By
Ayse Guner
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Buildings, traffic threaten wildlife
Thomas Huels has 16,000 dead feathered creatures to show off in the bird collection room in the Biological Sciences East building.
Huels, a curatorial and museum specialist, receives about 50 dead birds each year, most of which died on the University of Arizona campus.
He usually receives the birds from people who find them on campus. Some birds have died by running into campus windows, Huels said.
Huels keeps them "maintained" because the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department researches birds, and the state keeps them for examining and analyzing. He collects woodpeckers, cactus wrens, peregrine falcons, quails and many other types of birds.
Birds in the collection are from as far back as 1887. But now, Huels calls those specimens "bird pillows" because they are stuffed and only have a few bones remaining in their bodies.
However, Huel's collection could continue to grow larger due to an increase of buildings on campus.
"Science tells us every 1 percent of road we pave, we will loose 1 percent of the species," said Michael Rosenzweig, ecology and evolutionary biology professor.
Other animals and plants are affected as well because they are losing their habitats, he said.
About 50 years ago, cactus gardens occupied the UA Mall. But grass replaced some of the desert vegetation in order to provide easier maintenance and a place for students to sit, Huels said.
William Calder, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor, said there were once gray foxes living in the city and around the UA campus, but they disappeared mostly because of high traffic congestion around the university.
"We occasionally have bobcats coming (on campus)," Calder said. But widening roads creates a danger for the animals when they try to cross the streets, he added.
The introduction of species from other continents also plays a role in threatening local species, he said.
"Some African Sumac tree has been taking over the Palo Verde," Calder said.
European pigeons and starlings nest in woodpecker halls, which lead to the declining number of woodpeckers, he said.
Fewer mocking birds and cactus wrens will be seen if appropriate landscaping is not provided, Calder added.
Though species face all kinds of threats created by humans, additional research could allow faculty and students to learn more about different species and meet their demands, Rosenzweig said.
"I want people to know that the game is not lost," he said. "We could build the school and learn how to meet the needs of an owl, for instance."
Several months ago, a tree on Rosenzweig's backyard died. He did not throw the tree away, and eventually a ladder-backed woodpecker started living in the tree. At that point, he said he realized "we should not take things away, just because they are dead."
"We are just beginning to learn," he said. "We can learn to design our habitats, so other things can use it too."
