Wildlife Corridors :: Wildlife Habitats Conservation Biology Essays

Wildlife Corridors With the continuously accelerating rate in the loss of wildlife habitat, there is a concern which greets the upcoming century. The problem with the presently remaining "untouched" wilderness is that large whole pieces of wild habitat end up manipulated to suit the needs of human populations. Often times mismanagement of land, besides the mere intrusion into a delicate habitat, exerts stress upon it’s state of equilibrium; so much so that certain species within an area become at risk for extinction. Depending on the stability and degree of interspecie dependency, the extinction of a couple of species of animals could lead to the gradual eventual degradation of that habitat. The focus of many leading conservation biologists within the last three to four decades has been on the study of different factors and dimensions that influence the extinction rate of different types of wild habitat. By understanding the factors and dimensions involved in the maintenance of habitat stability , conservationists may be able to more accurately explain how fragmentation effect specific types of habitat and population, and more accurately predict the effects of proposed conservation projects. Now as we enter a new era with frightening statistics on environmental destruction, conservationists are calling for quick action to slow down the rate of extinction and habitat fragmentation. The present popular proposed solution is for the construction of dispersal corridors, which will reconnect pieces of isolated habitat and reduce the rate of wildlife extinction. There is not enough available material to support this proposal but there is also not enough to prove it unworthy either. Although this is not the only solution to the problem, it is the most appealing to conservation biologists who desire to protect and reclaim wilderness quickly. Thus, ecological corridors is a critical topic of debate because it has become a popular concept taken very seriously by radical conservationis ts who are in a haste to implement the plan but who do not have sufficient data to prove that it might not counter their predictions and, as many skeptics fear, prove detrimental for habitat restoration. CORRIDOR ANALYSIS AND DESIGN Analysis In regions where habitat is fragmented by urbanization, cattle grazing, deforestation, etc., animals need a natural temporarily sustainable pathway for movement and migration in order to prevent either chances of inbreeding or overexploitation of prey. (1,3) Corridors act as a source of connectivity between two or more isolated habitat patches, making a natural landscape more confluent.