Wildlife Protection

We do.  Birds, bees, bats, butterflies, moths carry pollen on our bodies from one plant to another, or sometimes from one part of the plant to another.  It appears that the winner in the pollination race, if you need a winner, is the bat.

Nuts are another matter; they are scattered by mammals as well as birds.  The seeds of fruits are destroyed by a few of us, but most of us scatter the seeds.

Man has for many centuries thought himself superior to all other creatures.  Man started eking out a living through hunting and fishing.  Through agriculture, thought processes, and skillful use of hands, man has shaped most of the world in the ways he thought best for himself and his species.  Men often decided that women were inferior.  When encountering people of other skin coverings, they often decided that those colors were also inferior.  The skin covering seems such a minor part of the totality of humans that it scarcely seems worth evaluating a being on that basis, just as gender, age, religious belief, and area of origin scarcely seem to be more than interesting distinctions.  Huddling into a group of extremely similar beings while viewing those who are somewhat different with great suspicion seems to be one of mankind’s less rational acts; perhaps it is an outgrowth of instinctive motivation to preserve a species.  Humans are not the only species to prey on other members of its own species, but humans may be the most successful predator of all.

As mentioned in another section, our strongest motivation is the preservation of our species and our genes, something birds and animals have in common with humans.  Our activities are based more on instinct and less on thought processes, although we have more complex thought processes than most humans suspect.  Many humans spend time observing what they can of our activities and speculating on us as a result.  How accurate are their conclusions?

For centuries, man has thought that he knew how to improve the natural world, whether created by God or evolution or a combination of both.  Basically, though, humans are just as dependent on breathing air and consuming water and nutrients as any creature.  If air becomes too polluted, people sicken and die just as we do.  If water is contaminated, all of us including humans become ill, perhaps fatally.  If people, who are the most successful species in producing young who survive, overpopulate to the extent of consuming all the nutrients, they will become smaller and scarcer, as happened on isolated Easter Island. When the population grew too large for the island, they cut all the trees, leaving a barren island where only a few people survive to this day.  Overpopulation has already caused a number of disasters as men build in unsafe places and kill one another over limited resources and paltry differences.

What no one really knows is where the breaking points are for our world and how seriously humans have impacted the necessary elements needed for survival.  Humans do not really know for certain which species are essential to human survival and how much they depend on us for survival.  They need to consider that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Humans tend to observe wildlife when they can and to draw conclusions about what they see.  Many actions of other species are open to a variety of interpretations.  Only now have many people concentrated on wildlife and learned so much more than was known before.  BUT…how many conclusions are aberrations by an individual under observation or altered by human contact, land how many are accurate?  Individual scientists come to distinct theories and often are slow to accept new theories.  President Garfield suffered and eventually died because his physician was one of those who rejected the new theory that tiny, invisible germs on dirty hands and tools mattered.  Experts are often too slow or sometimes too quick to embrace the new.

So much of what we do and why remains a mystery subject to guesswork, although human knowledge is expanding rapidly.

What would happen to humans without those of us who pollinate crops and beautiful flowers?  What would humans do if we were not around to catch insects, mice, rats, and other creatures you do not want in you/ homes or storehouses?  How many other services do we supply?  How many services are still unknown to science?

Many of you find yourselves happier when you hear birds singing or see us in our bright colors or interesting activities; many of you do not realize just what a difference we make to your health and happiness.  Many of you want to list or photograph us; others are content just to watch us.

Continued existence and size of population depend on conditions of local environment.  Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes can wipe out a limited population.

Burning fields at the end of harvest to get rid of any pests, weeds, and debris, also consumes nutrients and pollutes the air.  It is still a common practice worldwide.

A few species store immense quantities of fat, such as hibernating bears or male penguins raising chicks far from their fish supply.  All other species require food all year.  Many species require food daily, a few less often.  Small birds will fall dead off a branch during their nightly torpor, a type of brief hibernation, if they cannot consume enough during the day.  One can often see hummingbirds and others desperately sipping nectar from plants or feeders or grabbing seeds just before dark in a feeding frenzy. 

Occasionally there is a very good supply of food, whether lemmings in the far north (animal) or fruits or seeds elsewhere (vegetable).  The result is an increased survival rate of babies, who often disperse to additional territory as they mature.  The result is called an “irruption” of a species appearing where it is seldom seen.

