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73-449: Meadows attract a multitude of wildlife , and support flora and fauna that could not thrive in other habitats. They are ecologically important as they provide areas for animal courtship displays , nesting , food gathering, pollinating insects, and sometimes sheltering, if the vegetation is high enough. Intensified agricultural practices (too frequent mowing, use of mineral fertilizers, manure and insecticides), may lead to declines in

146-530: A laissez-faire position, which argues that humans should not harm wild animals but that humans should not intervene to reduce natural harms that they experience. This subsection focuses on anthropogenic forms of wildlife destruction. The loss of animals from ecological communities is also known as defaunation . Exploitation of wild populations has been a characteristic of modern man since our exodus from Africa 130,000 – 70,000 years ago. The rate of extinctions of entire species of plants and animals across

219-575: A common subject for educational television shows . National Geographic Society specials appeared on CBS since 1965, later moving to American Broadcasting Company and then Public Broadcasting Service . In 1963, NBC debuted Wild Kingdom , a popular program featuring zoologist Marlin Perkins as host. The BBC natural history unit in the United Kingdom was a similar pioneer, the first wildlife series LOOK presented by Sir Peter Scott ,

292-539: A dramatic and rapid growth in recent years worldwide and many elements are closely aligned to eco-tourism and sustainable tourism . Wild animal suffering is suffering experienced by non-human animals living in the wild, outside of direct human control, due to natural processes such as disease , injury , parasitism , starvation , malnutrition , dehydration , weather conditions , natural disasters , killings by other animals , and psychological stress . Some estimates indicate that these individual animals make up

365-507: A few. All of the changes that a plant or an animal may go through are depending in habitat's topography, altitude, and latitude of a specific organism. It is important to monitor properly the plants because they are one of the best bioindicators of how climate change is affecting the planet. Flowering phenology is one of the most important features of plant in order to survive any type of adversity. Thanks to different modern techniques and constant monitoring we can assure which ecological strategy

438-462: A field border, usually composed of a strip of shrubs and vegetation, used to provide food and cover necessary for the survival of wildlife. It has been found that these borders may lead to an increased variety of animals and plants in the area, but also in some cases a decreased yield of crops. In Australian and New Zealand English , any agricultural field may be called a paddock , especially if for keeping sheep or cattle. If stock are grazed there,

511-425: A moderate increase or decrease in precipitation does not radically alter their character. Meanwhile, mesic meadows, with a moderate supply of water do change their character as it is easier to tip them into a different regime. Dry meadows in particular are threatened by the invasion of shrubs and other woody plants and a decreasing prevalence of flowering forbs , whereas hydric sites tend to lose woody species. Due to

584-406: A natural meadow, is one in which environmental factors , such as climatic and soil conditions , are favorable to perennial grasses and restrict the growth of woody plants indefinitely. Types of perpetual meadows may include: Recently, urban areas have been thought of as potential biodiversity conservation sites. The shift from urban lawns, that are widely spread habitats in cities, to urban meadows

657-498: A number of ways, including the legal, social and moral senses. Some animals, however, have adapted to suburban environments. This includes such animals as feral cats , dogs, mice, and rats. Some religions declare certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times, concern for the natural environment has provoked activists to protest against the exploitation of wildlife for human benefit or entertainment. Global wildlife populations have decreased significantly by 68% since 1970 as

730-434: 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. 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

803-620: A result of human activity, particularly overconsumption , population growth , and intensive farming , according to a 2020 World Wildlife Fund 's Living Planet Report and the Zoological Society of London 's Living Planet Index measure, which is further evidence that humans have unleashed a sixth mass extinction event. According to CITES , it has been estimated that annually the international wildlife trade amounts to billions of dollars and it affects hundreds of millions of animal and plant specimen. Wildlife trade refers to

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876-510: A substantial amount of carbon in soil . In agriculture , a meadow is grassland which is not regularly grazed by domestic livestock, but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to produce hay . Their roots extend back to the Iron Age, when appropriate tools for the hay harvest emerged. The ability to produce livestock fodder on meadows had a significant advantage for livestock production, as animals could be kept in enclosures, simplifying

