrupled.
Until the end of the 19th century, the success of the cod fishery by American and Canadian vessels depended on the presence on board of bait from seabird meat, mainly from graceful petrels and fulmars.
Our teams are drawn from local communities and build true trust in relationships with people whose activities contribute to extinctions wildlife and the destruction of their habitat, as with villagers suffering from cohabitation with wild animals.
Active community participation, as well as our research and evaluation of our programs, maximizes the effectiveness of our actions and the equitable use of our funding. We also share our information with our funding partners, donors and organizations we work with, and where possible we can share our efforts to protect wildlife and reduce poverty. We see that we are working with the largest number, the best way achieving our goals.
The bird was finished off from boats using a 5-6 meter long rope to which hooks with cod livers were attached. “Fishermen get great pleasure from this hunt. When the prey is hooked, it vigorously tries to rise into the air or, with its paws outstretched, tries to stay afloat as it is dragged into the boat. The fisherman bites through her skull with his teeth, or breaks it with a blow from a sailor's club. This continues until two hundred birds are caught.” The killing of petrels and fulmars for bait continued until 1949.
Although the destruction of seabirds by the first Europeans was carried out on a significant scale, it cannot be compared in any way (except that it was more obvious) with the devastation that befell them in our time.
The use of gill nets made of monofilament synthetic materials in fishing has brought a catastrophic lesson to the population of seabirds. Such nets are practically invisible in the water, and birds diving from above, without noticing them, become entangled in the nets and drown.
Since the introduction of floating nets into the salmon fishery in the 1960s, western shores In Greenland, an average of 250,000 are killed annually, with one year in which between 500,000 and 750,000 were killed in nets. Countless seabirds are killed by oil spills and oil slicks. Even a little pollution can kill 100,000 seabirds.
In 1741, the remnants of Vitus Bering’s expedition landed on some unknown island near Kamchatka and discovered herds of unprecedented sea animals near the shore. In front they looked like seals, in the back they had a fish tail, and the fins of these animals were not located horizontally, like those of fish, but vertically, like those of whales. They were not at all afraid of people, calmly fed on seaweed near the shores, and allowed themselves to be stroked. If an animal was hurt, it swam away, but soon, like any other good creature, forgetting the insult or forgiving the person who had offended it, it returned.
These animals were completely voiceless, only the cubs squeaked thinly. Wounded, bleeding, dragged ashore and dying, they sighed heavily and looked at the man with eyes full of dying anguish. And the stern, accustomed to everything, sailors, who themselves narrowly escaped death, buried their commander and many comrades, refused to hunt these animals, despite the fact that they had almost no food.
We know about all this thanks to the fact that one of the members of the expedition, a doctor and naturalist, Georg Steller, kept a diary. In it, Steller called the unknown animals sea cows. Later they received the name Steller's cows, but they were named when they no longer existed on Earth.
In Africa, the mass extermination of animals began in the 18th century, when the Dutch settled southern part continent, began to move north. The first victims were zebras. The colonists quickly realized that the zebra was an easy prey, and the conquerors began to feed the Africans, who were essentially turned into slaves, with zebra meat; they made bags for food and waterskins from the skins.
The zebras didn't bother people. Africa had plenty of room for landowners, herders, and wild animals. However, the colonists decided that they were occupying pastures suitable for sheep, and the targeted extermination of “sun horses” began - as the Romans once called zebras.
There were a lot of zebras, the hunters did not have enough bullets. They cut lead from the killed animals and reloaded their guns with it. However, it seemed to the colonists that the destruction of animals was going too slowly. Then they found another, faster and more profitable method, in which there was no need to waste gunpowder and lead: the zebras were surrounded and driven to the abyss. At the same time, the animals fell from a height of many meters and were broken.
Now in Africa, herds of zebras are very small, and one of the most interesting - the quagga zebra - was completely exterminated.
The destruction of zebras is just one example of the barbaric attitude of people towards animals. There are many such examples. Suffice it to say that no more than 10% of the animals that lived there before the arrival of Europeans remain on the African continent.
Perhaps the most tragic and shameful page in the history of man’s relationship with animals was written by the colonists who moved to North America from Europe. They, as one American scientist said, “killed, being possessed by some devilish force that made them kill everything and everyone.” And first of all, this applies to the destruction of bison.
