My name is Jeffry and this is my first article!! 1st of all I'm gonna tell you a little bit about me. I live in Denpasar, Bali. I was born in Surabaya at the 7th December of 2000, and I am a grade 10 science student at Tunas Daud School. My hobbies include singing, drawing, gardening, cooking, and baking, my favorite subjects are English, Art, Biology, and Literature.
So, today I'm gonna talk about Wildlife. Now, what is Wildlife? Well, according to Google, Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all plants, fungi, and other organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Deserts, forests, rain forests, plains, grasslands, and even the most developed cities, and all ecosystems have distinct forms of Wildlife.
As a lot of you may know, our number of wildlife is decreasing every single day, why? Well, because, us humans have been so selfish and taking away their homes and family by cutting down forests, trophy hunting, overfishing, etc. Mike Barratt, director of science and policy at WWF said, "We have lost one half of the animal population and knowing this is driven by human consumption, this is clearly a call to arms and we must act now."
So, what makes Wildlife so important?? Well, without it there we wouldn't have existed. Why?? Because, without Wildlife we would have no food, oxygen, and everything we need to survive. The oxygen we breathe is made by plants by photosynthesis, meat like fish, beef, and poultry comes from animals, the vegetables and fruits are from plants, without insects like butterflies, bees, and etc we wouldn't have fruits because, sometimes, plants need these insects to help them with pollination. So, try to imagine the world without wildlife. Scary, isn't it? Without Wildlife, the whole world would collapse. If we were to take away a species out from an ecosystem, it would make the whole ecosystem collapse.
For example, When Yellowstone National Park in the USA was created in 1872, gray wolves (Canis lupus) populations were already in decline in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The creation of the national park did not provide protection for wolves or other predators, and government predator control programs in the first decades of the 1900s essentially helped eliminate the gray wolf from Yellowstone.
Once they were gone, elk populations began to rise. Over the next few years conditions of Yellowstone National Park declined drastically. At around 1926 to 1995, the wolves were absent in the park. By this time many biologists were worried about eroding land and plants dying off. Deciduous, woody species such as aspen and cottonwood suffered from overgrazing. The park service started trapping and moving the elk, and when that was not effective, they kill them. Elk population control methods continued for more than 30 years. Elk control prevented further degradation of the range, but didn't improve its overall condition. In the late 1960s, local hunters began to complain to their congressmen that there were too few elk, and the congressmen threatened to stop funding Yellowstone. Killing elk was given up as control method which allowed elk populations to again rise. As elk populations rose, the quality of the range declined, affecting many other animals. Without wolves, coyote populations increased dramatically which adversely impacted the pronghorn antelope population. However, it was the overly large elk populations that caused the most profound changes to the ecosystem of Yellowstone with the absence of wolves. At around 1995 wolves started to be reintroduced into the park and ever since their comeback elk populations were controlled, the woody species of plants such as aspen and cottonwood were coming back and the park was starting to get better.
One of the things that we could do to prevent our wildlife from decreasing is to stop using animal products such as leather, horns, antlers, etc. Because those leather, horns, antlers, and tusks are from wild endangered animals like elephants, whales, deer, tigers and a whole lot of other animals.
And another way, is to not litter in biodegradable trash such as plastic on the streets and everywhere else, because, if we were to throw away all that trash on the roads, not only will the road be dirty, but the trash will end up in the sewers and then the rivers which will leads the trash to the seas and oceans. Plastic bags are dangerous for a lot of aquatic animals, such as turtles and sunfish or mola-mola. Because, turtles and mola-mola eats jellyfish and since plastic bag kind of looks like jellyfish, they might try to eat it, choke, and they'll die. So, please don't litter anywhere, for most of the times it will end up in the sea and hurt our sealife.
Another way, is to start a garden with a good ecosystem, plants that are indigenous to your area, trees, birdhouses, butterfly feeders, and preferably a pond. Because, by doing so you are helping some species of local species of birds, insects and other animals find food and shelter, and it is also very beautiful.
Here is a list of some of the endangered wildlife species..
ANIMALS:
Blue-throated macaw
Mola-mola/ Sun/ Moonfish
Siamese crocodile
Malayan tiger
Kemp's ridley sea turtle
Hawksbill turtle
Javan rhino
Vaquita
Blue whale
Giant panda
PLANTS:
Rafflesia arnoldi
Western prairie fringed orchid
Georgia aster
Wiggin's acalypha
Texas wild rice
Howell's spectacular thelypody
Arizona agave
Enrubio
Ouachita mountain goldenrod
Stenogyne kaneohana
And the list just goes on and on and on and on. So, please.. people, nature needs our help. There have been too many species of animals and plants that are endangered, and it's mostly our fault.
I can't imagine how the world would be without wildlife. Without plants, and without animals, we would have no food and a lot of people will loose their jobs. So, please, help nature.
If someone from the government is reading this article, please do something to help, we can't do this alone.
So I guess that's it. I had so much fun writing this article!! Thank you for reading this article and have a great day!!
Here are my sources:
Ms. Sylvie Swinkels
(English teacher in Tunas Daud High School)
My own Biology notes
http://save-the-endangered-species.weebly.com/top-10-most-endangered-plants.html
https://googleweblight.com/?lite_url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/directory?direction%3Ddesc%26sort%3Dextinction_status&ei=0uAJv-Ok&lc=en-ID&s=1&m=169&host=www.google.co.id&ts=1472437575&sig=AKOVD66zJOlEkE2FZqOVh6TGP6BzpDx8yQ
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wolves_in_Yellowstone
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/29/earth-lost-50-wildlife-in-40-years-wwf
Best Regards,
Jeffry
Instagram: @treblejeff_12
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