949-406: A warmer climate for a reasonable time period. However, plants that suffer changes of any kind (not only temperature rising and falling) in a short period of time are more likely to die because they did not have enough time to reach thermal acclimation. Meadows can act as substantial sinks and sources of organic carbon, holding vast quantities of it in the soil. The fluxes of carbon depend mainly on

1022-423: Is also the lack of the insulating snow cover, springtime frost events might have a larger negative impact. All the drivers mentioned above give rise to complex, non-linear community responses. These responses can be disentangled by looking at multiple climate drivers and species together. As different species show varying degrees of phenological responses, the consequence is a so-called phenological reassembly, where

1095-839: Is considered its preferred area or territory . Many processes associated with human habitation of an area cause loss of this area and 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. Mice, cats, rabbits, dandelions and poison ivy are all examples of species that have become invasive threats to wild species in various parts of

1168-411: Is crucial to keep in mind that these plants are usually sharing the space and constantly interacting with bryophytes, lichens, arthropods, animals and many other organisms. The result was a clear adaptation of a constant pattern that plants recognized and had time to reach thermal acclimation meaning that they got a net carbon gain by intensifying photosynthesis and slightly increasing respiration thanks to

1241-591: Is home to a vast array of amazing wildlife. However, illegal hunting and trade poses a threat to Malaysia's natural diversity. A November 2008 report from biologist and author Sally Kneidel, PhD, documented numerous wildlife species for sale in informal markets along the Amazon River , including wild-caught marmosets sold for as little as $ 1.60 (5 Peruvian soles). Many Amazon species, including peccaries , agoutis , turtles , turtle eggs, anacondas , armadillos are sold primarily as food. Wildlife has long been

1314-697: Is otherwise considered distinct. A back paddock is a smaller field that is situated away from the farm house; possibly land of lesser quality. The equivalent concept in North America and the UK is a pasture . In Australia, the word seems to have had its current meaning since at least 1807 and in New Zealand since at least 1842. However, the English meaning of "field" was used earlier in Australia and

1387-463: Is still occasionally used. Similarly, meadow was in early use and has appeared later, for example, in 2004. Field remains in regular use in Australasia in expressions such as football field , Field Day and field trip . In a new style of intensive farming developed in North America, a paddock is a small (perhaps 1 acre) temporary subdivision of a pasture made with electric fencing, which

1460-419: Is thought to promote greater refuges for plant and animal communities. Urban lawns require intensive management that puts the life there at risk of losing their habitat, especially due to the mowing frequency. Cutting that mowing frequency has demonstrated to induce a clear positive effect on the plant community's diversity, which allows the switch from urban lawns to urban meadows. Due to increased urbanization,

1533-418: Is widespread and constitutes one of the major illegal economic activities, comparable to the traffic of drugs and weapons . Stone Age people and hunter-gatherers relied on wildlife, both plants and animals, for their food. In fact, some species may have been hunted to extinction by early human hunters. Today, hunting, fishing, and gathering wildlife is still a significant food source in some parts of

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1606-497: The pasture , which differs from the meadow in that it is grazed through the summer, rather than being allowed to grow out and periodically be cut for hay. A pasture can also refer to any land used for grazing, and in this wider sense the term refers not only to grass pasture but also to non-grassland habitats such as heathland , moorland and wood pasture . The term, grassland , is used to describe both hay meadows and grass pastures. The specific agricultural practices in relation to

1679-561: The EU Biodiversity Strategy 2017 decreed that there is a need to protect all ecosystems due to climate change. The majority of the people that live in the urban regions of any country usually get their plant knowledge from visiting parks and or public green infrastructure. Local authorities have the duty of providing the green spaces for the public, but these departments are constantly suffering major budget cuts, making it more difficult for people to admire natural wildlife in

1752-561: The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy subsidizes their management, mostly through grazing. A transitional meadow occurs when a field , pasture , farmland , or other cleared land is no longer cut or grazed and starts to display luxuriant growth, extending to the flowering and self-seeding of its grass and wildflower species. The condition is however only temporary, because the grasses eventually become shaded out when scrub and woody plants become well-established, being

