BLOG 10-Habitat Fragmentation

As defined, habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat). It is also the process by which isolated patches of habitat are created through land clearing and deforestation. In this mechanism, a type of habitat is lost often caused by road development, which confines wildlife populations to small, isolated patches of their original habitat.

Fig. 1. The Developed Memorial Garden

An example of habitat fragmentation is the development that happened near a neighbouring space at the back of our house. This area, about 5-8 hectares used to be a residential area with a diversity of plants around plus the growing of some poultry animals. Looking back, when we would go up to our room, we would peep through our windows and happily would observe the wide area. We used to see tall trees and other unfamiliar plants that abound the area not to mention the noise that we could hear from a variety of animals that made this place their niche. I remember, my family would comment that they could not sleep due to a lot of animal sounds that they hear vibrating around the area. But this was already five years ago. Now, this area became the Heaven’s Garden, a famous memorial park.

I remember, when the area was being developed, I observed some unusual things. For the many years we have been staying in our residence, it was the first time that about 2 – 3 snakes were found inside our house! Not only this, but we also saw a lot of rats in the four corners of the house. It was always a frightening experience for all of us when we would see the tail part of the snake hiding under one of our cabinets! How we wish we would be able to immediately kill them! Everybody was so afraid to go down or go to the kitchen because of this. Of course, the last resort is to kill the animal and there was always a feeling of relief when this happened. This happened at least 3 times in a month. It was so ridiculous that after we were able to kill all the snakes, the rats came next. These were really pests that we always wanted to get rid of them. At one point, I realized that the proliferation of snakes and rats in our place had something to do with the development of Heaven’s Garden. Truly, the transformation of the area caused the destruction of the animal and plant habitats that thrive there. Rats and snakes immediately transferred to our place as their new habitat. Since their original habitat was already destroyed, the animals found a newly-isolated space in our house so that a new population of their species may be formed again. But of course, this would not be possible since our place is not the habitat for these animals. I recall, when the bulldozer was being used to clear the area, there was also noise pollution that could somehow disturb and destruct the habitat of the diverse groups of organisms there. It was really a chaos in the area making the animals cross-over to land at our place!

Fig. 2. The Facade of Heaven's Garden Memorial Park

         Another habitat fragmentation I observe is the development of the road along Calamba connecting to Lipa City. For many years, the place was not being touched but due to the increasing population that causes heavy traffic along this area, this development was pushed through. I remember, when we drive from Manila I always see many plants in the area and even if I do not see the animals there, I know a lot really live there. However, now that the area has already been transformed, the animals on one side of the road might now be blocked from moving to areas on the other side. The developed road is the barrier that blocks the movement of the animals from one side to the other side.