by Brenda Nelson

Created on: May 05, 2010   Last Updated: March 17, 2011

Human overpopulation, and growing human populations, impact every aspect of life on the planet. With numbers around 7 billion, humans directly cause problems for many wildlife species, and need to be aware of their constant impact on nature.

-Deforestation-

Deforestation occurs for many reasons, for resources, or for space, to build homes, and to make way for agriculture. As more people are added to the planet, deforestation multiplies at alarming rates because demand increases. Deforestation has huge impacts on wildlife. Of course their is massive habitat destruction. This means wildlife loses its home, and food. Wildlife loses its dens, its sheltered areas for raising young, and so forth, birds lose nesting areas, and soon the top carnivores lose their food supply.

-Agriculture-

More human mouths to feed mean more pressure on the agriculture industry. The problem is that urban sprawl has also taken over what was valuable farm land, so farmers must consume what was wild space, including forests, marshes, and so forth. Wildlife habitat is destroyed, marshes are filled in to be used as farm land. This is further compounded when farmers try to protect their crops and livestock. Every wild animal, from insects, to mammals, are at risk as a farmer protects his farm. Although better regulated, there is still problems to be had from the use of chemical pesticides on the farm. Even herbicides, when they run off into rivers and streams, have impacts on nature.

Agriculture even puts bounties on the lives of some animals. Cattle are put to range in the natural habitat of deer, or even wild horses (although an introduced species in the Americas), as such the wild animals are not particularly welcome as grazing comes into issue.

-The Impact of our Pets-

More people mean more pets. Pets can be destructive on wildlife. Dogs pursue rabbits, cats kill songbirds. If these animals are turned loose, or abandoned, they become feral, and often do a great deal of damage to some populations of wild animals. As much blame as humans get for driving the Dodo bird to extinction, it was the pets that the people brought with them who were really at fault.

-More People in Wild Areas-

With more people there are greater chances for more encounters with wildlife. Many of these encounters are not welcome. When people move to mountain retreats (often to get away from the crowds in the cities) they have unwelcome neighbors, bears, coyotes, raccoons,

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