The Impact on the Environment

Wolf Poaching:

Wolf poaching is decreasing the numbers of wolves in the wild dramatically. If wolves died out, the entire ecosystem would collapse.

Wolves are a top predator and therefore keep the population of many herbivore (plant-eating) animals under control. If wolves died out, the population of other animals, such as the elk, would increase substantially. The increase in population would mean more plants are being eaten at a faster rate, and soon all the wild vegetation would be consumed. To add to the problem, there would not be any food left for the elk, they would starve and their species would be eradicated from the Earth. Furthermore, many of the plants house other creatures, and over-consumption could lead to many different animals' habitats destroyed.  One example of this was in Yosemite National Park in the 1970's, when the rangers decided to eradicate all the wolves in the area. For some peculiar reason, this has occurred only in America.

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"When I hear of the destruction of a species, I feel just as if all the works of some great writer have perished." – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt

Dingo Poaching:

Dingo poaching is now posing a major threat to Australia's ecosystem.

If dingoes went extinct, small mammals they eat will breed rapidly and will eat so much they will grow in population dramatically. If they consume vast amounts of food, the soil would lose all nutrition because they would be consuming all the vegetation and their roots would be destroyed, and if their roots are destroyed so rapidly erosion would take place and the earth would be severely damaged. It also means a lot of our native animals will die out, or at least a large portion of their population will disappear.