Human Encroachment on Animal Ecologies

Ethiopian Wolf Endangered The author of this report is to research and answer questions related to the Ethiopian Wolf. Indeed the Ethiopian Wolf, otherwise known as canine simensis, is currently in endangered status according to the IUCN. This paper will discuss the ecological factors, animal behavior factors and the overall current status of the Ethiopian Wolf. While the Ethiopian Wolf is not yet extinct, it is certainly endangered at this time.

Questions Answered When it comes to the ecology and behavior relating to the Ethiopian Wolf, there are a few factors that were described by Tallents et al. (2012) treatise on the subject. The author gave a few points in her work. First, she notes that human encroachment on Ethiopian Wolf territory increases a rather large amount for each single human that enters it. Indeed, she notes that each person leads to 1.18 kilometers less room for the Ethiopian Wolf and other species specific to an area.

Further, wolves are very unwilling to share territory with another pack. As such, they will aggressively defend the areas that they do inhabit and human encroachment on said lands leads to some rather negative situations. Further, the breeding and gender issues surrounding the Ethiopian Wolf is influenced by the size, form and factors of its surrounding ecology. It goes so far as to affect the male/female ratios in an area that humans are entering and using.

This has an obvious effect on the younger demographics of wolves including how many there are and the behavior they do or do not engage in. Even so, encroachment also affects other species and tends to make the prey in an area much more numerous. This is obviously a boon to the Ethiopian Wolves but there are tradeoffs to that happenstance coming to pass.

In short, the three main factors that have to be taken into account are the size of the overall territory, the exclusive area that exists for a wolf pack, the amount of the area that is exclusive as compared to areas that are shared or occupied by others groups and so forth (Tallents, Randall, Williams & MacDonald). Quite often, the ecology and behavior of Ethiopian Wolves is aggravated when the wolves are competing with feral and domestic dogs in areas that are populated by people.

Even so, domesticated dogs and Ethiopian Wolves tend to eat different things. Indeed, domesticated dogs in the affected area (Ethiopia) typically eat barley husks and human feces while the Ethiopian Wolves feed on rodents in the area.

Even if there is no competition between dogs and wolves and even if there are not a lot of (if any) attacks on humans, it must be recognized that wolves and humans should not be inhabiting the same area and it is humans that are encroaching on wolf areas more so than the other way around. That being said, since there is no direct competition between non-wild dogs and the Ethiopian Wolves (not to mention the people), there is not a direct threat to the Ethiopian Wolves at this point.

One exception would be humans who do not like having the wolfs around and, thus, try to starve or kill them to get them to go away (Atickem, Bekele & Williams). One factor that has and does hurt the Ethiopian Wolves is shifts in climate and ecology that are brought on by weather, precipitation amounts and so forth.

For example, if weather events make the rats and other vermin scarce (that is their main diet, as mentioned above), then there will be a shift in behavior by the wolves to shift to nocturnal rats and even the livestock of the people in the area. Given that, it is not hard to see why the wolves are in danger even if they are not a direct threat to the overall ecology of the area.

Humans obvious do not want their children or livestock hurt or killed so their common response would probably be to trap or kill the animals. Another aggravating factor is that not a whole lot is known about the Ethiopian Wolves and the fact that they are endangered does not help things.

However, there are some ways to study diet including studying of feces and observing the wolves in action whenever that is possible (Marino, Mitchell & Johnson) When it comes to the IUCH website, the news about the Ethiopian Wolves has been worse but it still is not good. The IUCN has a sliding scale with nine stopping points. Each point is meant to recognize a level of endangerment or extinction that is specific to any given type of animal. There are three major classifications within that scale.

No data or not enough data is one of them and then there is the lower concern levels of least concern and near-threatened. The rest of the scale has five spots. Those spots, in order are vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild and extinct. At this time, the Ethiopian Wolves are in "endangered" status. Per the history of their classification, they have been at endangered or worse since 1986.

They were endangered in 1994, they were down downgraded to critically endangered in 1996 and they were then upgraded back to endangered in 2004. This has been where they remained since then (IUCN) When looking at the core areas that Ethiopian Wolves typically inhabit, it is clear why they are considered endangered. There are seven areas where the wolves are considered to be "home." Those areas are the Bale Mountains, the Arsi Mountains, the Simien Mountains, North Wollo, South Wollo, Menz and Mount Guna.

Of those, not a single one is above 210 (as of 2010) and one area (Mount Guna) has zero. Less than 20 each exist in North Wollo, South Wollo and Menz. The Bale Mountains are the clear favorite of the wolves as there are about 2010 there. The other two of the top three, those being the Arsi Mountains and the Simien Mountains, are both a shade above fifty. The main threat to Ethiopian Wolves, as described by the IUCN, would the continued loss of their habitat.

Humans are encroaching even on the high-altitude land that has been the home of the wolves for a long time. Of all of the land above 3200 meters, almost two thirds has been converted to farmland. The encroachment by humans has even led to regular.