Wildlife plays a vital role within ecosystems and is essential to controlling and regulating the global climate. This is how accurate the words of the academic and director of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Concepción, Dr. Paula Aravena Bustos, are.
“Wildlife has the role of maintaining the ecosystem, and there is always talk of global climate change that is causing changes in temperatures and intense rains, but it is not only that. In Chile, we have a projection of an area that is already being strongly affected, between Antofagasta and Biobío, which is the space that will receive the greatest impact from the effect of climate change and is precisely the area with the most endemic wild species, that is, where “There are animals that only exist in our country,” the academic explained regarding the imbalance of the ecosystems and habitats of these animals that have already been affected not only by climatic adversities, but even by irresponsible human actions.
“They have the ability to reconstitute the natural environment that we have lost. In other words, it is key for the native forest to regenerate again to maintain the species that save seeds, because they help to fertilize, although it must be clarified that this is not a quick process. It takes around 150, 200 years for the set of species in the natural environment to regenerate,” said Dr. Paula Aravena.
Healthier planet
Climate change and global warming, generated by human actions, have made, among other varied impacts, the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity a challenge.
“Here comes a whole cycle that is concatenated; Reptiles, amphibians, rodents, birds, move seeds, fertilize them and reproduce habitats, and predators such as quiques, guiñas foxes, make these herbivores move further away and can reach with their seeds towards more remote sectors and repopulate greater territory, and this is important to happen because we are emitting too much carbon dioxide into the environment, which causes the greenhouse effect and global warming,” said the academic, to finally highlight that due to human growth and development sustainability cannot be left aside.
In this sense, he added that the education of the population must be increased. “Plastic bags continue to be an issue, even though reusable bags have much greater access, the same with cured thread. Every year campaigns must be carried out so that people do not use the cured thread to raise kites because they still continue to use it and it is a tremendous problem for wildlife. The plastic items that we use daily in our lives, which are even damaging our own health and we continue to use them,” he said, while indicating that as long as these types of details change, we will achieve a healthier planet. “And I believe that the more awareness there is (mainly in our children), nature will be able to leave this crisis behind,” he said.
