WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

Study Wildlife Conservation via Distance Education - NEW COURSE

Do you want a career in Wildlife Conservation? This foundation course is a great starting point to get you familiar with the principles of Wildlife Conservation.  In this course you will gain a working knowledge of the major components of species and ecosystem conservation such as:

Learning about the conservation of wild environments, animals, and flora involves understanding threats like habitat loss and pollution, and learning about solutions such as protecting habitats through reserves, restoring damaged ecosystems, and participating in conservation efforts. This includes appreciating the importance of biodiversity, which provides essential resources like clean air, water, and food, and learning about the specific needs and threats to various species and ecosystems.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Wildlife Conservation
2. Recovery of Threatened Species
3. Habitat Conservation
4. Approaches to Conservation of Threatened Wildlife
5. Vegetation Surveys
6. Fauna Surveys
7. Marine Surveys
8. Planning for Wildlife
9. Managing Threatened Wildlife Populations
10. Wildlife Conservation Project

Aims

• Determine guiding principles of wildlife conservation and the threats to wildlife.
• Determine ways to achieve species recovery.
• Discuss the principles of habitat conservation
• Discuss fragmentation, restoration and the use of protected areas.
• Describe and discuss the various approaches used to conserve threatened species and ecosystems.
• Explain a range of flora survey techniques developed for conservation purposes.
• Differentiate between a variety of different fauna survey techniques.
• Discuss fauna survey techniques that have been developed to sample fauna for conservation purposes.
• Discuss survey techniques used to conserve wildlife in marine environments.
• Discuss different planning tools that are available to help conservation of wildlife in farming, urban and residential planning.
• Identify management techniques used in the conservation of different types of wildlife.
• Develop a recovery plan for a threatened species of wildlife.

Some of the things threatening wildlife conservation today

Habitat Fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation, as the name suggests it the fragmenting or disruption of continuity of a species’ habitat. This can be caused by natural processes such as geological processes which over time alter the layout of the physical environment. However, in the last 200 years, the major cause of habitat fragmentation is the change in land use by humans.

Habitat patch size and distribution can have significant impacts on the distribution, social structure and the inevitable survival of wildlife populations. With the clearing of land worldwide for cultivation and urban/residential development, wildlife habitats are being broken up into smaller and more isolated patches. This fragmentation can isolate populations from one another, stopping genetic flow and therefore weakening the genetic diversity of species. This can lead to reduced fitness of a population (inbreeding depression) and can make the population more susceptible to the effects of disease and other external factors. An example of this is evident in a small isolated population of African lions in Tanzania. Due to inbreeding depression, the males of this population produced abnormal sperm which then led to their declined reproductive success.

Reduction in habitat size also leads to the increased length of habitat edges. These are the zones between two or more plant communities. Many wildlife species make use of edges. The influence these two habitat types have on one another along this boundary is known as the 'edge effect'. This edge can be beneficial for some species when it provides access to two different habitats in a small area as there are greater resources available per unit of area. These edges can also have a negative impact on some species, particularly when there is a large edge bordering disturbed land. Forest fires, higher rates of predation and infestation by pioneer plant species are more likely to occur along the edges of habitat.

Habitat Degradation and Loss
Habitat degradation can be defined as the slow decline or attrition of habitat suitability. The process of habitat degradation can eventually lead to habitat loss. It is a key threatening process affecting many species worldwide and is believed to be the main cause of species extinction and endangerment on a global scale. Around 60% of ecosystems on earth are now considered degraded or unsustainable due to human activity. This includes both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Habitat degradation can be split into two types.

The loss of habitat is the major impact leading to the endangerment of many species worldwide. Human populations are continually transforming land with approximately half of the earth’s land area already transformed for human use. This can be divided into 11% for farming and forestry, 26% for livestock pasture and the remaining 63% for development such as housing, industry, services and transport. Forest cover has changed worldwide decreasing by around 670,000 km2 between 1980 and 1995. Although countries such as North America are experiencing forest growth, the quality of forest habitat is declining.

Two thirds of the world’s rivers have been changed and flow has been regulated. Many of the wetlands worldwide have been drained or filled. In countries such as Central and South America, the rate of wetland loss is still quite high.

Effects of habitat loss
Many ecologists have identified links between area size and species richness. Therefore, the loss of habitat can not only affect individual species but species richness. Trends identified between species richness and area size are:

Habitat loss and degradation is a significant issue facing conservationists and will be discussed in greater detail in later lessons.

Soil Degradation
The degradation and erosion of soil is considered by leading ecologists to be the second largest global environmental problem after population growth. The conversion of land to cropping across the world has had a major impact on soil quality. This is a significant issue in areas where the soil is not suitable for cropping in the first place.

When plants (trees and shrubs) are cleared from a site, soil is exposed to sunlight and the eroding effects of wind and water. Soil aeration is increased and the rate of weathering increases. Apart from erosion, the proportion of organic matter in the soil gradually decreases, through the action of microbes in the soil which use it as a source of energy ‑ unless the new land use provides some replacement. 

Pollution
Pollution can take many forms (e.g. water, air, soil) and have various devastating impacts on individuals and diversity. Some of these impacts are difficult to ascertain. For example, it will not be known for many years what the actual extent of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 will have on marine and bird life that are dependent on the surrounding environment.

Marine Degradation
Pollution and degradation of marine and coastal environments is mainly caused by land-based activities. The main pollution pressures are derived from human settlement, population growth and urbanisation along coastal areas. These produce pollution in the forms of:

Sea Grasses and Coral Reef habitats are important breeding and foraging habitats for aquatic creatures. These habitats are being degraded by the dumping of dredge wastes and discharge of silt from adjacent coastal rivers. These are reducing the amount of light available to sea grass and coral therefore limiting their ability to grow.

Climate Change
Climate change is largely due to greenhouse gases produced through human activity. Greenhouse gases reduce the amount of heat being released into space and absorb heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Changes in climate include increased average air and ocean temperatures, melting of snow and ice and rising sea levels. Ocean circulation and atmospheric changes have also altered global rainfall and wind patterns. During the last 100 years, the global average surface temperature increased by about 0.7°C. Although this increase seems small, it has a large impact on the earth’s climate.

Climate change has social, economical and environmental impacts. Countries such as Australia are more vulnerable to climate change due to the arid nature of the continent. Two of the major changes are:

Hydrological changes - changes in the hydrological cycle at regional and global scales. This contributes to the reduced amount of water stored as ice in glaciers and changes in rainfall patterns.

Biological changes – changes in the range of plant and animal species to higher latitudes and altitudes. Changes in species composition and abundance as well as flowering timing and migration.

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