QUESTION
Summarize the point made in the lecture and explain how the speaker cast doubt on specific points made in the reading passage.
READING PASSAGE
Wildlife crossings are structures built to allow animals to cross human-made barriers safely. These crossings promote habitat conservation by allowing connections and reconnections between habitats to avoid habitat fragmentation. They also lower instances of collisions between animals and vehicles that cause injury, and sometimes death, to both wildlife and humans. While the conservation benefits created by these structures are a priority of several groups, they are not as useful as they seem.
First of all, animals cannot train themselves to use crossings like we do. If the animals cannot make use of the crossings, the crossings are considered useless. Also, research suggests that animals living in the wild are often reluctant to cross these crossings to mingle with other populations.
Secondly, because the crossings are useless, they become a waste of financial resources. Wildlife crossing includes structures such as underpass tunnels, viaducts, overpasses, amphibian tunnels, fish ladders, and green roofs. Each of these structures requires money to build, but because of the uselessness of the structures they become just another financial waste for the country building them.
And finally, the developed areas that create the wildlife crossings are damaged and prevent wild animals from reproducing. While loss of habitat, road kill, and isolation from resources exert pressure on various animal populations by reducing available resources and killing individuals in the populations, Bennet (1991) found that road kills do not pose a significant threat to healthy populations and are only devastating to threatened populations.
LECTURE AUDIO
