Though us humans are technically the rulers of the animal kingdom, we aren’t the most considerate to our subjects.
It isn’t new news that the industrial and technological revolutions have left a lot of mother nature’s creatures sidelined. Animals of all kinds are becoming endangered and consequently extinct at a faster rate than ever before, without any signs of slowing down.
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We’re guilty of destroying a lot of habitat.
Things like deforestation, industrial projects taking place in wetland areas, and the removal of legislature that protects national parks exhilarate the natural rate at which animals die off, making it so they cannot reproduce fast enough to keep their population numbers stable.
A recent study suggests that humans are even changing the natural sleep cycle of certain mammals.
Ecologists at the University of California, Berkeley published a study in Science Magazine suggesting that animals are adjusting their behavior to avoid interaction with humans.
Specially, a number of animals that used to have a similar sleep schedule to us, are now becoming nocturnal.
The report cites activities like camping and hiking as major catalysts for these changes.
Leader of the study Kaitlyn M. Gaynor explained that animals have been adjusting to human interference by “moving less, retreating to remote areas, and spending less time looking for food.”
“We may think that we leave no trace when we’re just hiking in the woods,” she said. “But our mere presence can have lasting consequences.”
The study combined 76 smaller studies of 62 species from six continents.
Some of the animals studied in the report included Tanzanian lions, otters, coyotes, wild boars, and tigers. Scientists were surprised to find similar changes across a diverse number of species and habitat.
Researchers concluded that humans have a profound impact on the rate in which animals are becoming nocturnal.
“It’s a little bit scary,” Gaynor remarked. “Even if people think that we’re not deliberately trying to impact animals, we probably are without knowing it.”
However, Gaynor doesn’t think that the shift is inherently negative.
“Humans can do their thing during the day; wildlife can do their thing at night,” she explained. “We can share the environment with many other species that are just taking the night shift while we’re sleeping.”
It may be fine now, but these changes may have future consequences that we’re just currently unaware of.
“There are likely ecosystem-level consequences we don’t yet fully understand,” Gaynor said, “Such responses can result in marked shifts away from natural patterns of activity, with consequences for fitness, population persistence, community interactions, and evolution.”
It may not be pleasant to hear how our actions negatively impact our environment, but it is important for us to confront these changes head-on so that we can work to adjust our own behavior before it is too late.
h/t: Green Matters