Passport to Texas

Endangered Jaguarundi

What Happens When we Alter Habitat Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

By altering his environment… man has also altered habitat…thereby unintentionally speeding the decline of some animal and plant species.

We’ve changed a lot of things around. And the fact is that our activities – direct and indirect – determine how much of the wildscape we’re going to have left in the future. Essentially, more humans doing more things, is going to mean less and less of the wild world.

Paul Robertson is former head of the Wildlife Diversity Nongame and Rare Species Program. He says when significant declines are noted, waning species end up on the threatened and endangered list.

Just short of two hundred animals and plants are listed as threatened or endangered.

The number he quoted is for Texas only.

Endangered is worse that threatened and threatened is worse than just being stable.

Robertson says, in Texas, species stability decreases as human use and misuse of water increases.

In Texas the immediate and biggest threat is the human use of water. We’re taking water out of streams; we’re pumping water out of aquifers… All these activities are lowering stream flows…drying up springs. So this, at the present time, is the biggest conflict between humans and native species.

The Wildlife Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.