Invertebrate Invasive Species

Hunting and Poaching Report by Nicholas Hong Si Wei of class 2E6 Research mentors: Mrs Candy Tong, Ms Sarala, Mr Ang Abstract: Hunting and poaching is the act of killing, capturing of wild animals. However, hunting is legal in some parts of the world whereas poaching is done illegally unfortunately, because of excessive hunting and poaching, this has become a global problem whereby many animals and decreasing dramatically in population or even extinction. Some of the cases include Amur Leopard, Black Rhino, Sumatran Tiger, and Sumatran Elephant which are critically endangered. Some extreme cases where by a particular species of animal is completely extinct include Atlas bear, Japanese sea lion, Carolina parakeet and dusky seaside sparrow.

Wildlife Poaching: The global aftermath The word “death” may surprise people; however, what is even more surprising, and shocking of course, is that the death toll of rhinoceros in South Africa has now reached a record of 1020, a number greater than the record in 2013 and triple the number four years ago (Bukhardt, 2014)! People may fall off their seats if they would be seeing this: according to Kathleen Gobush (n.d.), the population of African elephants has declined from a number of 1.3 million to 600 individuals from 1979 to 1987, an astonishing span of eight years! Here is another stunning fact: a recent United Nations report suggests that by the mid-2020s, gorillas may disappear from large parts of the Congo Basin (World Wildlife Fund,

THE CHANGE OF THE EVERGLADES BY:EXAVION VALENTINE The presence of the Burmese python is killing the Everglades. According to Andrew Ng Burmese python are “wiping out humongous numbers of opossums, racoons, bob cats as well as many species of birds.” Florida has hosted a challenge to take down this invasive species. Clearly, the Burmese python is drawing hunters to the Everglades. According to Andrew Ng in his 2013 article, “to address the problem, the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission is sponsoring its first ever Python Challenge.” This statement means that hunters are coming to participate in this challenge. This is important because it can get rid of the pythons in the Everglades.

The foxes are thought of to be responsible for the killing off most of the ground living animals in the last 130 years. (Red Fox) Any animal that is smaller that 5.5 kilograms is prey to the foxes, a single fox is estimated to eat about 400 grams each night. (Red Fox) Sometimes a fox will kill many animals during the night but not eat all of them, this can lead to serious food shortage for other native animals. I single fox can kill thousands of mammals, reptiles and birds every year. (Red Fox) Red Foxes are constantly is competition with other native animals on Australia, the more they eat the less food there is for the native animals.

The collapse of the marine ecosystem would result in the a massive amount of loss in fish stocks, resulting in the loss of business and the starvation of many people around the world that rely on fish as their major supply of food. (The main cause of overfishing is large fishing companies

An estimate of 400,000 people were killed in 2003 directly or indirectly from the attacks. Some of those African tribes include the Fur, Masait, Jebel, Aranga, and Zaghwa tribes. As a result to all the attacks, there were thousands of dead bodies scattered across the land and tossed into wells. The bodies tossed into the wells led to the contamination of a majority of Darfur’s water supple and desertification of the area. Access to water is highly needed in Sudan currently, but the country has already became neglected.

This causes heavy disease to spread around the environment due to unwholesome and unnatural confinement of living creatures. As US farming industries kill more than 30 millions bird each day and 10 billions bird in a year, this animal carnage can pollutes a land, air, and water that contains variety of diseases including bacteria, chemicals and viruses. Also, poisoned well water is a major issue on the Delmarva Peninsula which kills about 600 million chickens per year and it results 3.2 billion pounds of raw waste, 14 million pounds of phosphorous and 49 million pounds of nitrogen. Another situation happened in southeastern part of us which areas are being turned into fly-infested places by the poultry industry. The wildlife habitat is destroyed to erect new poultry houses, slaughtering plants and worker’s trailer parks.

The most negative effect of having an exotic animals is Disease threat. This threat both of the exotic animal and the humans. The wild exotic animals can carry diseases that are dangerous to people such as rabies, virus and even the Monkey Pox that affected dozens of people in the Midwest in 2003, it was traced to a Gambian rat from Africa. Also, because of people who contact with reptiles and other exotic animals, there is for 74,000 cases of salmonellosis each year. A study in Archives of Disease in Childhood reported that children infected with salmonella from contact with reptiles were more likely to develop serious bacterial diseases than children who contracted salmonella from other sources (2015).

There are five main species of rhino in the world, two species, namely, the black rhino and white rhino are found in Africa and the remaining three species are found in southern Asia, which are the Sumatran, Javan and the Indian(Greater one-horn) rhinos. All five are being poached in their respective locations and habitats. The only species which has managed to regain numbers is the Indian rhino species, however they are still being poached. The Sumatran and Javan rhinos are listed as critically endangered as well as the northern white rhino in Africa. Southern Africa has been subjected to record high yearly increases in poaching with South Africa specifically reporting significant poaching rates especially in the Kruger National Park.

Worth billions of dollars every year, promptly following drugs, firearms, and human trafficking, animal poaching is the illegal act of slaughtering or capturing animals. Due to the approximated tens of millions of animals being poached for their fur, shells, horns, etcetera, there is a rapid decline in population, causing a myriad of species to confront endangerment and possible extinction. Furthermore, some of the most at risk animals include, but are not limited to, sea turtles, elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, lemurs, and gorillas. This illicit trade is mainly generated by human avarice, the belief that some animal parts possess medicinal properties, and the lack of other livelihood opportunities. To place an approximated price on these