Purves - Assignment 1

My Love of Animals and why I chose Wildlife Management: 

1 My Love of Animals and why I chose Wildlife Management By Jaime Purves 4153552 505 Wildlife Management: August 2012

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My earliest memory is a three year old me playing with toy horses and pretending I owned a ranch, as I sat on the balcony of my 12 th floor apartment unit in downtown Toronto. Soon after, my family packed up and moved to the peaceful countryside permanently, where I spent the rest of my childhood with my family exploring the lakes, rivers, forests, mountains, and everything else nature had for us. 2 My sisters and I growing up in the country

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My love of nature, and in particular, wildlife, is a part of me and will be forever. I grew up with dogs, cats, bunnies, birds, hamsters, and aquarium fish , but what really captured my imagination were wolves, lions, lemurs, elephants, sharks, and any animal you couldn’t buy in a pet store. My cats: Rufio , Tiger Lily, Sylvester 3

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In grade one I completed a report on what I wanted to be when I grew up. Other kids were going to be astronauts, firefighters, doctors, and baseball players. I wanted to be a Zoologist. 4 z o o L o g i s t

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In University I did just that: I moved to a city 5 hours away where the school was the only one to provide an undergraduate Zoology degree. My time there is indescribable: I was introduced to brilliant minds on the subjects of biology, ecology, zoology, psychology, ethology , and many other sciences. What really changed my life though was the detailed study of the work started by Charles Darwin on evolution. 5

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6 From there, my whole mindset and view of the world changed. I feel like I took off my blindfold and really saw the world for the first time. Natural selection and nature’s adaptability did not take away the wonder of the world but did the complete opposite: it provided an astonishing sense of beauty and fragility that never leaves me.

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From Darwin I was introduced to the work of Richard Dawkins, my favorite thinker. His ideas on evolution, conservation biology, and every day life have been extremely influential on my scientific career but also on myself as a person. I was fortunate enough to hear him speak at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England last fall and it is a memory I will always cherish. 7

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After spending many years studying animals themselves and their place in the evolutionary world, it was shock to fully realize how endangered every single one is. While I always knew certain species were of course endangered (for example Siberian tigers and great blue whales), it did not dawn on me how delicate and precarious our current life on Earth is, for all species, including ourselves. Unsustainable Humans population growth and climate change are overarching threats, along with the specific threats to animal populations, like over hunting or pesticide use. I realized that there was not much point in learning the intricate details of species if they aren’t going to be around for us to use them. 8

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Now my area of focus has grown to include wildlife management, as it is integral to any animal’s success. I think you could also call the field humans and wildlife management, because the majority of wildlife management issues have a human factor to it. I hope to learn how we can share this Earth, as it is the only one we have. As evolution will attest to, we all need each other to survive and thrive. 9

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Photo References Slide 1 - http://the-best-top-desktop-wallpapers.blogspot.ca/2011/02/tiger-wallpapers-tiger-wallpaper.html Slide 2 – Personal Photos Slide 3 – Top: Personal Photo. Bottom: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/big-cats/ Slide 4 – Left: http://listsoplenty.com/pix/really-cool-stick-man-drawings Right: http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/art-90497/A-zoologist-goes-underwater-to-study-a-mammal-called-a Slide 5 – Left: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/fossil.htm Right: http://anxietyindex.com/2009/02/darwin-and-the-crisis/ Slide 6 – Left: http://www.creativelydifferentblinds.com/PhotographersSteveBloom/IndianElephantswimming.aspx Centre: http://redpandanetwork.org/contribute/adopt-a-panda/ Top Right: http://www.photogic.com/insect-photography/some-very-cool-insects-and-birds-photos/ Bottom Right: http://harunyahya.com/en/works/116258/The-creation-characteristics-of-zebra-stripes Slide 7 - http://globedia.com/richard-dawkins http://www.broadinstitute.org/news/3040 http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JYqTJf1A9OQ/S9TJu1x2QEI/AAAAAAAAADc/-j_pxK-VLjg/s1600/SuperNovaReminant.jpg Slide 8 – Right: http://www.wunderground.com/data/wximagenew/m/MikeTheiss/142.jpg Left: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Dubai_night_skyline.jpg/250px-Dubai_night_skyline.jpg Slide 9 – Left: https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrPqdlVL_ilNxMKoxWxgehQKr4xB9KZKogikiUixUlzb1S9euEtw Top: https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4xQ7yrw-yJkm2yZTjTL_cTbC7VBZZhlba2ruLVpNcXIudQDubYQ Bottom: http://www.castanet.net/content/2011/4/coyote-inside2_33.jpg 10