Researchers have revealed that not only does President Donald Trump’s border wall threaten migrants from Mexico but may hurt animals as well. The study has shown that the animals that are and could be affected by the wall are mostly endangered.
According to Tucson Sentinel, it was also revealed in an analysis by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that several tropical bird species endangered in the United Stated could be affected by the border. Nonetheless, an Arizona study also pointed out that the constant noise, traffic, and stress that the Border Patrol and other law enforcement authorities are also threat to wildlife along the border.
“Free movement of wildlife is especially important after droughts or natural disasters that can wipe out subpopulations,” Flesch said on the 2014 published study. The Arizona biologist Flesch then stated that the only species that is known to survive across the border are humans as the fence had lessened the environmental impact of the place.
Live Science then identified that the endangered species living along and is affected by the incomplete border were the Arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus) and black-spotted newt (Notophthalmus meridionalis.) Other species like jaguars, desert bighorn sheep and roadrunners were also mentioned to witness the tearing apart of their habitat.
Jesse Lasky, a biologist at Penn State University identified that Trump’s wall reduces the animal’s habitat range by 75 percent. Lasky was stated to have already conducted his own investigation along with other researchers.
Furthermore, the data provided by Lasky was said to note the animals living along the border on whether they were vulnerable, threatened or endangered. His investigation along with other researchers then discovered that along with the aforementioned animals, four species were identified to be globally threatened.
He concluded that if the U.S.-Mexico wall would be built, the endangered and native animal’s habitats would be “pushed over the edge.” “If the populations on the border start disappearing, the functioning of these ecosystems could be reduced,” Lasky stated on the study published in journal Diversity and Distributions.
