Animals

We've all had an encounter with an animal. Maybe you have a pet at home, or neighborhood rabbits and coyotes hang out in your front yard. Maybe you kept swatting at a mosquito that just wouldn't go away yesterday. Maybe you went to the zoo, or the aquarium.

Animals come in all different shapes, sizes, and species. They can be microscopic, like tardigrades and myxobolus shekel, or bigger than a school bus, like Antarctic blue whales.

Have you ever wished for a superpower? Chances are, there is an animal who already has it. Flying, invisibility, shapeshifting---even things close to indestructibility and immortality. Animals are incredible! But they are also being threatened every day with extinction in a warming Earth and through activities such as overhunting, poaching, and deforestation.

Imagine a world with no birds in the trees, no fish in the oceans, no lions or tigers or polar bears. Luckily, there is still hope to help save the animal kingdom! For example, we can make the choices every day that benefit animals. We can also learn about what obstacles they're facing and what we can do to help.

Why should we care about saving animals?

Animals, plants, and humans can't survive without each other. Think of the Earth as one big factory. In order for the factory to be productive, everyone has to work together. The people who are thinking up ideas and adapting products, the people who are building and running things, the people who are managing everything... it's the same with the Earth. Each creature that lives here---each giraffe, each tree, each human, each whale---contributes to the ecosystem and balance of life. If one animal's population becomes unstable, or disappears completely, then everything is thrown out of wack. Suddenly, there's no one coming up with ideas for products for people to make, or there are no builders who are putting products together, or no one is supervising the whole thing to make sure things go the way they should. In the case of the Earth, there would be no one keeping other animal populations in check, no one decomposing dead things to recycle matter and nutrients, no one providing oxygen for creatures to breathe. The factory would stop producing and become unsustainable and unhealthy. So we have to keep the populations of every different animal strong in order for Earth and the creatures that live here to thrive.

It's also important to save animals because we can learn a lot from them. Many human medicines, technologies, and inventions were modeled off of animal features and adaptations, a practice called biomimicry. Even besides this, lots of our society depends on animals---from our food to our medicine to our economies, animals are essential to our lives being happy and healthy.

And it's important to save them because animals also have lives themselves, and they deserve to be saved the same as you and I. They're caring parents, loving partners, courageous heroes. Animals constantly make us smile, or surprise us, or teach us new things.

What human activities are affecting animals?

Poaching, deforestation, overhunting/fishing, habitat loss and fragmentation, the introduction of invasive species, the dumping of trash into oceans and habitats, light and sound pollution, climate change... a LOT of the things we do impact animals.

What is poaching?

Poaching is the illegal hunting, catching, or harvesting of animals and plants. People poach animals for the exotic pet trade, for animal parts to be used as decoration, for food, for medicine, for profit, etc. Sometimes people with low income use poaching as an opportunity to get more money. Poaching is an extremely harmful practice that decimates ecosystems and biodiversity. Many of the animals and plants poached are critically endangered, and already species and sub-species of animals and plants have gone extinct due to poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

When buying things like plants, pets, or animal parts, it's important to ask where they came from. There's a chance that they were poached. Never buy plants that came from the "wild."

What is deforestation?

Deforestation is the practice of cutting down trees in order to clear land for uses like agriculture, animal grazing, urban development, and mining, or for timber or slash-and-burn agriculture (a method where farmers burn large areas of forest to allow the ash to fertilize the soil for a few years; every few years, the fertilization from the ash wears off and they burn new forest). It is estimated that about 15 billion trees are cut down every year. Deforestation is harmful because it takes away the homes of animals and plants, many of them endangered; disrupts ecosystems and biodiversity; results in worsening air and water quality; reduces rainfall; and releases tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

What is overhunting/overfishing?

Overhunting, overfishing, and overharvesting (aka overexploitation) is when we hunt/fish/harvest animals and plants excessively to the point where their populations become unstable, or when we hunt/fish/harvest animals and plants that are already endangered or have unstable populations. Overexploitation is an unsustainable practice that leads to unstable populations and population collapse, and disrupts ecosystems, food chains, and biodiversity.

What is habitat loss and habitat fragmentation?

Habitat loss occurs when the natural habitats of animals and plants are destroyed or degraded, and can no longer support their needs and reproduction. Habitat loss often happens when humans repurpose the land for agriculture, urban development, plantations, etc., but it can also happen due to rising sea levels from climate change. Many times animals and plants can only survive in a certain habitat, and when that habitat is repurposed or is otherwise lost, they become endangered or extinct. 

