Various species of deer are commonly seen wildlife across the Americas and Eurasia. A deer is a Ruminant Mammal belonging to the family Cervidae.

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative.

Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems, Deserts, rainforests, plains, and other areas—including the most developed urban sites—all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that wildlife around the world is impacted by human activities.

Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. This has been a reason for debate throughout recorded history. Religions have often declared certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times concern for the natural environment has provoked activists to protest the exploitation of wildlife for human benefit or entertainment. Literature has also made use of the traditional human separation from wildlife.

Food

Anthropologists believe that the Stone Age peoples and hunter-gatherers relied on wildlife, both plant and animal, for their food. The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which Humans widely used stone for toolmaking A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting In fact, some species may have been hunted to extinction by early human hunters. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. Today, hunting, fishing, or gathering wildlife is still a significant food source in some parts of the world. For the computer security term see Phishing. Fishing is the activity of catching Fish. In other areas, hunting and non-commercial fishing are mainly seen as a sport or recreation, with the edible meat as mostly a side benefit. Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Recreation or fun is the expenditure of time in a manner designed for therapeutic refreshment of one's Body or Mind. Meat sourced from wildlife that is not traditionally regarded as game is known as bushmeat. Bushmeat ( Calque from the French viande de brousse) is the term commonly used for Meat of terrestrial wild animals killed for The increasing demand for wildlife as a source of traditional food in East Asia is decimating populations of sharks, primates, pangolins and other animals, which they believe have aphrodisiac properties. Sharks ( Superorder Selachimorpha) are a type of Fish with a full cartilaginous Skeleton and a highly streamlined body A primate is a member of the biological order Primates ( Latin: "prime first rank" the group that contains Lemurs the Aye-aye

Religion

Many wildlife species have spiritual significance in different cultures around the world, and they and their products may be used as sacred objects in religious rituals. SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos For example, eagles, hawks and their feathers have great cultural and spiritual value to Native Americans as religious objects. Eagles are large birds of prey which are members of the Bird order Falconiformes and family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera The term hawk can be used in several ways In strict usage in Europe and Asia, to mean any of the Species in the Subfamily Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering or Plumage, on Birds They are considered the most complex integumentary structures Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States.

Television

Wildlife has long been a common subject for educational television shows. Education encompasses both the Teaching and Learning of Knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U National Geographic specials appeared on CBS beginning in 1965, later moving to ABC and then PBS. Overview The NGS's historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural historical and natural CBS Broadcasting Inc ( CBS) is an American radio and Television network. Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. The American Broadcasting Company ( ABC) is an American Television network. The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the In 1963, NBC debuted Wild Kingdom, a popular program featuring zoologist Marlin Perkins as host. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The National Broadcasting Company ( NBC) is an American Television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Wild Kingdom, sometimes known as Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, is an American Television show that features Wildlife Zoology (from Greek ζῷον, zoon, "animal" + λόγος, " Logos " "knowledge" is the branch of Richard Marlin Perkins ( March 28, 1905 &ndash June 14, 1986) was a zoologist best known as a host of the Television program The BBC natural history unit in the UK was a similar pioneer, the first wildlife series LOOK presented by Sir Peter Scott, was a studio-based show, with filmed inserts. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC, FRS, FZS, ( September 14, 1909 – August 29, 1989 It was in this series that David Attenborough first made his appearance which led to the series Zoo Quest during which he and cameraman Charles Lagus went to many exotic places looking for elusive wildlife -- notably the Komodo dragon in Indonesia and lemurs in Madagascar. Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS (born 8 May 1926 in London, England The Komodo dragon ( Varanus komodoensis) is a species of Lizard that inhabits the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Lemurs make up the infraorder Lemuriformes and are members of a group of Primates known as Prosimians The term "lemur" is derived from the Since 1984, the Discovery Channel and its spinoff Animal Planet in the USA have dominated the market for shows about wildlife on cable television, while on PBS the NATURE strand made by WNET-13 in New York and NOVA by WGBH in Boston are notable. Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) Discovery Channel is an American Satellite and Cable TV channel (also delivered via IPTV, Terrestrial television and Animal Planet is an American Satellite and Cable Television channel (also broadcast via IPTV in the UK) launched on The Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) is a Non-profit Public broadcasting Television service with 354 member TV stations in the See also Nature documentary. A nature documentary is a Documentary film about Animals Plants or other non-human living creatures usually concentrating on film taken in their natural Wildlife television is now a multi-million dollar industry with specialist documentary film-makers in many countries including UK, USA, New Zealand NHNZ, Australia, Austria, Germany, Japan, and Canada. Natural History New Zealand Ltd ( NHNZ) is a small New Zealand -based documentary production company that creates more than 60 hours of television programming each year

Tourism

Fuelled by media coverage and inclusion of conservation education in early school curriculum, Wildlife tourism & Ecotourism has fast become a popular industry generating substantial income for developing nations with rich wildlife specially , Africa and India. Tourism is Travel for Recreational or Leisure purposes The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country This ever growing and ever becoming more popular form of tourism is providing the much needed incentive for poor nations to conserve their rich wildlife heritage and its habitat.

