Yes, to varying degrees. Many animals can live in altered habitats, such as chickdees, magpies, crows, coyotes.. etc. Their populations often do better in altered habitats because the forest is opened up and thus they can hunt better (in the case of magpies and crows). But, that said, their NATURAL habitat is slowly decreasing.
Natural habitats of other animals such as the prairie grizzly is gone completely and therefore these animals are expatriated (meaning they don't exist anymore). They used to live in the prairie regions of Canada but because of the spread of agriculture, they can no longer function in their previous range. Similarly, bison (also known as North American buffalo) used to range across Canada and the US but their habitat is gone, again due to agriculture.
It seems that human need for development causes a loss of habitat for most animals. Where I live, there is a lot of oil and gas but because of all the drilling and development to extract this oil and gas, we are fragmenting our forests into smaller chunks. This in turn affects the way many birds move through the landscape and in some cases, causes them to loose their nesting habitats - which means fewer chicks survive and the populations of those birds decrease. Also, in some cases, predators (such as wolves or cougars) use areas of forest that have been opened up (where trees are removed to allow large equipment to move into the forest). Of course, the prey (say for example a deer or caribou) also use these opened up forest paths because it's easier to move. There is therefore, often a greater chance that a predator and prey will encounter eachother.. which artificially decreases the prey population.
So it might seem that even though there is a lot of forest (or prairie, or whatever other type of habitat an animal lives in), any kind of alteration seems to alter the way animals interact and therefore populations of animals are often affected.
2007-10-16 06:48:20
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answer #1
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answered by elementoflife 6
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Yes.
Every farm, golf course, road, city, house, shopping center is sitting on land that was once wildlife habitat. Every time we build somethings new or clear new farm land we of necessity destroy wildlife habitat.
2007-10-16 13:32:41
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answer #3
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answered by campbelp2002 7
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Is this a blond question???
and i dont know what you mean by this =another thing, what animal do you feel it has the most effect towards?
I am sure many animals feel unhappy or are dead,as to which specie is affected the most.there are many hundreds of thousands to chose from.
THE PERILS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD
just think that before most of the world was covered in forests and plains that were full of animals .
How does it look today everywhere you see cities,towns,farming or roads used to be animal habitats .
So yes animal habitats have been disapearing since the beginning of humanity.
But now it is getting a bit much ,we appear to be a little greedy with what territories we as humans should ocupy and what we will leave for the animals ,it is even doubtfull if we will leave anything at all ,if you read this link about the production of ethanol.http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgGbjrIOcXiyXBpr6j7qlDLsy6IX?qid=20070618163201AAyuI69
Of the earth's estimated 10 million species, 300,000 have vanished in the past 50 years. each years, 3,000 to 30,000 species become extinct.not counting micro biotic species.
a lot of human activity is speeding that up since we tend to overpower all the other species in one way or another.
Some reasons why animals are being wiped out ,in the forrests are:the hunting of exotic species for the consumer market ,only about 10% of the animals caught survive
The hunting of animals for food by settlers.
AND LOSS OF HABITAT
Forest fires ,that have started because of slash and burning of forrest ,to clear the land for farming and had gotten out of control or by careles visitors.so much habitat got destroyed.
The loss of Habitat because the conditions have changed ,e.g less humidity because of surrounding farmlands ,or overpumping of rivers for human use(farming and utility)
In Africa and Mexico whole rivcers have dried up,changing the whole world for the animals destroyng their food and shelter.
Many hippos are with out homes or in shrunken territories ,because rivers drying up or because of invading expanding human settlements ,and have now been rated the most agressive specie in Africa that has killed the most number of people .
Contamination of the waters also accounts for animals dying or moving elsewhere.
So expanding populations and subsequent expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the growing demand for food, are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's
clearing them for farming and settlement areas .
In Mexico is a famous jungle called Lacandona,that the Media has been trying to save for years ,there are repeated apeals on the television as i speak ,and this was already going on a year ago.
The Naturalists , the government(soldiers) ,keep watch .laws are made for protection the wild and to forbid logging.
TV put out a series of documentaries
there are campaigns in the News papers
and all of this has not made the slightest difference,thousands of hectares are lost anually.By slash and burn farmers and unscroupulous logging companies that obtain permits from corupted oficials or pay huge briberies to the local guardians.
Rainforest's and desely polutated animal territories are mostly in third world countries,where corruption and the need for money is highest
The jungles gets smaller by the day, more and more farmers move in .and burn the trees, it is an impossible situation
As long as there is poverty in these regions the destruction will continue ,but rich countries are also involved in the destruction.
The Animals will continue to be trapped ,as long as people keep buying the exotic animals ,and there is a market.
OTHER REASONS FOR ANIMAL DEATHS
And now many animals are becoming sick because of changes in temperature ,big changes are happening at micro biotic levels,affecting all the follows,first the insects,and so
vital links in the food chains are disapearing affecting other species further along in the chain
90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out.
Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain." The studies also revealed that the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent.
If bees continue to die off so would the crops they support and with that would ensue major economic disruption and possibly famine.
Bees are not the only polinators but if these things are happening to bees we can bet on it that other insects are also in trouble ,on top of this many people are spraying for mosquitos ,with drastic effects .
Only time will tell what is in store for us ,and that time is running now .
2007-10-16 15:06:21
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answer #4
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answered by Anonymous
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