For this assignment, we had to put together an ecology presentation on an endangered species of our own choice that we would find online. The animal I found was the snowy owl, known for being Harry Potter’s chosen pet in the JK Rowling books. We had to find information including the species’ habitat, its impact on the food chain, its indirect and direct effect on gas emissions, what those gas emissions are, and mitigation methods in play to help solve this issue. We then had to make up our own rules considering the facts we had researched to try to help the animal ourselves. After all of this, our final step was to summarize the research we did into a speech and PowerPoint that we could present to the class. Unfortunately, I was sick during this event so I presented my research to Ms. Lauder personally.
The first bit of research I did was some basic facts on the snowy owl’s behaviors, diet, and appearance. This would help the reader get to know the species. The second thing I talked about was the importance of Snowy Owls. Snowy Owls are important because they eat lemmings which harm the environment if the amount of them isn’t controlled. I followed this up by showing her a food chain where Snowy Owls come into play.
After this I explained the environment that the Snowy Owl lives in. I told her all about the Tundra along with its environmental impacts, its greenhouse gases, and its direct and indirect impacts on the species. The Enviornmental impacts were what humans used the land for. Which in this case was mining for precious materials and oil. Greenhouse gases are gases trapped inside the atmosphere that change the temperature of earth’s surface. The Tundra had two main greenhouse gases including methane and carbon dioxide. Finally, the direct and indirect impacts were how the owl is affected by these gases directly and indirectly.
The next thing I had to do was tell her the mitigation methods in play now, which is basically what is being done to stop the harming of the environment and the species. The methods being used were the usage of indigenous protected areas which are areas of land that are protected by the indigenous peoples. The final informational portion I wrote down was the methods to achieve Net Zero. Net Zero is a global plan to get rid of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The methods were shown by Tundra, whose strategy was to spread awareness of this plan to companies around the globe.
My rule was to slow down vehicles during migration season since the majority of owl deaths happen because of crashes and wind turbines.
For next time, I would like to go into more depth of the mitigation methods to help the snowy tundra and the animals in it. I believe there is more than one measure to ensure the safety of anything wild in these territories. I would also add a rule that is more indirect than the one I had made. For example, something to lower the greenhouse gases may have more affect than slowing cars down.