Week Nine Reflection

We are almost at the finish line! We have only a couple of more weeks to go.

I had a lot of fun completing this week's Twitter Tuesday. I got to not only learn about potential solutions to my fox-problem, but I learned a lot about other animals as well.

For example, one of my favorite Tweets this week was by Tiffany Nguyen (@tiffanynguyenUC). Tiffany is studying penguins, and I believe that one of her identified problems is climate change. Penguins are suffering from heat stroke as the global temperatures increase. As a solution, scientists have created "fake nests" for penguins to hide out in and escape the heat. Tiffany even included a photograph in her post. I chose her Tweet because the picture was pretty eye-catching and I think it was a unique solution. I included a photograph of her Tweet for reference.

As for my own research, I found a couple of solutions to my statement of human/fox conflicts and fox population declines. A huge indirect issue foxes face is climate change. I am sure, after reading Tiffany's posts, that many other animals face the same problem. With global temperatures increasing, animals are losing their lands and resources. My first found solution was to tackle the root of the problem - climate change. However, I do admit that battling climate change is no easy feat, so I also looked for other solutions.

A solution I found to reduce the Arctic fox population decline was to get rid of resource competitors in the area. Ironically enough, the research found that red foxes were a resource competitor for the Arctic foxes, and after relocating the red foxes, Arctic fox populations started to increase.

I believe one of the most impactful solutions is to bite down of hunting. While hunting may have its benefits, some hunters love to kill endangered species. By restricting hunters on what animals they are allowed to kill, we can protect the animals.

One solid counterargument I found while researching was in protest of hunting regulations. Foxes prey on small animals, and often end up targeting poultry. Farmers and hunters believe that controlling the fox populations (aka killing them) is the most efficient/best way of solving the issue. And while I can see their point, I am not sure if killing the already unstable fox species populations is a great solution.

I will have to do more research on the counterarguments, but overall I think this is a good start.