Mighty and good-natured giants, who gave way to even smaller and weaker animals, did not run away from danger and did not know how to defend themselves, grazed on the vast plains from New York to Mississippi. Scientists later calculated that tens of millions of bison were killed here over several decades. Moreover, the bison were not only shot, they were destroyed in the most barbaric and painful ways. On the way of buffalo herds around lakes and along river banks, fires were lit so that the exhausted and thirsty animals could not get closer to the water. The bison went to other reservoirs, but everywhere they were met by a wall of fire. Many of these animals could not withstand this torture and died; others were killed by being allowed near the water.
They killed bison for meat and skins, for hooves and horns, or simply for fun and entertainment. But there were also political motives in the extermination of bison. Powerless to conquer the original inhabitants of North America, the conquerors went on a campaign against bison, knowing that it was they who fed and clothed people. Indeed, what the army could not do in thirty years, namely, conquer the Indian tribes, was done by the buffalo hunters: having lost their breadwinners, the Indians began to die from cold and hunger.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were almost no bison left anywhere in all of America; their number, according to the most rough estimates, had decreased to 1,500,000.
To the above examples of the extermination of birds and animals, one can add tigers and lions, leopards and cheetahs, beavers, sables, wild horses, camels, kangaroos, tapirs and many other species of animals and birds - this list will be long: since the beginning of modern chronology, about 350 species of animals, of which over 1750 years - about 130...135 species, the remaining number of species - over the last 200 years.
It is known that throughout the entire evolution of life on Earth, some species became extinct, and others arose to replace them. However, species are now disappearing at an incomparably faster pace than the emergence of new ones. And if this trend continues, in the next century a person can, as scientists believe, actually stop the course of evolution on our planet. It’s hard to even imagine now that this will have such dire consequences for him.
To prevent this from happening, there is only one way out: to preserve the invaluable genetic fund of the planet, which has developed over billions of years of evolution of all living things, i.e. species of animals and plants that have survived to this day. Individual measures to save one species or another cannot help here: it requires the implementation of a whole system of scientifically based measures, the implementation of special plans, where the main thing is caring for nature and the wise use of its resources.
3. “The Red Book” is a chronicle of rare organisms. Contemporary problems in the field of conservation of endangered speciesrelatives and plant organisms
Currently, there are at least several hundred species of mammals and birds living on Earth that are on the verge of extinction. If urgent measures are not taken, the next generations of people will only be able to see these animals in photographs or feature films.
In 1949, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources(IUCN) has established a permanent Commission on rare species living and plant world. Its main task was to create a global list of species in need of priority conservation measures. It was then that the name “Red Book”, proposed by zoologist Peter Scott, who headed the Commission for a long time, sounded like an “SOS” signal for the first time.
The Red Book of the USSR was officially established in 1974. Its management was entrusted to the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Nature. Botanists know the plants in it, zoologists know the animal world. This is a huge job, obliging us to keep in sight all those many thousands of species of animals (large and small) that live in the vastness of our country.
The IUCN Red Book lists those species of plants and animals that are threatened with extinction from the face of the Earth. This huge and painstaking work is not done for the sake of curiosity. Human activities negatively affect the flora and fauna of our planet.
People continue to plow fallow lands and farm in forests, continue to dig canals, lay roads, gas and oil pipelines, extract minerals, build new cities and expand existing ones - all this is necessary for life.
Cities are not expanding at the whim of people - this is the dictate of the times. Roads, canals, and airfields are necessary for people’s livelihoods; they are becoming more and more numerous every year. Humanity cannot do without agricultural products, without wood, ore, coal, oil, peat. Their extraction is inevitably associated with human intervention in the world of living nature: for example, the areas in which animals can live are reduced, which in turn are deprived of the vital space of their “home,” the atmosphere and water bodies are polluted by industrial waste, gases and pesticides.
There are still poachers - people who violate hunting deadlines, kill more than allowed, hunt protected rare animals, and use illegal fishing weapons.
Of course, there are laws that prohibit or limit hunting at certain times or in certain places, and there are inspectors who monitor the implementation of these laws.
But in the forest, in the field, on the river and swamp, a person is often left alone only with his conscience. Here it is the only law for a person. But there are people whose conscience is useless to appeal to: they destroy rare animals, earning a lot of money at the same time, and they kill even in nature reserves.
There are no more than 18,000 rhinoceroses left on the planet, however, they continue to be destroyed because... The horn of this animal is highly prized on the black market. Other examples can be given, but even without this it is clear that many animals are in danger, they need protection and protection.
