Question

How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting wildlife? With fewer cars on the roads, and with parks and wildlife areas closed to the public for several weeks, the Stay-at-Home Order (shelter in place) likely affected some animal populations in urban areas.

describe two examples of how animals have been affected.
Make sure to include the type of animal affected, and how they are affected. If you have directly witnessed affected wildlife, you may use that as one example.

Answer 1

The whole world is fighting against an invisible opponent "corona" that has forced us all to push the ‘PAUSE’ button on our lives. This global pandemic has set off a ripple effect across all nations, and the life has descended into rather dark times.

This crisis also had a deep impact on the wildlife. While the world has come to a complete standstill, nature seems to be reclaiming the territory. The wild animals near urban cities are using this opportunity to step beyond their comforts of the forested homes. The global wildlife trade has been thrown into the spotlight and wildlife tourism too has benn impacted by this pandemic.

A massive Blue-bull ( Nilgai ) was found wandering outside a Mall in Noida, India. The coyotes were also found basking in the parks of San Francisco. Some cougars found roaming in the streets of Santiago. The whole world has witnessed some rare wildlife sightings due to coronavirus, which were never seen before.

Due to this crisis, all the vehicles and industies are paused which had reduced the pollution level in the atmosphere. Reduced human encounters in turn has given urban wildlife an opportunity to venture beyond their usual territory. There have been reported incidents of animals venturing into cities all around the world.

It is said that Quarantine has affected the human life completely due to the PAUSE everywhere but Quarantine is affecting wildlife in unexpected ways. Let us see some examples:

1) In some countries like India, monkeys and several other wildlife species are adapted to urban environments and are completely dependent on human generated food waste. Furthermore, people also feed monkeys for religious sentiments which condition them to associate human presence with their food.

A video footage was uploaded from a popular tourist spot in Thailand. In that footage, a troop of starving monkeys were seen brawling over a cup of yogurt due to lack of easily available food due to this lockdown. This proves that monkeys in some countries are totally dependent on humans and are very much affected by this crises.

2) The Global tourism industry has been one of the worst hit during this crisis due to travel restrictions. This has brought some much deserved relief to the elephants in countries like Thailand and India which are popular for elephant joyrides for tourists.

The Elephants which are commercially exploited are blind, lame, elderly and sick elephants who are forced to take tourists on their backs even on hot surfaces. Now, those else are free and relaxed due to Quarantine.

But if we look at the condition again, those Elephants are weak and old. Hence, they can't get their food by themselves and depend on their masters. Due to Quarantine, the business of masters is PAUSED. This led them to have low balance which affected the diet of Elephants. Those masters didn't feed those Elephants property which make them more weaker.

Hence, both these examples proves that Quarantine has not only affected human life but also has affected Wildlife.