The Impact Of Land Use On Wildlife Habitat

The scope of biogeography includes, among other things, the analysis of the distribution and redistribution of biota as a result of a more or less purposeful and direct modification of the natural environment by man.! One aspect of human modification of natural environments has been the alteration and destruction of wi Idlife habitats. Wildlife is a product of the land.2 Different kinds of wildlife can occupy the land only so long as their required habitat types exist in a particular spatial arrangement. The maximum population of wildlife that any given unit of land can support, therefore depends on the interspersion of the habitat types in relation to the mobility of the species (Figure 1). Most wildlife species require at least three or four environmental types in a 'particular juxtaposition on each unit of range. The 'unit' is a spatial one of such size that all necessary habitat types are accessible to the individual animal. The degree of interspersion is thus directly related to the spatial arrangement and diversity of habitat types