Albert Schweitzer said beautifully at the beginning of the twentieth century: “Today it seems not entirely normal to recognize as a requirement of reasonable ethics a careful attitude towards all living things, down to the lowest forms of manifestation of life (single-celled). But someday people will be surprised that it took so long for people to recognize the senseless harm of life as unethical. Ethics is unlimited responsibility for everything that lives...”
The Red Book is the embodiment of this responsibility. On March 5, 1980, the text of the World Conservation Strategy was proclaimed.
It names the problem of preserving genetic diversity - all biological species without exception, as one of the main problems of our time, since their disappearance is irreversible. You can purify contaminated water, plant a tree to replace the one that was cut down, or switch to another type of fuel instead of one that has dried up. But it is impossible to bring a species back to life if its last representatives have disappeared, and with them its gene pool - that genetic information that serves for its reproduction and is passed on from one generation to another. This loss is absolute and final, and even with the most fantastic forecasts of genetic engineering, it will not be able to “build” the lost genes if there is no role model.
“The greatest discovery of the 20th century was not television or radio, but the recognition of the complexity of the Earth,” said the eminent American ecologist Aldo Leopold. “If the Earth’s mechanism is good as a whole, then each of its parts is good separately, regardless of whether we understand its purpose or not... Preserving every cog, every wheel is the first rule of those who are trying to understand an unknown machine.”
Animals, plants, soils are a single natural mechanism, each element and each connection of which has stood the test of time, formed in the process of millions of years of evolution. Just as in a well-oiled mechanism, the loss of any nut will eventually lead to a breakdown and stop, so in nature the loss of any kind, and in nature the loss of any kind will somehow affect the condition of others. At first, the disturbances will be weak, hardly noticeable, insignificant, local, but then they will begin to affect a wider circle of “participants” and will ultimately lead to a breakdown natural complex. This in turn will cause a chain reaction, and those in the neighborhood will be at risk. In other words, the complete preservation of species diversity is a necessary condition for maintaining the natural environment of our planet (a good example is baleen whales).
Now so few of them have survived in the World Ocean that they can no longer have significant commercial significance, and some species are on the verge of extinction. What damage will humanity suffer with the disappearance of whales? There will be no more whale meat, fat and other valuable products - this is only half the problem. Disturbances in the ecological balance in the World Ocean may turn out to be much more serious. No one can now determine how much ocean water the whales passed through their “whiskers,” sifting out zooplankton. It is only clear that the volume of work produced by these giants was colossal and, accordingly, the impact they had on the life of the World Ocean was enormous. How will the elimination of its main consumer affect zooplankton? Perhaps this will cause its unlimited reproduction and, therefore, a sharp decrease in its food - phytoplankton, the basis of all ocean inhabitants, including commercial species. Perhaps, in this regard, hopes for an underwater field will be in vain. It is also possible that the disappearance of whales could ultimately lead to serious disturbances in the Earth's atmosphere. After all, phytoplankton serves as one of the main producers of oxygen in the atmosphere (the second is rainforests, and their fate in our world is no less tragic).
It was the 20th century, which gave birth to grandiose technology, that brought to life no less grandiose problems that were unknown a hundred years ago, and with them new needs, for the satisfaction of which man, as before, turns to the same natural piggy bank. Only now the most unexpected species and groups, entire classes and even types of organisms are being used, which previously were of no economic interest to humans or were even considered harmful, for example, microorganisms, on the basis of which an entire bacteriological industry has been created.
At present, we can only imagine what a wonderful domestic animal the Steller’s cow could become, grazing in the seaweed thickets in the shallow waters of the Commander Islands in 1768, the last of them died at the hands of man.
Article 23 of the Law on the Protection and Use of Wildlife is called “Protection of the habitat, breeding conditions and migration routes of animals.” It is supplemented by the following article 24 “Prevention of the death of animals during production processes and operation Vehicle" Whatever a person is doing - whether he is plowing virgin soil, draining a swamp, laying a gas pipeline, building a power line or extracting minerals - he is obliged to care about how his activity will affect the fate of animals, large and small. This is not simple and unusual, but this is the dictate of the time, which has already acquired the force of the Law.
Conclusion
In 2006, ecologists from different countries found that the animal and plant world of our planet is steadily and rapidly declining. Currently, about a third of the 5.7 thousand species of amphibians are on the verge of extinction. In industrial developed countries soon there will be no butterflies or songbirds left at all. The culprit is the continuous expansion of man and global warming.