1825-869: The US have dominated the market for shows about wildlife on cable television, while on Public Broadcasting Service the NATURE strand made by WNET-13 in New York and NOVA by WGBH in Boston are notable. Wildlife television is now a multimillion-dollar industry with specialist documentary film-makers in many countries including UK, US, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Germany, Japan, and Canada. There are many magazines and websites which cover wildlife including National Wildlife , Birds & Blooms , Birding , wildlife.net , and Ranger Rick for children. Many animal species have spiritual significance in different cultures around

1898-531: The abundance of organisms and species diversity. There are multiple types of meadows, including agricultural, transitional, and perpetual – each playing a unique and important part of the ecosystem . Like other biomes , meadows will experience increased pressure (including on their biodiversity ) due to climate change , especially as precipitation and weather conditions change. However, grasslands and meadows also have an important climate change mitigation potential as carbon sinks ; deep-rooted grasses store

1971-506: The back of cattle, which helps to keep them disease-free. Destroying the nesting habitats of these birds would cause a decrease in the cattle population because of the spread of insect-borne diseases. Field (agriculture) In agriculture , a field is an area of land, enclosed or otherwise, used for agricultural purposes such as cultivating crops or as a paddock or other enclosure for livestock . A field may also be an area left to lie fallow or as arable land . Many farms have

2044-552: The cap-and-trade program in California is looking at how meadow restorations can be incorporated into their system of reducing carbon emissions. Audubon's preliminary studies point to the potential of storing a substantially increased amount of soil carbon compared to degraded meadows while boosting the local biodiversity. Most recently though, during the COVID-19 pandemic, difficulties with restoration are beginning to show: During

2117-479: The carbon dioxide efflux during the non-growing season may take place. Both climate change and overgrazing factor into the degradation. As exemplified by the alpine wetland meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, there is the potential of being a moderate source of CO 2 and a carbon sink, due to high soil organic content and low decomposition. The more the dynamics have been quantified, however,

2190-466: The case for multiyear species, which were previously considered to have a buffering effect on extreme weather events. There is a variety of hydrological regimes for meadows, ranging from dry to humid, each yielding different plant communities adapted to the respective provider of water. A shift in precipitation patterns has very different effects, depending on the type of meadow. Meadows that are either dry or wet appear to be rather resilient to change, as

2263-568: The competition between members of a population. 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 . Populations that are 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 rise of deaths declines following unsustainable hunting . The habitat of any given species

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2336-472: The context of the philosophy of religion as an instance of the problem of evil . More recently, starting in the 19th century, a number of writers have considered the subject from a secular standpoint as a general moral issue, that humans might be able to help prevent. There is considerable disagreement around taking such action, as many believe that human interventions in nature should not take place because of practicality, valuing ecological preservation over

2409-696: The control over breeding. Surpluses in biomass production during the summer could be stored for the winter, preventing damages to forests and grasslands as there was no longer the need for livestock grazing during the winter. Especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland , the term meadow is commonly used in its original sense to mean a hay meadow , signifying grassland mown annually in the summer for making hay . Agricultural meadows are typically lowland or upland fields upon which hay or pasture grasses grow from self-sown or hand-sown seed. Traditional hay meadows were once common in rural Britain, but are now in decline. Ecologist Professor John Rodwell states that over

2482-449: The dryer upper soil layers, forbs with shallow roots have difficulties obtaining enough water. Woody plants in contrast with their lower-reaching root systems can still extract water stored in lower soil layers and are able to sustain themselves through longer drought periods with their stored water reserves. In the longer term, changing hydrologic regimes may also facilitate the establishment of invasive species that may be better adapted to

2555-413: The ecology and the landscape for millennia in many parts of the world, so it can sometimes be difficult to discern what is natural and what is cultural. Meadows are one example. However, meadows seem to have been sustained historically by naturally occurring large grazers, which kept plant growth in checked and maintained the cleared space. As extensive farming like grazing is diminishing in some parts of

2628-471: The effects of degradation become more tangible. A strong connection between grass land degradation and soil carbon loss has been seen, pinpointing that carbon dioxide release is being stimulated by this event. This subsequently indicates a climate change mitigation potential by restoring degraded grassland. Being a market-based regulation of emissions, the cap-and-trade system can sometimes incorporate restoration projects for climate mitigation. For example,

