The positive and negative impact of humans on animals: examples

Human activity, especially in the last few centuries of the existence of modern humanity, is certainly one of the most powerful factors that transform the environment. The influence of people on animals, for example, both positive and negative, has become so widespread in the 21st century that one can speak of the direct dependence of the survival of some species on the further functioning of civilization.

Ancient times: hunters

Even during the Upper Paleolithic, people began to engage in hunting. At that time, the influence of people on animals consisted mainly in the extermination of already extinct species such as the mammoth or woolly rhinoceros (their remains were found during excavations in human settlements of that time). The then prey: animals, fish, birds - gave people protein food, provided materials for shoes and clothing, some household items. Of hides, bones and tusks were built dwellings during the last ice age. As some researchers point out, at that time people lived in small communities of 100-150 members. At the head of the family stood the most respected elders, and property, including food supplies and dwellings, was common. The fairly cold climate led to an urgent need for clothing and a certain primitive modernization of the dwelling. Thus, the skins of the killed and eaten animals were cut into pieces, and the holes were pierced at the edges by the needles of the stone, then everything was sewn with elongated veins. According to studies, one of the most widespread at that time was the use of bones of a mammoth or other large animal as a building material for settlements. Was digging is not too deep oval or rounded pit. At the edge of the pit, ribs sticking inward. This whole structure was stretched or lined with skins, covered with branches and covered with earth.

Farmers and herders

The use of meat in food led, according to F. Engels, to the fact that people learned to use fire for its thermal processing and domesticated some species of animals (so as not to hunt, but to have a meat base always at hand). As the methods and tools of labor and hunting improved, so did the influence of people on animals and the environment. It was expressed in many ways: in the direct destruction of wild species used as food, and in the domestication of certain representatives, and indirectly in the change in the plant base preceding the emergence and spread of farming. And with the transition to cattle breeding and farming (during the Neolithic period), the influence of people on animals acquired new forms and realities. And his methods became more complicated and expanded.

Indirect influence of humans on animals

As agriculture has spread, people have used more and more new spaces for sowing and harvesting. This, in particular, strengthened the indirect influence of man on animals. Natural habitats were destroyed: forests were cut down and meadows and fields cultivated, which led to the redistribution and even disappearance of some species of the animal world and, on the contrary, to the introduction of others.

Fishing

The huge negative human impact on animals, which resulted in the almost complete disappearance or significant reduction of some populations and species, was facilitated by the development of fisheries - the organized extraction of animals in order to obtain, for example, fur. So in the 16th century (it became known, thanks to the research of the historian Karamzin), after the conquest of Siberia, the Tsar of Muscovy imposes the so-called yasak on the representatives of nationalities living there: 200 thousand sable skins, 500 thousand squirrels, 10 thousand foxes! Such was the price of the issue of the fishery, which had a tremendous human influence on the animal world during this period!

Extermination of whales

The hunt for these aquatic giants was born long ago. At first, people used the carcass of whales that carried them ashore. Then, in the eyes of ancient hunters, this mountain of meat and fat became not only desirable, but also very affordable. After all, the whale is a slow-moving creature, and if desired it could be caught up even on a simple non-parachute boat. For its extraction, simple harpoon weapons and ropes were suitable. In addition, the man killed in the water did not drown, which was also an important factor for hunters. Pomors hunted whales from ancient times, but the global extermination of species began in the 17th century. Then the population of bowhead whales was so numerous that the ships traveling to Spitsbergen had to literally push apart their flocks. Annually, Dutch, Danes, Germans, British, French and Spanish pilots sent 1,000 ships a year to the industry! And according to the researchers of the issue, the annual production of whale, for example, in the 18th century already amounted to more than 2.5 thousand per year. It's no wonder that the reserves of huge mammals are depleted, and by the end of the 19th century this species was put to the brink of extinction! And in 1935 the International Commission establishes a ban on fishing for bowhead whales.

Other examples

Such was the negative influence of man on animals. Examples can be given to others: deforestation of the Amazon forests, the drying up of the Aral Sea, the complete disappearance of certain species of mammals through the fault of humans (steppe kangaroo rat, pig-legged bandicoot, red-bellied opossum, Yemenite gazelle, Madagascar pygmy hippopotamus, marsupial wolf - and more than 27 only for The last century). It is believed that since 1600, mankind has destroyed at least 160 subspecies and bird species, more than 100 mammals. Such is the fate, for example, of bison and tours, tarpans and sea cows, solved for them by people.

Economic activity of people

Human activities, not related to hunting and hunting, today have a huge impact on the animal world. So, for example, the development of the territory within the animal's habitat and, as a result, the reduction of the fodder base, may cause a decrease in the population and the subsequent disappearance of a certain species. A striking example is a significant reduction in the number of the Ussuri tiger. And in the oceans, in networks designed to catch fish, dolphins die every year - tens of thousands! After all, they can not get out, entangled, and suffocate. And more recently, the scale of the death of the dolphin packs reached 100,000 per year.

Environmental pollution

In recent years, this is one of the most important negative factors of human influence on the animal world. Radioactive pollution, acid precipitation on land, harmful emissions into the aquatic environment and the atmosphere - all this leads to a decrease in the number of animals and reduces the species diversity on the planet.

The positive influence of man on animals

To tell the truth, in many positions people have suddenly thought up quite late. Many species of animals in the modern world are on the verge of extinction, and some even went into oblivion. But one pleases that at least in the 21st century a lot of attention is paid to the protection of the environment, the protection of the endangered animal world. Are created reserves, zakazniks and national parks where people try to restore lost. And not for nothing, after all, according to the forecasts of some scientists, if humanity does not stop and continue its destructive activity on a planetary scale, this can lead to a sad and fast end (some give less than 50 years) of all life on Earth.