Without animals and plants, our lives would not be possible. I wanted to share ten ideas on how we can save wildlife.
The term wildlife doesn’t only address wild animals but all undomesticated animals, including birds and insects. All living animals should be protected and saved to ensure the ecosystem is balanced correctly.
How to Save Wildlife
Here are the ten best ways to save wildlife and ensure they stay part of us now and for future generations.
Volunteering
There are many ways to save wildlife, but one of the most satisfying is to volunteer. There are many organizations with volunteer programs.
There are many ways to volunteer, and not all of them need to be through an organization. You can help to clean beaches, hedgerows, and woodland.
You can also volunteer to teach visitors about wildlife at your local animal sanctuary or provide help rescuing wild animals.
Volunteering gives you the option to stay close to wild animals while at the same time interacting with them. This gives you and others a better understanding of them, helping us to live harmoniously with them.
Adopting
Many organizations have an adoption program with money for a specific animal or species.
If you are in school, you can ask classmates to help by adopting an animal as a class animal. If you are working, speak to colleagues about adopting an animal or even family members.
There are many wildlife conservation groups where you’re money will help protect species for the future.
Why are dolphins mammals and not fish? Find out here
Visit Wildlife Conservations
The other way to save wildlife is by visiting zoos, national parks, wildlife refuges, and aquariums.
Wildlife can be significantly protected using the money raised through tourism, although tourism can also adversely affect nature. Always ensure that any trip is to a place that puts their animals first.
People have a love/hate relationship with zoos, but they play an essential part in ensuring that animal species survive. Just research before visiting them to provide the money they make goes to the right places.
Preserve Wildlife Habitat
Another way to save wildlife is by ensuring you spare their habitat whenever you come across them. For this reason, take care of rivers, wetlands, forests, prairies, and everywhere else that gives animals a home.
A habitat is where wildlife and other living things find favorable conditions to reproduce, thrive, and survive away from predators and adverse weather conditions.
The best way to save their habitat is by not polluting waters or the environment and not cutting down trees in forests.
When the situation is threatened, or their habitat is destroyed, most of these animals will die, and others will go extinct.
Mountain lions are masters of their environment. Please find out more about them here.
Provide Water
In many cases, wild animals don’t have a reliable water source. These animals can find food without problems when their environment is preserved.
However, there are many circumstances where these animals travel long distances to find food or mates.
You can help them find clean water to drink by simply providing a water source and monitoring it closely.
The water sources can be as little as a birdbath or a more significant water source to feed more giant animals. If you live in a cold part of North America, you can use a heating device to ensure the water does not freeze.
Use Eco-friendly Products
If you need to use some agricultural products such as pesticides and fertilizers, it is always advisable to use eco-friendly products.
Pesticides can significantly affect wildlife, especially when they eat sprayed plants or polluted water. Most of these pesticides pose a secondary poisoning threat and, sometimes, can run into underground water or rivers and streams.
It is also possible that some wild animals are sprayed directly, which can be deadly.
To save wildlife, you must make sure you are using eco-friendly products. The other thing to note is that some chemicals can get introduced into the food cycle, eventually harming you.
Are weasels dangerous to pets? What do they eat? Please find out more in this article I wrote.
Feed Birds and Wild Animals
During some seasons, food and water supply can be scarce, which puts some birds and wild animals at risk. In this case, you can feed them and offer water in your yard. There are some animals that you should never feed.
Avoid dangerous animals such as coyotes and some mammals such as deer and raccoons. These animals can become dependent on humans for food, bringing more deadly predators to your yard.
Make Your Home Friendly to Wildlife
In most cases, garbage contains dangerous wastes that can harm wild animals, for this reason, secure trash in shelters or cans with lock lids.
I use these to secure my trash can lids. They come in a two-pack and are inexpensive. Pet food should be stored indoors, with pets fed indoors. This will make sure your home doesn’t attract wild animals at night.
Ensure that animals that depend on water for survival have what they need. Make sure to disinfect bird water baths to avoid transmission of disease,
Put decals on windows to make sure there are no animal collisions. I use these, which you can buy on Amazon here. They are ultraviolet and reflect the sun, keeping the birds away, and you can hardly see them yourself.
You might think this is unnecessary, but statistics show that millions of birds die yearly because of collisions with the window.
Do female deer grow antlers? Find out here
The Smithsonian recently reported that collisions kill between 365 million and 1 billion birds annually. This figure is just in the United States, with a median estimate of 599 million birds dying yearly.
To save these birds, placing decals on your office and home windows is always advisable.
If you do not like applying decals to your windows, you can buy these bird-repellent rods. The decals and the rods are inexpensive and can save birds’ lives.
Grow Plants and Save Trees
Growing plants and saving trees can go a long way to saving wild animals. Plants provide food and shelter to most wildlife.
Growing flowering plants will attract wild animals and insects, which can also help pollinate. Additionally, some native plants attract specific wild animals that prefer them for food and shelter.
Restoring Habitat
Habitat destruction is the leading cause of death for many animals. Habitat destruction threatens almost all wild animals, including endangered species.
You can help by planting native trees, cleaning beaches, and restoring wetlands.
Wild animals largely depend on us for shelter, food, and existence. It is upon us to ensure wild animals have what they need for their survival.
We must also ensure we care for the environment by cleaning beaches, planting trees, and avoiding harmful agricultural chemicals. It is a beautiful thing to recycle plastics and other non-biodegradable products.
Have you ever wondered how horses survive in the wild? Find out in this article I wrote.
Why We Should Protect Wildlife
There are many wonders globally, but wildlife species are essential for survival, and we should live harmoniously with them.
Most people today think that there are many wild animals globally, but information shows that many wild animals are becoming extinct daily. For this reason, there are many reasons why we should save wildlife, as discussed below.
Wild animals are beneficial to humans.
There is a lot we can learn from wild animals. These animals produce chemicals that can be used as a source of medicine for humanity. The drugs cure various health conditions, including heart disorders, diseases, and other illnesses.
A recent report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that more than 25% of medicinal prescriptions are made up of chemicals processed from chemicals, especially those from marine environments.
There is an article from the National Wildlife Federation about the urgency of saving endangered species. You can read this here.
Saving Wildlife Helps The Environment
Saving wildlife translates to protecting the environment. The more wild animals exist, the more we enrich our planet.
For this reason, animals need to be kept in their natural habitats and environments. We need to preserve their natural habitats because this will prove to be beneficial to humans.
Promote Biodiversity
Earth is a healthy and functional ecosystem. If wildlife is extinct, our ecosystem will have no delicate balance.
A loss of one animal can mean an abundance of another mammal or a loss of another mammal. By preserving the wildlife we have, we ensure that other species survive.
The evolution of the cougar is fascinating. Find out more here
Wildlife is Beneficial for Agriculture and Farming
The human population depends on plants, not just for food but for the gases that they produce. Plants depend on some animals for pollination.
Plants need bees, insects, animals, and birds for pollination. If wild animals are not preserved, there may be no more effective pollination. This would result in the future translate to a reduced source of food and medicine for humanity.
These wild animals are a gift to us from Mother Nature. They should be cared for and protected from adverse environmental changes.
I have written this article for more information on how we can help wildlife in winter.
Bryan Harding is a member of the American Society of Mammalogists and a member of the American Birding Association. Bryan is especially fond of mammals and has studied and worked with them around the world. Bryan serves as owner, writer, and publisher of North American Nature.