Hot Topic- Cows and Zebras Living Together
by Haleigh Madi
When you think of farming in Africa, you wouldn't think of cows, lions and zebras living together. However, this could be the new reality due to the fact that wildlife is running out of land to get food. Today, ranchers are taking more and more land to feed their cattle, not thinking about how they are cutting into the homes of wild animals. There have been concerns with integrating these animals. Some of them include spreading diseases amongst each other, wildlife eating the livestock, and ultimately animals having to fight for food. Even though these concerns can become a detrimental reality for the farmer, some of them decided to integrate the animals anyway. Once farmers started to mix the animals, it became prominent that the insect and tick presence on both wildlife and livestock was decreased. The more livestock to wildlife ratio, the less ticks were present which ultimately decreases the spread of disease. In the same research study, scientists found that land with both livestock and wildlife had more grass to feed the animals. The ranchers that had both types of animals did not lose any money compared to the ranchers who just hosted livestock.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/best-way-help-cows-and-zebras-make-them-live-together
Discussion Questions:
What do you think could be some additional concerns for farmers who integrate livestock and wildlife?
If Africa were to integrate across the entire continent, how effective do you think it would be?
What other issues could integrating the animals solve besides the land issue?
I think integrating would be good for multiple uses for one it would make better use of land -jo
ReplyDeleteIf integrating the animals so far has helped reduce ticks, perhaps if they mix more they will discover other upsides like immunities to disease. We can't be certain. - Grace Briggs
ReplyDeleteI think some concerns some farmers would have with the mix is the wildlife possibly caring diseases and passing them on to their livestock.
ReplyDeleteIt's like how we talked about it in class, sometimes including all animals together instead of isolating them and instead treating the livestock to be free to a certain extent, helps with things like disease and possibly better the health of the animal, it's also very very cost effective. This whole idea is what is called biodiversity. - Mitchell Shabansky
ReplyDeleteI think integrating animals can benefit animals because animals can have a lower risk of having diseases and animals don't have to worry about getting food. - Riki Tanaka
ReplyDeleteI don't think continent wide integration between wild animals and livestock is a good idea because there are a lot of both forms of animals in Africa that would be less likely to get along then the ones already integrated right now which could lead to something very bad - Nathaniel H.
ReplyDeleteI don't think integration of wildlife into pastures is a good idea because, even if it increases biodiversity and conserves land, wildlife and livestock have likely not been naturally found living together or near each other, which could have negative implications.
ReplyDeleteI agree also animals like zebra, lions and all that should be taken to zoo's I know its not the best idea but they have more space their and they eat healthy, also they are well taken care of ( in some zoo's). - Anushka
DeleteThere are pros and cons to integrating wildlife into livestock. Pros, as listed, include a decrease in tick and insect presence, along with more grass to feed the animals. However, there are some future consequences that could be in store. For example, future diseases could be spread, either the cows or wildlife could attract other animals that would create conflict, conflict could evolve itself, and lions could even start eating the cows and use them as food. -Tori Favazza
ReplyDeleteI think some other issues are they could breed on accident and make some really weird, funky, dangerous breed, or maybe the animals could hate eachother and would constantly fight, and they will eventually run out of food, so i think there are quite a few problems. -Kaylyn Sharp
ReplyDeleteIntegrating wildlife and lifestock could improve biodiversity, which could help prevent the spread of disease.
ReplyDelete-Sawyer
I don't think integrating wildlife would be a wise decision. sure there are some good things to it, but I think it will have a bad impact opposed to a good one because we don't know how specific species will interact with other species and if they have bad interactions it can turn chaotic and turn into a mess. -Andrew
ReplyDeleteWhen you join two species together there could be problems and difficulties-Connor Ortmann
ReplyDeleteDo the zebras and cows get along? Do they respect each other. -Shannon Easley
ReplyDeleteI think that this is interesting as this is a counterargument to the notion that biodiversity is unanimously harmful. -Matt Schnaare
ReplyDeletethis would effect biodiversity, but in a positive or negative way? -brooke phelan
ReplyDeleteWould diseases be able to be spread from species to species or would that not be possible?
ReplyDeletebrandon smith
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