Animals Activities Thrives as Human Reduces Footprints in Co-existing Habitats
By: Jon Lye
Tags: Animals, Humanity, Covid 19, Wildlife, Thoughts

It is horrifying to realize how much we as mankind had harmed these animals, which includes many endangered in our daily activities. Ironically, they are now living better without our interference during this COVID-19 lockdown. How much had we overlooked these in our day to day lives?

Leatherback sea turtles hatching in Thailand and Florida

Both Thailand and Florida saw an increase in leatherback sea turtles’ nest, with 11 and 76 being sighted respectively during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period. Sadly, these were only visible due to lower threat from humans activities in the vicinity during this period of lockdown.

In Florida alone, it is alarming to note that only about one baby leatherback sea turtle hatchling survive, out of every 1,000 hatchlings, as reported by The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC).

In this report by from the US News, the reduction in tourists’ footprints had exchanged for a sight to behold for years — the rarity of baby leatherback sea turtles hatching from the beaches in Thailand. The report also mentioned that this was the first sighting in the last five years.

The leatherback sea turtle is one of the seven species of sea turtles listed as endangered by the World Wildlife Fund Organization. This is great news for the endangered leatherback, especially how humans had destroyed their living conditions through nest disruption, pollution, and undesirable plastic waste disposal.

Astonishing, it was stated in this research by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), a turtle potentially carries a fatality rate of 22% in the event it ate just one piece of plastic. This fatality rate significantly increases to 50% if it had collected 14 pieces of plastic items in its gut.

This one-off increase in egg hatching can never be sustainable unless we change our habits and start paying more attention to our plastic waste disposal and discarded fishing gear in the seas because every single piece of plastic can take away the life of the endangered turtle. With the amount of plastic bags, straws, plastic food containers, plastic bottles, and many more that we brought to the beaches, it is unimaginable how soon it takes us to take away the life of a turtle in just a day if we are not environmentally conscious. Now multiply it by 365 days.

Singapore Zoo’s animals out for an excursion

The Singapore Zoo had actively engaged their animals during the country’s circuit breaker period. As the bustling inflow of visitors significantly halted, the animals were offered opportunities to explore and venture out of their habitat. The African penguins put on the visitors’ shoes and the road less traveled in their lifetime, while also had fun going through the thoughtfully designed obstacle course by their caretaker.

The orangutan too had an unforgivable experience with the popular childhood activities of blowing bubbles.

Video courtesy of Channel News Asia Singapore, via YouTube

Video courtesy of 10 Tampa Bay, via YouTube

The Coatimundis had their fair shares of outdoor activities as well yesterday. However, such opportunities are extremely rare, and its as good as only once in a lifetime. Needless to say, they are loving and enjoying every moment!

Video courtesy of Channel News Asia Singapore, via YouTube

This leaves us with a question to ponder about, which could potentially change the fate of these animals. After we get past COVID-19 and lives return to normalcy, such precious time out of the habitat might no longer exist. How could we better manage our footprint in exchange for more animal’s engagement time?

A momentary break for the Pangolins trading

Image courtesy of Alamy Stock Photo, via World Wildlife Fund Organisation

The Pangolins were placed in Appendix I in the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species(CITES) in 2016, signed by 183 nations. However, they remained one of the most heavily trafficked animals in the world to date.

Putting aside the much debatable talks that the Pangolins and Bats were the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the Pangolins were at the risk of extinction across their eight species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They were popular in China and Vietnam as a source of delicacy and traditional medicine, which explain the high counts of illegally poaching activities.

Thankfully to the outbreak of COVID-19, the endangered Pangolins now might have a higher chance of buying time for reproduction and remaining in their natural habitat instead of being served as dishes.

China, in response to the outbreak, had announced an immediate ban on trading and eating wild animals, which include the Pangolins. Many wild animal markets were shut down. With decreasing wildlife trade activities, there is now some hope for the Pangolins. The COVID-19 had forced us into changing some of our lifestyles and habits, and it remains to be seen how much of these changes will stay with us post-COVID. Hopefully, the reduction in illegal wildlife trades and markets will be a long term measure.

Animals in circuses get a break too

Photo by fer gomez on Unsplash

This article though does not involve any endangered animals, yet it strikes me even closer to heart. These are animals that perform to entertain us, from performing in mega circuses to traditional activities such as the corrida de toros — Spanish bullfighting. For now, these animals are sparred from the punishments and endless charging to entertain people.

What should we take away from these?

There are obvious co-relations between human activities and the livelihood of the animals in our co-existing habitat. Our activities affect them in every way, from waste and noise pollution to traditional activities and entertainment.

Lets us as responsible human beings take this COVID-19 lockdown to reflect on how changes to our activities during this period had brought out the best for these animals. Had each of us go long-term without affecting these animals, what are the likelihood we could live in a better co-existing habitat?

Unless we start learning to better manage our lifestyles and taking a better attitude towards our shared habitat, every animal species might be endangered someday shortly.