2701-483: The environment to survive. Climate change is increasing temperatures all over the world, and boreal regions are more susceptible to suffer noticeable changes. An experiment was conducted to monitor the reaction of alpine arctic meadow plants to different patterns of increased temperatures. This experiment was based on vascular plants that live in arctic and subarctic environments within three different levels of vegetation: canopy layer, bottom layer and functional groups. It

2774-526: The estimated overall effect results in an offset of the total emission. Meanwhile, a usual driver of meadow loss (except for direct alterations due to human development) is climate change , consequently increasing carbon emissions and bringing up the topic of restoration projects which in some cases have prompted initiated meadow restorations (e.g. Zostera marina meadow in Virginia U.S.A). Where grassland degradation has occurred, significant alterations to

2847-604: The first years, areas under restoration are vulnerable to outside disruption, like meadow management put on hold when the ecosystem is most sensitive, for example to invasive species. Wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species , but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans . Wildlife was also synonymous to game : those birds and mammals that were hunted for sport . Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems . Deserts , plains , grasslands , woodlands , forests , and other areas including

2920-619: The forerunners of the return to a fully wooded state. A transitional state can be artificially-maintained through a double-field system, in which cultivated soil and meadows are alternated for a period of 10 to 12 years each. In North America prior to European colonization , Algonquians , Iroquois and other Native Americans peoples regularly cleared areas of forest to create transitional meadows where deer and game could find food and be hunted . For example, some of today's meadows originated thousands of years ago, due to regular burnings by Native Americans. A perpetual meadow, also called

2993-517: The many parasitic insects that grow on the hippo. Should the hippo die out, so too 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 . Another example is the black drongos and the cattle egrets found in India. These birds feed on insects on

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3066-597: The meadow can take on various expressions. As mentioned, this could be hay production or providing food for grazing cattle and livestock but also to give room for orchards or honey production. Meadows are embedded and dependent on a complex web of socio-cultural conditions for their maintenance. Historically, they emerged to increase agricultural efficiency when the necessary tools became available. Today, agricultural practices have shifted and meadows have largely lost their original purpose. Yet, they are appreciated today for their aesthetics and ecological functions. Consequently,

3139-789: The meadows of the town of Zakopane, Poland, were noted to have altered soil compositions. The soil's organic material had faded away and was affected due to the chemicals from the artificial melting water from the snow and skiing machinery. Climate changes impact temperature precipitation patterns worldwide. The effects are regionally very different but generally, temperatures tend to increase, snowpacks tend to melt earlier and many places tend to become drier. Many species respond to these changes by slowly moving their habitat upwards. The increased elevation decreases mean temperatures and thus allows for species to largely maintain their original habitat. Another common response to changed environmental conditions are phenological adaptations. These include shifts in

3212-553: The most developed urban areas , 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 much wildlife is affected by human activities . Some wildlife threaten human safety, health, property and quality of life . However, many wild animals, even the dangerous ones, have value to human beings. This value might be economic, educational, or emotional in nature. Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in

3285-500: The natural cycle of carbon uptake and efflux, which interplays with seasonal variations (e.g. non-growing vs growing season). The wide range of meadow subtypes have in turn differing attributes (like plant configurations) affecting the area's ability to act as sinks; seagrass meadows are for instant identified as some of the more important sinks in the global carbon cycle . In the instance of seagrass meadows, enhanced production of other greenhouse gases (CH 4 and N 2 O) does occur but

3358-407: The natural, pristine populations of free-roaming large grazers are either extinct or very limited due to human activities. This reduces or removes their natural influence on the surrounding ecology and results in meadows only being created or maintained by human intervention. Existing meadows could potentially and gradually decline, if unmaintained by agricultural practices. Humankind has influenced

3431-593: The new conditions. The effects are already quite visible, an example is the substitution of Alpine meadows in the southern Himalayas through shrubland. Climate change appears to be an important driver of this process. Wetter winters in contrast might increase total biomass, but favour already competitive species. By harming specialised plants and promoting the prevalence of more generalist species, more unstable precipitation patterns could also reduce ecological biodiversity. Snow covers are directly related to changes in temperature, precipitation and cloud cover. Still, changes in

3504-545: The past century, England and Wales have lost about 97% of their hay meadows. Fewer than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of lowland meadows remain in the UK and most sites are relatively small and fragmented. 25% of the UK's meadows are found in Worcestershire , with Foster's Green Meadow managed by the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust being a major site. A similar concept to the hay meadow is

