How is Madagascar's wildlife being affaected by deforestation?

How does deforestation effect amozon wildlife?

• Answer:

  Well one of the most damaging effects of deforestation on wildlife can occur when a rainforest is split. For example, if you have a square area of rainforest, there is a perimeter of the forests edge and the dense area inside the square. Most animals reside within the dense area of the rainforest and if this area is cut down the middle, two squares of rainforest are now formed thus increasing the perimeter part of the rainforest and severely reducing the dense area in which most animals reside. Therefore, the animal habitats are being severely reduced with each swing of an axe. In addition, the actual removal of the trees leaves the area of clear cut open to mud slides. These mud slides can in turn clear more trees and cut down the amount of livable space to animals and people of the rainforest. Many of the processes used to clear the rainforests can be damaging. Most clear cutting is done for use of land or to find gold mines. Either way the land is essentially mined or farmed until it is bone dry. The mining that takes place usually requires mercury to remove gold from the other rock around it in the mine. The mercury leaks into the ground and thus into the rivers of these rainforests killing hundreds of fish. Animals that either consume the water or consume the fish polluted by this mercury are also killed. The food chains within rainforests are incredibly complex and deforestation drastically throws the rainforests functioning out of equilibrium and into a spiral of disaster. (oh and just a little hint, Amazon, not Amozon. :] )