The Sioux, hunting on horseback, staked their survival on the buffalo. A host of environmental and human factors contributed to the decline of the bison. After the Civil war, that nearly brought the extinction of the bison. With leather belting and the combination of slaughter.|…
Krech, Shepard. 1981. Indians, Animals, and the Fur trade. Athens: The University of Georgia Press. .…
One of the important questions that is simple but yet compelling is the question of who actually lived in The Adirondacks, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon before they became national parks in the United States? Karl Jacoby asks this question in the novel Crimes Against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation. Most people would focus on the positive efforts to protect nature in environmental tends but Jacoby examines the negative aspects of how nature was mistreated. In Crimes Against Nature, Jacoby argues that the history of the Conservation Movement has two sides. Jacoby seeks to challenge the traditional history of protection of the environment and nature. Jacoby describes that the narrative of conservation is more…
[1] Donald Kagan, et al., The Western Heritage Since 1300 (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006) 806.…
The history of white-tailed deer in Missouri shows positive and negative influences humans can have on wildlife. During presettlement times, the whitetail was abundant in Missouri, especially in the more fertile and diverse habitats of northern Missouri. The influx of European settlers to Missouri during the last half of the 19th century coincided with a rapid decline in the deer population. Unrestricted market hunting and habitat destruction, such as cutting, burning, farming and grazing forest lands, contributed most to this decline.…
Terry Tempest William’s written essay, “A Shark in the Mind of One Contemplating Wilderness,” delivers to us, with intended purpose using shocking truths of greed and destruction. Actions took under the cloak and disguise of the needs of civilization, creating more jobs, or even to boost the rich man’s governmental legacy of our badly raped and abused national economy. How continued acts of greed and wanton disregard for the environment, are endangering nature the wilderness areas we have sought to protect? Acts that leave behind damage and destruction where once nature and wilderness thrived. A land no longer able to maintain and support the natural balance of the animal populations as it once did.…
The move to reintroduce the wolf was very controversial with conservational and environmental groups pushing and supporting the measure but many ranchers and farmers in the area being very wary of it. But there was no denying that the ecosystem of the park had changed since the wolves’ absence, with a large…
For over 150 million years, dinosaurs dominated Earth. They were incredibly successful-so successful in fact that all of the other animal groups had no choice but to play a secondary role in nature. 65 million years ago, however, every species of dinosaur went extinct as well mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, ammonites, and many families of brachiopods and sea sponges. Also, many shark species as well as most vegetation did not survive(“Dinosaur Extinction”). What could have possibly killed off the dominant animal group of the time? The answer to this question is still unclear but there are many hypotheses that attempt to explain this extinction event. To find out exactly how this happened, evidence must be gathered not only from fossils…
In his speech “Why Wilderness?”, Roderick Frazier Nash uses his power of persuasion, knowledge, and personal belief to convey how essential our wilderness is. He is trying to accomplish two things; persuading the reader that wilderness is important enough to put forth an effort into preserving it, and present to the (already pro-wilderness) audience how he believes they should do so. By contrasting the past and present of our wilderness and what we have and haven’t done to keep it, Nash suggests that we are not currently on the correct path. Nash does an excellent job of proving to the reader and the audience that change is in order without bombarding them with negativity.…
passenger pigeon, and the great herds of bison that once roamed the prairie. The land was…
Rapid expansion of the west was a notable matter of this age. As Levy stated, “American bison symbolized the harm done to the environment in the West during the Gilded Age.”(). American bison were the…
An example of this would be the drastic decline in the buffalo population in the US caused by this railroad. The railroad workers killed off a large portion of the buffalos as a source of food. Many people who hunted for sport, or hunted to sell the meat began arriving by train, and killing massive numbers of buffalo. These two combines detrimentally affected the population of the American Bison, also called the…
Hunters are reversing natural selection. Hunters are always get the good animals with good trait for example, “In North America, he stalked deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and elk, which he called “lordly game” for their majestic antlers.” The hunters have had changed the natural selection and the environment because hunters kill animals that have large population and large horns and this can cause those animals to die out. Also there are some changes in the four species: male sheep with big horns tend to be larger offspring and the hunters are hunting the bighorn sheep so their population went down. Kangaroo with red leather are more likely to be seen and the hunters are also hunting and seeking for a good leather. Also, hunters are…
The herbivores would eat full grown things and little sprouts. Too many prey can kill an entire prairie with too many things eating. Prey would eat all and breed so they would eventually have no room or food. With predators more plants can grow and maybe even a new species of plants that could bring different types of animals. For example, in Yellowstone park, they reintroduced the wolves. The wolves hunted the deer allowing more plants to grow. This allowed different types of animals to feed on the new plants increasing biodiversity and making the ecosystem healthier. When there were no predators in Yellowstone, there weren’t many plants and when there were predators there were new plants, and animals. The wolves also changed the rivers. The new plants kept erosion from happening and the rivers were more stable. They brought more beaver and beaver built dams which made new homes for different animals. Predators are good to keep the whole food chain in order and keep a healthy…
References: CHERNEY, D. (2011). SECURING THE FREE MOVEMENT OF WILDLIFE: LESSONS FROM THE AMERICAN WEST’S LONGEST LAND MAMMAL MIGRATION . Retrieved from http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/2011.17.pdf…