Among the ways to solve this problem are the following:
1. Development and implementation of a coordinated international environmental protection program, including such activities as: a) the creation of an international environmental fund for organizing and implementing environmental measures of global importance (to stop the deforestation of tropical forests, improve the quality of drinking water, etc.); b) establishment of international environmental standards and control over the state of the natural environment (with the right to inspect any country); c) introduction of international quotas (standards) for harmful emissions into the atmosphere; d) declaring the natural environment the property of all humanity and introducing the “polluter pays” principle into international practice (for example, the introduction of an international “green tax” on harmful emissions).
2. Constant, complete and truthful informing of people about the state of their environment and the formation of an ecological worldview in society.
3. Creation of well-founded environmental legislation, which should provide for high liability for its violation and effective incentives to encourage environmental protection (for example, the introduction of special “environmental taxes” on the use of the most “dirty” technologies and, conversely, tax benefits for environmentally friendly production).
4. Transition to a new, environmentally friendly technological culture (rational approaches to the use of natural resources, the use of the cleanest and least rare of them, concern for the reproduction of renewable resources, the introduction of waste-free (or low-waste), resource- and nature-saving technologies, environmental protection systems and etc.).
Only through the introduction of these measures can it be possible, if not stopped, then at least to slow down the rate of extinction of the animal and plant world.
WITHlist of used literature
2.Forest fund of Russia (registered as of January 1, 1997) / Directory. M.: VNIITs lesoresurs, 2000.
3.Environmental protection. S.V. Yakovlev et al. 2002
4. Rare animals of our country. Ed. L.R. Potapova. 2002.
5.Ecology. I.A. Shilov. 2003.
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The main reason for the extinction of a large number of species is the destruction by humans of their natural habitat as a result of economic activity. Construction of reservoirs, drainage of swamps, plowing of land
steppes and deforestation leads to the destruction of animal habitats and also leads to climate change. In addition, smoke from factories and factories, car exhaust gases, sewage, and excess pesticides in the fields cause irreparable harm to all living things. One large chemical plant, which does not have modern powerful treatment facilities, can pollute a small river with wastewater. Plants and animals die in such water. As a result of tanker accidents, oil spreads over the surface of the seas and oceans, and an oil slick can immediately destroy a colony of seagulls - several thousand birds.
Another reason for the extinction of biological species is the hunting and extermination by humans of animals that, in her opinion, are harmful.
The first destruction of a biological species by humans was recorded in 1681. The victim was a flightless bird, the dodo, a relative of our pigeons. This large wingless bird, feeding on grass and leaves, was common on the island of Mauritius in Indian Ocean. In just five decades, a species that had existed for millions of years disappeared. Colonizing Europeans hunted Dodos, killing them with sticks. What remains of these large birds are several dried pieces of skin, beaks and paws, which are kept in zoological museums as a valuable relic.
After 100 years, avid hunters exterminated the sea cow stapler - a unique marine mammal. These leisurely animals lived only on the shallows of the Commander Islands in the north Pacific Ocean. Small herds of sea cows grazed in the shallows, eating aquatic vegetation. They were too easy and rich prey, so they disappeared in just 26 years. No other biological species has suffered such rapid extermination. In memory of these animals, several skeletons remain to humanity. Two such skeletons are kept in the Zoological Museum of Kyiv.
The terrible story of the disappearance of the passenger pigeon. Unlike other destroyed animals, which were few in number and had a limited habitat, the passenger pigeon was considered one of the most common birds on our planet. During the breeding season, a flock of birds occupied forest areas of several thousand square kilometers for nesting. The total number of birds in the flock was more than 2 billion individuals, exceeding the population on the globe at that time.
People thoughtlessly and cruelly killed passenger pigeons. They beat us with stones and sticks, fired from pistols, rifles and even cannons. At night they were fumigated with sulfur, caught in nets, and beaten with sticks. Up to a million birds were destroyed in one night! Then a herd of pigs was released into the forest to feed on wounded birds or chicks that had fallen from their nests. And it never occurred to anyone that these birds could disappear. At the end of the 19th century. The number of passenger pigeons began to decline sharply, and no conservation measures saved this bird from extinction. The last representative of the species, the dove Martha, died in 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo.
A separate problem is the preservation of the smallest animals: insects, spiders, mollusks, worms, etc. . After all, their life is closely connected with certain types of plants: if only one type of herbaceous plant or shrub disappears, 30 species of small animals die out at once.
