Plants, animals, and people coexist on the planet. Wild animals make up a special world in nature.
- Wild animals live in natural conditions, independently providing themselves with everything they need, unlike domestic animals that depend on people. They make up only 4% of the total number of land mammals on the planet.
- Each continent has a unique fauna with endemic species. Animals have adapted to life in various habitats – forests, deserts, mountains, and are divided into herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.
- To survive in winter, wild animals use various strategies: they store food, build shelters, hibernate, or migrate. Some species, especially in northern latitudes, remain active thanks to their warm fur and subcutaneous fat reserves.
Wild animals are not domesticated
Planet Earth has given life to many organisms. The animal world has developed, and man has appeared. People have domesticated some animals for their own interests, while others have remained to live on their own.
Who are wild animals? These are animals that live in a state of natural freedom in the wild, which is why they are called wild, that is, not tame. The website of the American National Park Service NPS notes that these animals independently provide themselves with food, water, shelter in the environment, and raise their offspring themselves. This distinguishes them from domestic animals, which are largely dependent on people.
The science of zoology studies all the earth’s fauna. This world consists of animals, fish, birds, insects, mollusks, worms, which are also part of the diverse wild nature. Scientists have already described 1.6 million species of animals, including 42 thousand species of vertebrates and 1.3 million other species.
In our understanding of wild animals, images of only four-legged land animals that feed their offspring with mother’s milk and are called mammals often emerge. Their typical representatives are bears, foxes, elks, hedgehogs, elephants, giraffes and many other rarer animals.
Live in the wild
Where do wild animals live? They live everywhere: on the surface of the earth, in the soil, in surface waters. Mammals, which we call wild animals, live in natural freedom in forests, meadows, mountains, deserts. Rare animals, which are kept in zoos, still remain wild.
The research site Faunalytics claims that the planet has become home to 100 billion land mammals, wild, domesticated, and also people as part of wildlife. Their numbers are divided as follows:
- Domesticated, farm animals make up the majority – 60%.
- People – 34%.
- Wild animals – only 4%.
The wild animals we know live in the following natural conditions:
- In the forests – bears, foxes, wolves, squirrels, hares, wild boars, elks, beavers, badgers, hedgehogs.
- In the deserts – camels, fennec foxes, turtles, iguanas, jerboas and many rodents.
- In the mountains – snow leopards, chamois, mountain goats, alpine marmots, lynxes, Himalayan bears.
All animals have adapted to survive in their natural conditions. In each environment they find food and shelter.
On each continent there are unique wild animals
The fauna of each continent is unique. If local wild animals belong to the same species, they can differ greatly from their relatives.
A particularly unique world has developed in Australia, which existed in isolation for a long time. There are many animals here that are not found anywhere else and are called endemics. The most striking of them are:
- Kangaroo and koalas are symbols of the continent.
- Tasmanian devil.
- Dingo wild dog.
- Echidna.
Europe is home mainly to forest animals. But only here live red deer, bison, Iberian lynx, wolverines. African large animals that live in the savannah are well known to everyone. These are African elephants, lions, hippos, rhinoceroses, giraffes, antelopes, gorillas.
Special Asian species of elephants, lions, tigers live in Asia. There are Indian and Javan rhinoceroses, Malayan tapirs, wild Asian buffalo, rare red pandas. North and South America are rich in unique wild animals. These are coyotes, American corsac fox (dwarf fox), skunks, red wolf and gray fox. Marine mammals live in the northern latitudes: sea otters, otters, seals.
All animals feed on other organisms
The Active Wild Animal Fact Sheet emphasizes that all organisms need nutrients to obtain energy and material from which new cells can be built (proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins).
In nature, there are organisms that produce their own food. These are plants and algae (autotrophs). And there are those that feed on other organisms (heterotrophs). All animals are heterotrophs. At the same time, different species have their own sources of energy and substances, depending on which they are divided into the following large groups:
- Herbivores: hares, elephants, zebras, giraffes, buffalo, hippos.
- Carnivores, or predators: wolves, lions, cheetahs, tigers, panthers.
- Omnivores: bears, foxes, raccoons, badgers, monkeys.
At the same time, all groups depend on autotrophs (plants). Food chains are formed in which larger wild animals eat smaller ones, and smaller ones most often feed on plants. These chains are closed by apex predators, which in the wild have no one to hunt them (tigers, lions, wolves).
Wild animals have adapted to the winter cold
How do wild animals winter? Nature websites Reconnect with Nature and Science made Simple name the most famous methods that animals use to survive the winter:
- make food reserves;
- build shelters;
- hibernate.
Many birds and fish avoid the cold altogether – they migrate to warmer regions. There are inhabitants of northern latitudes that remain active in winter. They are helped to survive the cold by new warm fur and pre-made reserves of subcutaneous fat, which serves as a source of energy and protection from the cold.
Squirrels, beavers, mice, chipmunks make significant food reserves for the winter. They hide from the cold in burrows and other shelters, and in severe frosts, squirrels and mice can huddle together to conserve heat.
There are many wild animals that find themselves without food sources in winter. To survive the cold and hungry times, they hibernate, during which they reduce heat and energy losses to a minimum. The animal sites The Dodo and Tree Hugger name the most famous dormice: bears, hedgehogs, raccoons, marmots, skunks.
It is increasingly difficult for wild animals to survive in modern conditions. Special organizations have been created to protect them, many countries care about the preservation of rare animals and protect them.