Declining Animal Populations

[Stephen Graf]

#6578

Sad news… It looks like the overall animal population on the planet has declined 52% since 1970. Looking at specific area’s like south america 80% or freshwater 70 something % shows even worse declines…

http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/living-planet-report-2014

[James Harvey]

#52789

Steve, I read that too. Sad news. In the report I read it mentioned that South American deforestation was one of the big factors.

This is actually a field that Australia excels at. Apparently in our first 100 years the extinction rate on our continent equalled that of the entire world for the 400 years previous. (I’m not sure how reliable global biological surveys were in the late middle ages but that factoid came from a pretty reliable source http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/extinct-species-book/5769194)

[Doc Nock]

#52846

Am I correct in remembering such “wide area surveys” are done on a small area density study, then extrapolated?

Regardless of how accurate, when man comes into the picture, sets up a commercial “anything” that wildlife can interfere with, or is dependent on that which man will harvest for profit, all hell is going to break loose and it won’t be in favor of wildlife.

We had a field right here on the edge of our small burg that always had deer in it. Then they built a Target Store and carved back a large portion of that hillside. No deer now…

Many “endangered” are in their plight due to habitat destruction. Man has fouled his own nest, but he made money doing it, for sure!

[Ralph]

#52921

What we do, we good at it, good or bad. 😀

[WyoStillhunter]

#52944

What more can I say?

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Probably the most famous Pogo quotation is “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Perhaps more than any other words written by Kelly, it perfectly sums up his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition.

[Author]

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