“A Symbol of the Range Returns Home” By Kate Yoshida
In the late 1800’s, bighorn sheep were dying off from
diseases they were not immune to, given to them by livestock that were brought from
Europe. Diseases like pneumonia had swept through, killing large numbers of the
bighorn population. By 1940, only 20,000 bighorns remained, scattered
throughout the West. Recently, state wildlife management had done conservation
work to try to bring back the population of these animals. However, large areas
where bighorn sheep used to roam are now covered buildings. The population in
Nevada began to grow again because of the conservation work, but again, the
sheep were exposed to diseases from livestock near by. Limits on hunting have
also helped to bring the sheep back. Now, these bighorn sheep are being taken
to areas of low disease and hunting risk by helicopters in hopes that they will
once more be able to thrive in their natural habitat.
Things like this are happening all over the world to many
different species of animals. Animals die from foreign diseases or are hunted,
causing their populations to decrease, in many cases, dramatically. Scientists
understanding these diseases and the ways in which they spread could really
help conserve species of wildlife.
I really liked the way this article was written. It gave
sufficient background information and was very helpful in giving reasons why
the populations of bighorn sheep were diminishing. However, I found the
information to be a bit repetitive and some of my questions were left
unanswered, such as, what will happen if this plan to conserve the species does
not work? Overall, I enjoyed reading this article and it taught me something I
did not know anything about!
Yoshida, Kate. "A
Symbol of the Range Returns Home." NYTimes.com. The New York
Times, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 6 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/science/earth/a-symbol-of-the-range-returns-home.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=science>.
This article was very nice to read because of how short and concise it was. It was very easy to read which made it simple and easy to understand. I also liked how, in a summary paragraph that wasn’t too lengthy, Mia was able to incorporate so many facts and numbers such as the actual amount of bighorn sheep that remain after so many have died from these new deadly diseases that they aren’t immune too. Finally, I liked Mia’s critique of the actual article because it tells the reader what the article gave and what it didn’t if the reader wants to do outside research on this topic.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I didn’t like about this article was how repetitive it got in mentioning the deadly diseases. Also, I would have liked it more if the author had gone more into detail about how this helps our civilization to progress. The author didn’t explain what benefit there are to studying these diseases that are killing of the big horn sheep.
I found this article very interesting because previously I had no knowledge of the bighorn sheep coming to near extinction.