3577-611: The planet has been so high in the last few hundred years that it is widely believed that a sixth great extinction event ("the Holocene Mass Extinction ") is currently ongoing. The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , published by the United Nations ' Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services , says that roughly one million species of plants and animals face extinction within decades as

3650-422: The plants are using in order to multiply their species. In alpine meadow of the eastern Tibet notorious variances and similarities were observed between annual and perennial plants. Where perennial plants flowering peak date was directly proportional to the duration and inversely proportional in annuals plants. This is just a limited quantity of many relationships on phenology and functional traits interacting with

3723-408: The plants could influence population of buffalo just as numerous other more creatures, including bugs and insects. In response to temperature changes, flowering plants can respond through either spatial or temporal shifts. A spatial shift refers to the migration towards colder areas, often on higher altitudes. A temporal shift means that a plant may alter its phenology to blossom at a different time of

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3796-576: The products that are derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, tissues such as skins, bones or meat, or other products. Legal wildlife trade is regulated by the United Nations ' Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which currently has 184 member countries called Parties . Illegal wildlife trade

3869-435: 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. Hunting, fishing and so on, have lowered

3942-793: The result of human actions. Subsequent studies have discovered that the destruction of wildlife is "significantly more alarming" than previously believed, with some 48% of 70,000 monitored animal species experiencing population declines as the result of human industrialization. According to a 2023 study published in PNAS , "immediate political, economic, and social efforts of an unprecedented scale are essential if we are to prevent these extinctions and their societal impacts." 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. Overkill happens whenever hunting occurs at rates greater than

4015-444: The short-term changes observed on meadows "as a shift in the mosaic of the landscape composition". Therefore, it is important to monitor not only how specific species respond to climate change, but to also investigate them in the context of different habitats they occur in. Animals as well as plants are changing rapidly to the anthropogenic global warming, and the number of individuals, habitat occupancy, changing reproductive cycles are

4088-457: The space may be called a run , e.g. sheep run ; cattle run . The term paddock is used more specifically in animal husbandry for a system in which grazing land is divided into small areas, paddocks, and the stock graze each paddock in turn for a short period. Paddock grazing systems may be designed with, for example, 6 or 11 paddocks used in rotation. A paddock is normally fenced, usually by wire, and often defined by its natural boundaries, or

4161-438: The strategies to adapt to this severe and unpredictable environment alterations. The different types of meadows all around the planet are different communities of plants (perennial and annual plants) that constantly are interacting with each other to stay alive and reproduce. Timing and duration of flowering is one of the phenological reassembly driven by many different factors like snow melt, temperature and soil moisture to mention

4234-489: The structure of the ecosystem changes fundamentally. Phenological responses in blossoming periods of certain plants may not coincide with the phenological shifts of their pollinators or growing periods of plant communities relying on each other may start to diverge. A study of meadows in the Rocky Mountains revealed the emergence of a mid-season period with little floral activity. Specifically, the study identified that

4307-789: The three days of Eid. In Christianity the Bible has a variety of animal symbols, the Lamb is a famous title of Jesus. In the New Testament the Gospels Mark , Luke and John have animal symbols: "Mark is a lion, Luke is a bull and John is an eagle." Wildlife tourism is an element of many nations' travel industry centered around observation and interaction with local animal and plant life in their natural habitats. While it can include eco - and animal-friendly tourism, safari hunting and similar high-intervention activities also fall under

4380-407: The timing of germination or blossoming. Other examples include for example changing migration patterns of birds of passage. These adaptations are primarily influenced by three drivers: In the meadows, as water turned out to be all the more scant, that implies less dampness for the plants. The blooming plants do not develop too and hence do not give much food to the creatures. These kinds of changes in

4453-428: The timing of the snowmelt seem to be, particularly in alpine regions, an important determinant for phenological responses. There is even data suggesting that the impact of snowmelt is even higher than the warming alone. Earlier are not uniformly positive for plants though, as moisture injected through snow-melt might be missing later in the year. Additionally, it might allow for longer periods of seed predation. Problematic

