With the virus, COVID—19 on a rise and the world is panicking wondering in what way will it impact our lives. We cannot forget about the animals within our wildlife, with this blog post we will be diving into what are the impacts that COVID—19 have on our wildlife animals.
“If you remove the number of vehicles, there’s going to be [fewer] road deaths,”
James Pagé, the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s species at risk and biodiversity specialist.
Pagé’s statement brings reference to the 770 turtles that were killed in Ottawa and Muskoka alone from road deaths. It appears that while the COVID—19 pandemic has such a huge negative effect on humans’ interactions and mobility, it may have some positive effects on some of our endangered animals. With the stay at home advisory in effect this leads to the lessen the number of hunters that may have taken the time to go into the wild and killed these animals. So, this helps to lessen the number of dead animals due to hunting. However, there are negative effects that COVID—19 may help to create for our endangered animals even the few that are in the zoos. If the trained employee assigned to these animals are infected by the virus that means that the caretaker of those animals will not be able to carry out that task. However, as we take the time to stay safe and protected from this Coronavirus COVID—19 pandemic we also must remember that we can take the charge to bring awareness to endangered animals.
More impacts of COVID—19 on the wildlife and animals within such are yet to be seen. However, “Wildlife conservation is a type of work without end. It’s ongoing. It revolves around time—while racing against it. Pausing amid a global pandemic isn’t an option, because that could mean the difference between saving endangered species or not” (Nicoletti A, 2020). In other words, stopping the fight for sustainability is just not possible even within such a pandemic and stay at home advisory in place because if the fight stops then this may lead to the danger to and for our endangered animals within Canada. The government of Canada took the initiative to protect the nation from the spread of COVID—19 closed all National Wildlife Areas temporarily without notice of returning matter a fact they stated it will be closed until further notice.
Thank you for reading and with the virus on the rise I encourage you, my readers, to stay safe and wash your hands!
References
Feature Photo by https://www.canva.com/
Mortillaro, N. (2020). How COVID-19 shutdowns have affected the animal kingdom. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/what-on-earth-newsletter-covid-19-animal-kingdom-1.5511266
Canadian Wildlife Federation. (n.d.). Help the Turtles. Retrieved from https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/turtles/
Endangered Public Animals Canada 