Mr. Callahan
24/08/18
The chapter begins when Kolbert travels to Cincinnati Zoo to meet Suci, a Sumatran rhinoceros that is one of five remaining rhino species. These rhinos used to be very common until the 20th century; as a result, conservation groups have tried to preserve the rhinos in captivity but have only encountered problems. Large animals like elephants and jaguars also exist in captivity, due to their declining population. This induced the question of why many extinct animals are very large compared to modern day animals and what caused their demise. In the 19th century, thinkers such as Lyell and Darwin believed that changing climate was at fault; only recently, however, have scientists proposed that humans hunted these animals to death. This is because, one, the extinctions occurred in pulses, two, the animals survived through natural disasters before the arrival of humans, and three, studies show that the animals didn’t suffer from malnutrition. In essence, environmental factors did not eliminate the animals; rather, these animals were slow to procreate and easy to prey on.
The chapter connected to the theme that humans have altered the earth for millions of years. As stated in the text, “It demonstrates, he has written, that humans are capable of driving virtually any large mammal species extinct, even though they are also capable of going to great lengths to guarantee that they do not.” Here John Alroy, a paleontologist, used computer simulations to test if humans could’ve killed the large mammals; his results revealed that even a small population of humans could cause a species to go extinct in the course of a few centuries. This goes to show humans have taken advantage of other animals to the point of their demise; now animals like Suci can barely thrive. While reading this, I predicted that no matter how many artificial environments we create, animals will continue to die because of our decisions. As the saying goes, “you made your bed, now lie in it.”
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