Wildlife conservation is becoming increasingly important.
Not many animals can evolve quickly enough to survive human-induced change, and
few can adapt to live close to people. The best way to conserve wild animals is
to protect their habitats. Some habitats support more species than others. The
total number of species is a measure of their BIODIVERSITY. Areas
with very high numbers are called hot spots.
The quagga was hunted to extinction in the late 19th century.
Although once considered a separate species, it is now known to have been a
subspecies of the plains zebra. This discovery led scientists to try to
recreate the quagga by selectively breeding from plains zebras with reduced
striping and a browner coats. The resulting animals look remarkably like the
quaggas seen in museums.
The variety of life within habitats is known as
biodiversity. Biodiversity is measured in terms of species numbers, which
depends, over time, on the rate at which species evolve compared with the rate
at which they become extinct. Biodiversity varies naturally between different
habitats. For example, habitats near the poles, such as tundra, have much lower
biodiversity than those near the equator, such as tropical rain
forest.
Many wild creatures are closely linked to particular habitats. The
Andean cock-of-the-rock is found only in mountain forests in the north of South
America’s Andes range. If those forests were to be cut down, this bird
would become extinct in the wild.
The Amazon rain forest has the highest biodiversity of any
habitat. The capuchin represents just one of countless species that live
there. A single tree may host over 1,000 insect species and there may be 300
tree species in a single hectare (2 1/2 acres).