Habitat fragmentation is a type of habitat loss that occurs when only parts of a habitat are destroyed, leaving isolated areas of habitat behind: for example, a road cutting through a forest. By dividing populations of animals, habitat fragmentation disrupts biodiversity and the range and necessary migration of wildlife, as well as the long-term health of a population (decreased genetic diversity from separation leads to more vulnerability to disease and other obstacles). Habitat fragmentation can also make it difficult for animals to get to their breeding/nesting areas, and can turn animals into roadkill. Ironically, hydropower dams are a notable example of habitat fragmentation: they provide a big obstacle for salmon trying to migrate to breeding grounds, and many fish die trying to get past them, as well as because of the changes in salmon habitat that the dams create.

What is the introduction of invasive species?

Invasive species are animals and plants that are not native to a habitat, and yet are introduced to that habitat---usually through human activity---and cause harm to the native species that already live there. Introduction can happen intentionally or accidentally. When people go hiking in other places and come back to their homes, they can bring the seeds of invasive plants along with them. When things are shipped or transported between places, they run the risk of also serving as transportation for unwanted hitchhikers. The exotic pet trade (which can be legal or illegal) also feeds the invasive species problem---people will take on pets from different countries/places then realize they can't care for them or don't want them anymore. They release them into the wild around their homes, where creatures establish populations and put native animals and plants at risk, as was the case with Burmese pythons in Florida. Invasive species often flourish in new places because there are no natural predators to keep them in check; instead, they prevent native species from getting the nutrition they need, overcrowding and hogging resources and land to themselves. The impacts of invasive species are amplified as both native and invasive species adapt to climate change and other harmful human activities. It's important to find effective ways to combat these invasive species while remembering that they are living creatures themselves, and deserve respect.

It's also important to note that not all non-native species are invasive species!

What is the dumping of trash into habitats?

Trash pollution/litter affects many habitats, including the ocean. Garbage accumulates in the ocean, harming marine life, making it harder for humans to navigate the waters, and putting plastic into our environment. This marine debris comes from human activity both on land and on the ocean. Ineffective waste management, dumping or littering, runoff from storms and rain, lost fishing nets, and more contribute to marine debris---marine life can then become entangled and trapped in debris and die or mistake debris for food, ingest it, and die (in the case of ingestion, the trash takes up space in the stomachs of animals and causes them to feel full so that they stop eating and starve to death).

To learn more about marine debris, go here: https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/discover-marine-debris/where-does-marine-debris-come. Oil spills and chemical spills also have harmful effects on marine life and environments.

Litter on land can contribute to marine debris, but it can also harm land animals. Birds and mammals can get tangled in our trash and die. Six-pack rings and other plastic with loops in it (such as plastic bags) are especially dangerous when it comes to ensnaring creatures, and when you throw out your trash, it's important to cut the loops of six-pack rings and other objects so that they have a lower chance of trapping an animal if they somehow get into the trash or if the trash somehow finds its way into their habitats. Land animals can also ingest plastic and die.

What is light pollution and sound pollution?

According to National Geographic, light pollution is the "excessive or inappropriate use of outdoor artificial light." The impact of our lights is bigger than you might think. In addition to interfering with our own health, light pollution results in the deaths of many animals. Birds who use the moon as a guide for migrations get confused amidst our artificial lights, and get lost and die. Insects who are attracted to our light are instantly killed when they draw too close. Baby sea turtles coming out of their eggs on beaches are misoriented or disoriented by artificial lights, making their way to human populations or in circles on the shore instead of to their natural ocean habitats.

According to National Geographic, sound pollution/noise pollution is "any unwanted or disturbing sound that affects the health and well-being of humans and other organisms." Similar to light pollution, sound pollution affects animal activities and health as well as human activities and health. Sound from our machinery, concerts, sonar, etc. interferes with animal reproduction, mating, navigation, escape from predators, finding food, and other things. Marine mammals like dolphins and whales rely on echolocation to communicate and survive, and our sonar, seismic surveys (which are used to find places to drill for fossil fuels such as oil and gas), and other noise in the oceans drowns them out and alters their behaviors, in some cases even causing mass strandings of whales on beaches.

What is climate change?

Climate change is the long-term change in weather patterns and temperatures. Climate change used to happen naturally through events like volcanic eruptions, but since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800's, climate change has been mainly caused by human activity. This unnaturally rapid rate of climate change is also known as the climate crisis, or the climate emergency. Climate change affects animals and plants in myriad ways: warming climates pose risks to many species; rising sea levels, increasingly frequent natural disasters, and melting ice swallow up or destroy essential habitats; food availability decreases; reproduction is less successful; natural habitats can't support native species anymore; etc.

However, there are certain animals who are positively benefitting from climate change, such as jellyfish, mosquitoes, and ticks.

Note that this is not a complete list of the human activities that affect animals. There are a LOT. Luckily, if we're the problem, we can also be the solution! Find out what you can do to help!

We spotlight an endangered animal or plant every month. See what endangered species we're focusing on this month and what YOU can do to help save it!