Bankrupt Zoo

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-27055311

This article talks about the financial difficulties of a zoo in England. This is a zoo that has basically gone bankrupt and its up for sale. People are volunteering to work in this zoo just to help the animals out, they are willing to help the environment and make a change. The zoo has over 200 species of birds, and 90% of the total species are owned by people which put the species in the zoo because they also want to make a difference in the world. Contrary to this, there are people who are doing opposite of this, poaching and not preserving our environment. The reason why the zoo went bankrupt is because of lack of visitors, and lack of donations. People need to take another step, and donate different and strange animals so that it would attract people therefore creating publicity, therefore creating money. It's a chain that can be easily started with the willpower of people. Now that the zoo is bankrupt, it is advertised for sale, and currently its waiting for the highest bidder. The price they are expecting is from £300,000-£350,000.

Alternative approach in fighting poaching

The article talks about a drastic approach to fight poaching. In this case a town council has decided that in order to stop illegal fishing the entire fish population will simply be removed. After complaints were received by the council, an action had to follow. Due to there though not being enough resources such as patrol units or funds it was simply decided to hire a contractor in order to remove the fish population. More than 1t of fish were removed which took around 3 days, species affected were; carp, perch, roach, and rudd. Poaching is a general problem being faced by many countries around the world as food becomes more scare. As signs did not help in this case, a drastic choice was made, this though could have an impact on the ecosystem.

I think that this approach to fight poaching is a bit over the top. Poaching may be a problem but to remove the fish rather than fighting poaching is very drastic. As we learned so far every species plays a specific role in an ecosystem such as the Grey Wolf in Yellow stone. The effect which the removal of fish can have on the canal are unknown. Fish often have the role of controlling the plant population, with them being gone it could come to an increase in water plants which could result in the canal being blocked. Through this positive feedback even higher costs then setting up a patrol will be the result.

Link to article http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-27021354