As human population increases and people continue to encroach forested spaces, voiceless animals lose their natural habitat and become the worst affected victims.

Habitat destruction, fragmentation, and modification caused by human-led activities (i.e., industrial and residential development, logging, crop farming, livestock grazing, mining, road and dam building, and pesticide use) have taken an extreme toll on threatened and endangered wildlife populations at an alarming rate.

Human activity often changes or destroys the habitats that plants and animals need to survive. Because human populations are growing so fast animals and plants are disappearing 1000 times faster than they have in the past 65 million years.

Overfishing and hunting, the destruction of habitats through agriculture and urban sprawl, the use of pesticides and herbicides, and the release of other toxic compounds into the environment have all taken their toll, particularly on vertebrates.

ing to United Nations estimates, world population reaches the six billion mark on 12 October 1999. The World at Six Billion was prepared in response to the widespread global attention to this historic milestone.

Populations compete for food and places to live. The human population is growing very fast, forcing other populations to move.

In some species of carpenter ants, colonies may contain 50,000 ants or more! After a few years, an established colony will create its first reproductive males and females, which are winged (called “swarmers,” or “alates”). In spring, they leave the nest in a “nuptial swarm” to mate nearby.