Around the world, the number of people is growing.
We live in almost every corner of Earth, except for icy wastes and mountains.
People are taking over more and more wild land. Plants and animals have less and less space to live in.
Tourists disturb turtles nesting on beaches.
Turtles spend their lives at sea, but come ashore to lay their eggs on beaches. The bright lights of new hotels on nesting beaches confuse the adult turtles and also the babies that hatch out from the eggs.
Animals such as this badger die on busy roads.
As human numbers rise, villages spring up on wild land and slowly grow into towns. Roads linking towns cut though forests and grasslands.
Many animals are run over on bush roads. During the 1990s, one in five badgers in the Netherlands were killed every year on the country’s roads.
Each year, there are more and more people on Earth.
Two hundred years ago, there were one billion (one thousand million) people on Earth. Now there are over six billion.
Forests are cut down and other wild places are taken over just to provide the space we need to live in. Wild places where animals and plants can live are getting smaller and smaller.
A few animals, such as raccoons, are at home in towns and cities.
As towns and cities expand, so most wild animals are driven out. However, a few kinds of animals have adjusted to city life.
Frogs, squirrels, butterflies and birds make homes in gardens and parks. Foxes, rats and raccoons search for food among our rubbish.
Even in cities it is important to keep areas of woodland and marsh that can provide a home to rare species such as otters and voles.
Picture Credit : Google
