Klint Van A.

Villaro

English for Academic and Professional Purposes

Sir Patrick Jayson L. Ralla

THERE ARE DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS THAT AFFECTS THE

SUDDEN DEATH OF ANIMALS

Sudden death is any kind of death that happens unexpectedly, and the animal are one of

those who suffer from it. It can cause decreasing of their population and if not prevented it may

lead to endangerment of species. Nowadays, the death of animals are now sudden or

instantaneous and the following are the different environmental factors that affects their sudden

death.

Deforestation

Deforestation can lead to direct loss of habitat. The removal of trees and other types of

vegetation reduces available food, shelter, and breeding habitat. Wildlife habitats can become

fragmented, where native species must live on remaining habitat islands that are surrounded by

disturbed land that is being used for agriculture and other uses. Habitat fragments may be too

small to maintain viable population of animals and an animal living in one population may no

longer be able to freely breed with the other population. Animals may also encounter dangerous

situations when they attempt to migrate between habitat fragments such as increased human

wildlife conflicts and road accidents. With increased habitat edge, wildlife may experience

increased vulnerability to predation, poaching, wind, sunlight, invasion of exotic plant and

animal species into remaining forest habitat and other factors such as natural disasters that were
not as much of a threat prior to deforestation. And deforestation may also lead to endangerment

of species. Because as forest are cleared, landscapes are drastically change and therefore animals

must quickly adapt to the new surroundings and many species only live in a specific area and

that’s why they are very vulnerable to endangerment. This has greatly affected the animals

because eighty percent of the earth’s land animals live in the forest.

Climate change

Climate change is the leading threat to wildlife and habitats. It has a lot of devastating

effects that really affects the animals such as extreme weather events like heat waves, intense

storms, and extreme droughts. Their habitat also are beginning to shift, shrink, melt, and even

disappear because of the increasing temperatures, changes to the season and period of prolonged

droughts followed by intense rainfall and flooding. The animals respond to climate by migration,

adaptation, or neither of those, occur death. Those who cannot adapt quickly to the new

surroundings or to the season might die and if this continues there is a higher possibility of

endangerment. The oceans are changing rapidly as well. High temperatures lead to the bleaching

of coral reefs which countless marine species depend for food and shelter. Warmer waters also

force change in ocean currents are shifting feeding grounds and migration patterns that have been

established for centuries. In addition, increased acidification is expected to affect marine life

which threatens the entire marine animals. Because of the wide variety and increasing impacts it

has on the planet; climate change is the leading threat to wildlife and habitats.

Pollution

Many animals are dying because of pollution. All types of environmental pollution have

negative impact on animal’s health and the worst types of pollution that really affects the animals

are air, water, and noise. Even small levels of environmental pollution create discomfort for
many animals while on the other hand more excessive pollution leads to diseases and deaths of

animals. Air pollution is particularly dangerous to animals especially when sulfur dioxide and

nitrogen oxide are releases into the air in a form of acid rain. Acid rains kills fish in lakes and

streams by increasing the acidity of the water. Other forms of air pollution such as ozone are also

harmful to animals for instance, ozone pollution can cause serious damage to lung tissues of

many animals. Water pollution has also negative impact on many animals. Water polluted with

different chemicals can cause decline of population in some species while on the other hand

water polluted with nutrients can lead to huge growth of toxic algae which when eaten by other

animals may cause serious diseases and death to these animals. And lastly, noise pollution is also

becoming huge problems for many animals especially those that lives in our oceans and seas

because of the increased ship traffic and offshore oil drilling that affects the marine animals such

as whales and dolphins. This is because these animals use their sense of hearing for many

purposes such as hunting for prey, navigation, migration, and distinguishing the members of the

same species and with so many artificial sounds in our oceans they are having hard time to

distinguish them all.

Nowadays, the death of animals are now sudden or instantaneous. And with these

different environmental factors such as deforestation, climate change, and pollution, the

decreasing of their population may worsen and may lead to endangerment if not prevented.
References

Greentumble. (2017). How does deforestation affect animals?

Retrieved from https://greentumble.com/how-does-deforestation-affect-animals/

Defenders. (2017). Combating climate change.

Retrieved from https://defenders.org/climate-change/overview

Pollutionarticles. (2017). How does pollution affect animals?

Retrieved from http://pollutionarticles.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-does-pollution-affect-

animals.html