Symbiosis with Nature is Critical by Fresia Cook

Have you ever been to a zoo and wondered why a certain animal was there? Why it couldn’t be in the wild with the rest of its species? One of the more common causes for an animal to be brought into captivity is because their habitat was destroyed by a force like deforestation. We as humans automatically search for ways to expand our lives, gathering more and more resources to advance, but shouldn’t we stop and think about the other beings on this plane and how we are affecting them? I believe that people are negatively affecting animals in a variety of forms, and we need to change our ways in order to preserve the many diverse species on the planet.

When habitats are destroyed, aspects provided by natural habitats can be much harder to replicate if an animal is taken into captivity, causing the animal to be less happy than they would in the wild. An example of this is tree hollows that many animals use for survival. “More than 300 bird, mammal, reptile and frog species need the holes to survive. “They can’t live anywhere else,” says David Lindenmayer. He is an ecologist at Australian National University in Canberra. “They use them for everything.” (Kwok) Lindenmayer explains a very good point here. While we are destroying much of the nature on this planet, we need to consider how much can be undone. Animals such as this frog species are seriously threatened by deforestation. It is also true that replications of things such as tree hollows can be very hard to recreate in captivity.

Many different types of animals are in danger, but some most notably because the amount of forests covering our planet are decreasing. This is elaborated on in the following quote. “Moreover, mountaintop surveys of vertebrates showed that species are disappearing along with the trees, highlighting the global threat to biodiversity by human causes.” (Lundeberg) Species disappearance and lack of biodiversity can be linked back to humans and their effects on the environment around them. If we can’t stop things like plastic waste, we will just continue to wreck nature for our own purposes. This can be brought back to the thought of animals suffering at the hands of humans, whether in the wild or not.

In the past, we may have thought that simply putting animals in an enclosure “preserves” their species, but we now know this is not the case, they need more care than that. (Sullivan) Over time, we have acquired more and more knowledge of the diverse needs of the species on the planet. Many types of animals are being driven out of their homes, and we are responsible to help them and preserve their lives.

When asking peers about their opinions on this issue, “8 of the 14 students surveyed believed that animals going endangered/extinct was the most pressing issue of the situations presented.” Data such as this helps pull the point across that there are certain issues that need much more attention than others. One student talked about how deforestation both negatively impacts animals and nature, mentioning how crazy it is that the Amazon is being destroyed at such a rapid rate. We need to take a closer look into our processes and what needs to be done in order to right some of these wrongs that we have created.

Although some people argue that zoos are the solution to the effects of deforestation on animals and do improve their lives, this is unfair to the animals because they are subjected to life in captivity with limited hopes of being able to return to their natural habitat. Imagine your own pet dog having to live in a zoo, or worse, live in the wild in a place where they can’t survive because of a lack of resources. Land that is being occupied by forests could certainly be used for other things such as housing livestock or crops, but often we get rid of pieces of nature without thinking of the animals and nature that will be affected. (Ronca) While yes, deforestation is a somewhat essential process that needs to happen in order for the survival and progression of the human race, we need to be more conscious about how we are taking care of our planet and its inhabitants.

In the end, what we do on our planet and to other organisms ultimately affects us. We need to be more mindful of where we are taking resources from as well as taking better care of the animals that do end up in our care. If we continue at such a rapid rate as we are, there is no doubt that most forests and the animals that reside within them will be gone.

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