Hurricanes may blow individual birds into a new area; if pairs or groups are blown off course, they may establish themselves in new places.

Global warming drives species farther from the equator or to higher elevations.  Species moving into new territories compete with those already there, depleting food supplies.  Eventually those living at the edges of the environment, be that mountain tops or extremely cold areas, have nowhere to go and become extinct.

Pesticides cause death and deformities.

Clearing cloud forest on mountaintops causes loss of water retention.  Cloud forest tree roots hold soil and water during rainy seasons to release gradually through the year to flow downhill.  As a result, land at foot of the mountain or in the valley suffers seasonal droughts or floods.

Is there global warming?  Some choose to ignore the facts, based on local weather conditions, but temperatures are rising overall.

Changing temperatures have already affected Costa Rica.  Migration times have changed, but too many creatures depend on their built-in calendars.  Some food sources are available at the wrong time for those who depend on them. 

Birds and animals are moving higher up the mountains in Costa Rica because of global warming patterns.  Most of Costa Rica is mountainous, so the country has its land compressed into a small area.  Costa Rica has space for numerous species, but the land is more vertical than horizontal.  If the world warms enough, those plants and animals living at the highest elevations will be driven toward extinction, between high temperatures and competition with those species moving upwards in their search for survival.  What will happen to the lower areas?

Species that will not or cannot adapt to changing conditions or reach higher elevations will be pressured by others moving upward. Changing temperatures & seasons cause some species to migrate before or after their food supply is available. 

Change and extinction are a part of natural evolution, but both have speeded up at unprecedented rates because of human interference in the pre-Columbian order of few humans with extremely limited technology, pollution, and interference.   Pre-Columbians practiced a number of potentially disastrous methods of obtaining food, but nature can compensate for minor disruptions.  Slash-and-burn agriculture only works when it involves small, scattered areas that nature can cover and repair.

Some species are considered nuisances because they adapt too well. Natural predators of some species may have been eliminated, or they may adapt too well to the changes made by man in their ecosystems.  Others may lack natural enemies because they were imported and have no natural enemies in their new territory. Imported species often prey on native species that are vulnerable to their attacks and less able to adapt to the human invasion of their former territory. 

Extensive agriculture of tropical forests does not take into account the fact that these soils have few nutrients.  The tropical rainforest keeps all nutrients in the plant life, recycling it as trees die and fall, with new growth utilizing the nutrients in the fallen giants.  Nutrients are in constant motion rather than stored in the ground as in other areas.  Clearing large tracts leaves little for the future and can interfere with needed water supplies in the form of rain.

Many tropical plants have supplied and could supply our pharmacies with new medicines, but those plants are disappearing along with the forests.

BECAUSE WE ARE SO BEAUTIFUL WITH OUR AMAZING COLORS AND MARKINGS

How can you resist the brilliantly-colored macaw or a toucan with a huge bill or a smiling sloth or a frog with huge red eyes?  How can a rather plain bird suddenly raise such a gorgeous crest as the royal flycatcher. How can the hairy woodpecker of Ohio look so completely different from the same hairy woodpecker of Costa Rica?

BECAUSE SOME OF US HAVE SUCH STARTLING ABILITIES & NAMES

How can one resist the desire to see a leaf tosser, tree runner, spinetail, foliage-gleaner, turnstone, sloth, anteater?  How can a monkey hang by its tail?  How can a tiny frog frighten a much larger animal who does not dare to eat it?  How can an anteater descend a tree trunk head first, anchored only by its tail and curved claws?  Where would you expect to see an animal like a hog with an abbreviated trunk like an elephant?

BECAUSE WE ARE GENERALLY MORE ACCESSIBLE IN COSTA RICA THAN ELSEWHERE

Costa Rica has so many reserves, privately-owned and national, in such a small space that it is easy and quick to move from one type of habitat to another.  Since there are so many rivers, you can travel by boat, and that does not frighten us as much as walkers do.  National parks and ecolodges provide numerous trails and hanging bridges at the level of the treetops for viewing creatures that are not found near ground level.

Rare species that are isolated become victims of a limited gene pool and die of weaknesses caused by inbreeding.  Rare species need to be able to reach other areas in order to preserve their gene pool and strength in order to survive.

Isolated nature preserves must have connections to other preserves, especially those providing alternate habitats for species that migrate locally.