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With recent development
in the Amazon Basin region, many animals have been left without
homes. Some have found it hard to survive while others
have gone extinct. One of the major problems in the Amazon
region is deforestation. Loggers, companies, and other
interests are taking down trees to make lumber, farms and cattle
ranches. By doing so, they are destroying forests in which
thousands of animals used to flourish. Also,
as cities begin to grow, the forest are one place they can almost
endlessly expand into. There are hardly and geographic
boundaries in the Amazon Basin.
Also due to the
advent of large cities such as Belem and Manaus in the upper
Amazon Basin, companies and big business have arrived.
Many companies have set up factories, mines, rubber tapping from
rubber trees, and large scale fishing. Although they employ
many people, they are also destroying the Amazon. They
are expanding into areas untouched by humans before. Large
portions of the Amazon remain to be explored. Pollution
from these large scale operation is hurting animals who call
the Amazon home.
Another big problem
is poachers. Poachers kill animals for certain parts of
their bodies. In the Amazon, jaguars and other wild cats
are now listed as endangered species because poachers, in the
past, hunted these wild cats for their skins. Other animals
hunted include otters, pink dolphins (pink dolphin skin is pink
and prized among many poachers), and manatees. |