The purposeful collection of good rare butterflies the size of beetles and exotic mollusks, which are collected by “fans” of nature, is of concern.
Nowadays, animal smuggling has become a fairly developed business, generating huge illegal profits.
How wildlife is protected
There are three areas of wildlife conservation:
Habitat protection;
Protection of groups of animals and plants;
Protection of certain biological species.
Habitat protection consists primarily of protecting the main types of natural landscapes (seas, lakes, swamps, forests, steppes, etc.) in original form. For this purpose, territories (land areas) or water areas (water surface areas) are identified, where a reserve regime is established: any economic activity people, hunting, fishing, collecting herbs, berries and mushrooms. Such areas are called nature reserves. The largest are biosphere reserves. They are unique examples of the flora and fauna of a certain natural landscape, such as a forest or steppe. Nature reserves protect not individual animals, but populations. Populations different types differ in the number of animals. Populations of small animals, particularly insects, number hundreds or thousands of individuals, and large mammals, such as deer or wild pigs, number several dozen individuals.
Four biosphere reserves have been created on the territory of Ukraine: Black Sea (in the lower reaches of the Dnieper), Danube Plavni (in the lower reaches of the Danube), Carpathian (occupies picturesque areas Carpathian Mountains) and the oldest - “Askania-Nova” (standard of the European steppe).
The protection of animal and plant communities is carried out in nature reserves and national parks. Each species of animal occupies its own ecological niche in nature - the place of the species in the biocenosis is determined by interaction with other species and living conditions. Therefore, there are no harmful or beneficial animals in nature. In particular, a predatory eagle feeding on hares, on the one hand, causes harm - it destroys potential game, and on the other hand, it is useful, therefore it limits the number of hares, thus protecting the cabbage harvest or young seedlings in the garden from the devastating raids of these animals.
Species protection. To preserve many species, it is no longer enough to protect their habitat. Therefore, in areas where animals are distributed, reserves are created - territories with limited economic activity.
Of particular importance is the reproduction of animals of endangered species in captivity with their subsequent return to nature. This method of breeding rare animals in zoos is quite effective. Thanks to him, it was possible to preserve the bison, Przewalski's horse, and Mila chinensis (David's deer).
To control the protection of rare and endangered species of animals, a Red Book has been created in each country. This is a list of species of living beings, including animals, whose continued existence is under threat. The Red Book certainly notes the number of species, its distribution, the possibility of breeding in artificial conditions, and also determines the protection category. For example, species and categories are classified as rare and on the verge of extinction. Such species on the territory of our country include the steppe eagle, black vulture, vulture, and griffon vulture.
The Red Book of Ukraine (Fig. 158) lists 382 species of animals belonging to six types of the kingdom Animalia (Coelenterates, annelids and roundworms, Arthropods, Molluscs, Chordata). In addition, 56 species of the Red Data Book of Ukraine are registered in the European Red List of globally endangered species. Another 16 species in Ukraine are listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which means that the conservation of these species is a primary task of the entire world community. On the territory of our country, the following species of animals listed in the IUCN Red Book are still preserved: broad-clawed crayfish, which resembles an ordinary crayfish; attracts - a giant face - a huge predatory fly about 5 cm long, which bites painfully, like a wasp; Apollo butterfly (preserved in the Carpathians) - the largest of the day butterflies in Europe; Atlantic sturgeon, which has not been seen off the coast of Ukraine for almost 50 years; the Carpathian newt and the reed toad are not numerous species with a limited range; leopard and forest runner; Dalmatian pelican, red kite, white-tailed eagle, saker falcon and peregrine falcon; muskrat, monk seal and bison.
The extinction of species is occurring at a fairly rapid rate. This is due to the fact that humans destroy their environment of existence, and sometimes destroy individual species. To stop the process of extermination of animals, protected areas with protected status are being expanded, and animals of certain species that are most at risk of extinction are bred in captivity.
Terms and concepts: biological diversity, reserve, biosphere reserve, national park, ecological niche, reserve.
Check yourself. 1 . What is biological diversity? 2. What are the main causes of species extinction? 3. In what three main areas are measures taken to protect the diversity of the animal world carried out? 4 . Why is the destruction of natural landscapes the main reason for the decline in the number of animal species? 5 . Names of the type of protected areas. 6. What is the Red Book?