“But the devastating four-year drought that’s dried up streams and vegetation isn’t the sole cause, state officials and experts say. Instead, they say the drought is exacerbating long-term trends and natural animal behaviors in a state that is becoming increasingly developed.
“Pools and lush gardens in residential areas are attractive to animals forced out of their normal homes. The construction of roads and business developments, along with man’s increased movement into rural areas, had begun fragmenting habitats before the drought.
“You have a longer-term trend exacerbated by this acute change in water availability,” said Dick Cameron, a scientist who studies habitat fragmentation for The Nature Conservancy in California.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.thonline.com
GR: Drought is adding to wildlife woes in some places, but everywhere wild animals are suffering from human progress. Our bulging population is using up the food that wild animals need, and our wastes are ruining wild habitats.