Destruction

Map of early human migrations, according to mitochondrial population genetics. Human migration denotes any movement by Humans from one locality to another sometimes over long distances or Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. Population genetics is the study of the Allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces Natural selection, Genetic Numbers are millennia before the present. A millennium (pl millennia) is a period of Time equal to one thousand Years (from Latin la mille, thousand and la annum

This subsection focuses on anthropogenic forms of wildlife destruction. Anthropogenic effects processes objects or materials are those that are derived from Human activities as opposed to those occurring in Natural environments without

Exploitation of wild populations has been a characteristic of modern man since our exodus from Africa 130,000 – 70,000 years ago. The term " exploitation " may carry two distinct meanings The act of utilizing something for any purpose The rate of extinctions of entire species of plants and animals across the planet has been so high in the last few hundred years it is widely considered that we are in the sixth great extinction event on this planet; the Holocene Mass Extinction. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. The Holocene extinction event is the widespread ongoing Mass extinction of Species during the modern Holocene epoch.

Destruction of wildlife does not always lead to an extinction of the species in question, however, the dramatic loss of entire species across Earth dominates any review of wildlife destruction as extinction is the level of damage to a wild population from which there is no return.

The four most general reasons that lead to destruction of wildlife include overkill, habitat destruction and fragmentation, impact of introduced species and chains of extinction. ^[1]

Overkill

Overkill occurs whenever hunting occurs at rates greater than the reproductive capacity of the population is being exploited. The effects of this are often noticed much more dramatically in slow growing populations such as many larger species of fish. Initially when a portion of a wild population is hunted, an increased availability of resources (food, etc) is experienced increasing growth and reproduction as Density dependent inhibition is lowered. In Population ecology, density-dependent inhibition describes a situation in which Population growth is curtailed by crowding Hunting, fishing and so on, has lowered the competition between members of a population. For the computer security term see Phishing. Fishing is the activity of catching Fish. However, if this hunting continues at rate greater than the rate at which new members of the population can reach breeding age and produce more young, the population will begin to decrease in numbers. Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region

Populations in confined to islands – whether literal islands or just areas of habitat that are effectively an “island” for the species concerned – have also been observed to be at greater risk of dramatic population declines following unsustainable hunting. Unsustainable fishing methods are ways of catching wild fish that are not considered sustainable in the long term

Habitat destruction and fragmentation

The habitat of any given species is considered its preferred area or territory. A habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits" is an Ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular Species. Many processes associated human habitation of an area cause loss of this area and the decrease the carrying capacity of the land for that species. In many cases these changes in land use cause a patchy break-up of the wild landscape. Agricultural land frequently displays this type of extremely fragmented, or relictual, habitat. Farms sprawl across the landscape with patches of uncleared woodland or forest dotted in-between occasional paddocks.

Examples of habitat destruction include grazing of bushland by farmed animals, changes to natural fire regimes, forest clearing for timber production and wetland draining for city expansion.

Impact of introduced species

Mice, cats, rabbits, dandelions and poison ivy are all examples of species that have become invasive threats to wild species in various parts of the world. Rabbits are small Mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world Frequently species that are uncommon in their home range become out-of-control invasions in distant but similar climates. The reasons for this have not always been clear and Charles Darwin felt it was unlikely that exotic species would ever be able to grow abundantly in a place in which they had not evolved. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life The reality is that the vast majority of species exposed to a new habitat do not reproduce successfully. Occasionally, however, some populations do take hold and after a period of acclimation can increase in numbers significantly, having destructive effects on many elements of the native environment of which they have become part.

Chains of extinction

This final group is one of secondary effects. All wild populations of living things have many complex intertwining links with other living things around them. Large herbivorous animals such as the hippopotamus have populations of insectivorous birds that feed off the many parasitic insects that grow on the hippo. The hippopotamus ( Hippopotamus amphibius) from the Greek ἱπποπόταμος ( hippopotamos, ιππος hippos meaning "horse" An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of Insects and similar small creatures Should the hippo die out so to will these groups of birds, leading to further destruction as other species dependent on the birds are affected. Also referred to as a Domino effect, this series of chain reactions is by far the most destructive process that can occur in any ecological community. This article is about chain reactions. For the political theory, see Domino Theory. A chain reaction is a sequence of Reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place A biocoenosis (alternatively biocoenose or biocenose) termed by Karl Möbius in 1877 describes all the interacting Organisms living together

See also

• Biodiversity
• Biosphere Expeditions
• Conservation biology
• Conservation ecology
• Endangered species
• Ex-situ conservation
• In-situ conservation
• Gene pool
• Genetic pollution
• Genetic erosion
• List of wildlife artists
• National Wildlife Federation
• Natural history
• Ornithology
• Wildlife disease
• Wildlife gardening
• Wildlife management
• Wildness

Notes