Wildlife conservation aims to protect endangered species and their habitats for current and future generations. Many governments and nonprofit organizations work to conserve wildlife through policies and programs. The major threats to wildlife are loss and degradation of natural habitats due to human activities like development, pollution, and unsustainable hunting. Habitat loss occurs through direct destruction, fragmentation into smaller less-connected pieces, and degradation that makes habitats unable to support native species. These threats endanger wildlife populations and can cause extinction if not addressed through conservation efforts.
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Conserving Wildlife Through Habitat Protection
1. WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
Wildlife conservation is the practice of protecting endangered plant and animal species and
their habitats. Among the goals of wildlife conservation are to ensure that nature will be around
for future generations to enjoy and to recognize the importance of wildlife andwilderness lands to
humans.[1] Many nations have government agencies dedicated to wildlife conservation, which
help to implement policies designed to protect wildlife. Numerous independent nonprofit
organizations also promote various wildlife conservation causes.[2]
Wildlife conservation has become an increasingly important practice due to the negative effects
of human activity on wildlife. The science of extinction is called dirology. An endangered species
is defined as a population of a living being that is at the danger of becoming extinct because of
several reasons. Either they are few in number or are threatened by the varying environmental or
predation parameters.
Major threats to wildlife[edit]
Major threats to wildlife can be categorized as below:[3]
: Fewer natural wildlife habitat areas remain each year. Moreover, the habitat that remains
has often been degraded to bear little resemblance to the wild areas which existed in the
past.Habitat loss—due to destruction, fragmentation or degradation of habitat—is the primary
threat to the survival of wildlife in the United States.
There are three major kinds of habitat loss:
Habitat destruction: A bulldozer pushing down trees is the iconic image of habitat
destruction. Other ways that people are directly destroying habitat, include filling in wetlands,
dredging rivers, mowing fields, and cutting down trees.
Habitat fragmentation: Much of the remaining terrestrial wildlife habitat in the U.S. has been
cut up into fragments by roads and development. Aquatic species’ habitat has been
fragmented by dams and water diversions. These fragments of habitat may not be large or
connected enough to support species that need a large territory in which to find mates and
food. The loss and fragmentation of habitat make it difficult for migratory species to find
places to rest and feed along their migration routes.
Habitat degradation: Pollution, invasive species and disruption of ecosystem processes
(such as changing the intensity of fires in an ecosystem) are some of the ways habitats can
become so degraded that they no longer support native wildlife.
Unregulated Hunting and poaching: Unregulated hunting and poaching causes a major
threat to wildlife. Along with this, mismanagement of forest department and forest guards
triggers this problem.
Pollution: Pollutants released into the environment are ingested by a wide variety of
organisms.Pesticides and toxic chemical being widely used, making the environment
toxic to certain plants, insects, and rodents.