“What Does Wildlife Conservation Mean to You?” Essay Winners
Congratulations to our essay contest winners Gabrielle and Ainsley! Both essays were so good we couldn’t pick just one! The girls won VIP passes to Woodmen of the World’s Falcon Banding and a class visit from Raptor Recovery NE (and their educational falcon)!
Read what wildlife conservation means to Gabrielle and Ainsley:
WHAT DOES WILDLIFE CONSERVATION MEAN TO ME?
By Gabrielle Swing – 5th Grade Avery Elementary
Wildlife conservation is when you protect endangered animals, plants and their habitat. It is very important to my friends and I. We learn a lot about it at school and take field trips that help us learn more. This year we went to Fontenelle Forest. I have also gone with my parents to the Bird Refuge and the Henry Doorly Zoo.
We must protect our animals and plants if we want our children to grow up in a world that includes them. We lose different species to climate change, habitat loss, pesticides, pollution, and hunting.
Omaha Nebraska’s Henry Doorly Zoo does a lot of conservation. I recently visited their Center for Conservation and Research and learned of many programs they run. I spoke to a conservation expert and she told me about the Puerto Rican Crested Toad that they’ve been working to save. Last year, they hatched here at the zoo and then transported over 9,000 tadpoles to Puerto Rico.
I also visited the Butterfly Conservation Center at the zoo. I was amazed to see hundreds of cocoons hanging from the ceiling of a room. I also saw the different stages of butterfly life and actually saw one hatch. There are 17,500 different butterfly species. 3% are going to be extinct. What would our world be without butterflies?
We must take care of our world. Humans have destroyed so many species already – we must become more responsible or eventually, it will be us that will become extinct.
WHAT DOES WILDLIFE CONSERVATION MEAN TO ME?
By Ainsley Rutledge – 3rd Grade Lewis Central Community Schools
I think that animals shouldn’t have to live somewhere else because humans and builders are destroying their land for people to have homes. The people have a home but the animals don’t. The place where the homes and buildings are now was the animals’ home first. I don’t believe that it’s fair for the animals to have to give up their home. I would feel horrible to have to leave my home just because someone destroyed it.
People are destroying animals’ homes everywhere, so soon there won’t be a lot of animals left. Many animals will become extinct because of this. There are many endangered animals that will be killed off if people aren’t more careful.
I think that we should make all of the places where animals live a place where no humans can live or build buildings. This will keep people from destroying the homes that animals lived in first. I think this would be important to do to keep the animals happy. It would be very kind to make the animals’ homes protected areas, so that people could not build in those areas.
I think that it is very important and just the right thing to do to help protect animals. A lot of people may not understand wildlife conservation, but I hope that that changes soon.