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4526-465: The typical mid-summer floral peak was composed out of several consecutive peaks in dry, mesic and wet meadow systems. Phenological responses to climate change let these distinct peaks diverge, leading to a gap during mid-summer. This poses a threat to pollinators relying on a continuous supply of floral resources. As ecological communities are often highly adapted to local circumstances which can not be reproduced at higher elevations, Debinski et al. describe

4599-487: The umbrella of wildlife tourism. Wildlife tourism , in its simplest sense, is interacting with wild animals in their natural habitat , either actively (e.g. hunting/collection) or passively (e.g. watching/photography). Wildlife tourism is an important part of the tourism industries in many countries including many African and South American countries, Australia , India , Canada , Indonesia , Bangladesh , Malaysia , Sri Lanka and Maldives among many. It has experienced

4672-490: The urban sectors and also impairing the local ecosystem. In line with the increasing acceptance of a "messier urban aesthetic", the perennial meadows can be seen as a more realistic alternative to the classic urban lawns as they would also be more cost-efficient to maintain. Factors that managers of urban spaces list as important to regard are: Artificially or culturally conceived meadows emerge from and continually require human intervention to persist and flourish. In many places,

4745-845: The use of fertilizers. For example, in 2018 environmental organizations with the support of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs of England, concerned by the decline in the number of bees worldwide, in the first day of Bees' Needs Week 2018 (9–15 July) give some recommendation how to preserve bees. The recommendations include 1) growing flowers, shrubs, and trees, 2) letting the garden grow wild, 3) cutting grass less often, 4) leaving insect nest and hibernation spots alone, and 5) using careful consideration with pesticides. The impact of human activity has been noted to increase degradation of meadow soil. This has contributed to landslides in Sholas . E.g. due to skiing activities and urbanization,

4818-509: The vast majority of animals in existence. An extensive amount of natural suffering has been described as an unavoidable consequence of Darwinian evolution , as well as the pervasiveness of reproductive strategies , which favor producing large numbers of offspring, with a low amount of parental care and of which only a small number survive to adulthood, the rest dying in painful ways, has led some to argue that suffering dominates happiness in nature. The topic has historically been discussed in

4891-487: The well-being and interests of individual animals, considering any obligation to reduce wild animal suffering implied by animal rights to be absurd, or viewing nature as an idyllic place where happiness is widespread. Some have argued that such interventions would be an example of human hubris , or playing God , and use examples of how human interventions, for other reasons, have unintentionally caused harm. Others, including animal rights writers, have defended variants of

4964-517: The world, and they and their products may be used as sacred objects in religious rituals. For example, eagles, hawks and their feathers have great cultural and spiritual value to Native Americans as religious objects. In Hinduism the cow is regarded as sacred. Muslims conduct sacrifices on Eid al-Adha , to commemorate the sacrificial spirit of Ibrāhīm in Islam ( Arabic-Abraham ) in love of God . Camels, sheep, goats may be offered as sacrifice during

5037-582: The world, the meadow is endangered as a habitat. A number of research projects attempt to restore natural meadow habitats by reintroducing natural, large grazers. These include deer , elk , goat , wild horse , etc. depending on the location. A more exotic example with a wider scope is the European Tauros Programme . Some environmental organization recommend converting lawns to meadows by stopping or reducing mowing. They claim that meadows can better preserve biodiversity , water, reduce

5110-490: 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. 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

5183-476: The world. In other areas, hunting and non-commercial fishing are mainly seen as a sport or recreation. Meat sourced from wildlife that is not traditionally regarded as game is known as bushmeat . 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. Malaysia

5256-492: The year. By moving towards the early spring or late autumn they can restore their previous temperature conditions. These adaptations are limited through. Spatial shifts may be difficult if the areas are already inhabited by other species, or when the plant is reliant on specific hydrology or soil type. Other authors have shown that higher temperatures can increase total biomass, but temperature shocks and instability seem to have negative impacts on biodiversity. This even appears to be

5329-637: Was a studio-based show, with filmed inserts. David Attenborough first made his appearance in this series, which was followed by the series Zoo Quest during which he and cameraman Charles Lagus went to many exotic places looking for and filming elusive wildlife—notably the Komodo dragon in Indonesia and lemurs in Madagascar. Since 1984, the Discovery Channel and its spinoff Animal Planet in

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