Yea, so my essay is something like, the domination of man...
Wild animals
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Of these, animals can be said to make up the largest percentage of wildlife. They have roamed the Earth in different forms, but as far as history goes, they can be said to be the dominant species existing on the planet. Even today, we can see that Homo sapiens is the leading creature, ruling over all matters on the Blue Planet. However, as humans get ever more powerful, wild animals are slowly wiped off the planet.
Wild animals can be traced back as far as 560 million years ago, tentatively a humble sponge that existed at the bottom of the sea. Ever since then, animals have evolved greatly. At the time of the dinosaurs, it was probably evolution at its peak, where, they existed at gargantuan sizes and ruled the earth. Even for a long time after the age of the dinosaurs, wild animals dominated the scene in the form of woolly mammoths in the Ice Age and sabre-toothed cats after that. From these examples, we can tell that animals have held their own for millions of years, and through the long course of evolution, not much has happened to change the fact of their excellent survival. Even major apocalyptic events could be taken in stride, and new animals have quickly risen to take the spaces.
Enter Man, 200000BC. He used to be just another animal on the planet. Making his “baby steps into the world as an advanced form of monkey, he soon evolved slowly to lose his tail, walk on two legs and develop an upright posture. As he progressed, his brain increased in size and power. With that increase in intelligence, mankind learnt how to make and use weapons, cook food and even group together. Civilisation had begun. As their weapons became advanced in power, they were able to hunt down animals, killing them in great numbers. One species was experiencing a power unprecedented in all other wild animals.
Man extended his dominion. He built cities, found technologies, and in a move shaming to the Kingdom of Animalia, he started to take other wild animals captive, and turned many wild animals to take on the derogatory term of “domesticated animals”. The dog was first to fall under this category, followed by the sheep for wool, then the cow for milk, pigs for pork and most recently, the hedgehog as a pet. Most of these domesticated animals have spent such a long time under man’s dominion that most of them have lost their ability to survive in the wild. Many more have even lost semblance to their wild ancestors. Take the example of the chicken, domesticated for eggs, hardly takes after its current wild counterpart, the red jungle fowl. There is a strong sexual dimorphism and camouflaging plumage in the female are found in the wild jungle fowl, which also roosts in trees, which protects them from predators on the ground. The domesticated chicken shows none of these traits, and even seems to be stupid enough to eat almost whatever is given to them, as long as it shares some characteristics to their normal feed. Such is the extent of human impact on animals.
Can wild animals remain wild anymore? Can we return Earth to a state where every animal existed as a wild animal, where all would co-exist harmoniously, none lording over the other? Probably not now, and sadly, not ever, given the state, and ways that humanity thinks.
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