The U.S.-Mexico fence protects the border but could endanger animals
Posted 11.12.2009 at 1:06 pm
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Border Patrol: The U.S.-Mexico border fence could affect turkey populations if the birds cannot fly over an 18-foot enclosure to find additional food sources. Roy Toft
Last February, Roy Toft, a fellow at the International League of Conservation Photographers, photographed these turkeys for an ILCP project documenting wildlife around the first few hundred miles of the 18-foot metal wall that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is building along the border.
Defenders of Wildlife, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit partnering with ILCP, predicts that the wall could interfere with the habitat or migration (and therefore the feeding and mating opportunities) of some 40 endangered and threatened species, including jaguars and ocelots. “I started the project in hopes of broadening our discussion of [the wall’s] environmental factors,” says ILCP member Krista Schlyer, who recruited Toft for the project.
This month, Toft’s work will be exhibited for the U.S. Senate.
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Maybe the turkeys on the border are a little more laid back than the ones in Alabama. The ones here would have no trouble at all of flying over a fence.
more excuses. stop the immigrants. ill eat ham instead for thanksgiving...
I am a Mexican Turkey if that photo is genuine. Geez, what about Avain Flu? Now that counter point could really send the feathers flying. Or on the other hand make a real turkey out the other position. Why do EnvironMENTALists embrace Darwinian Envolution in theory but then seek to save everything they can. Not that the turkeys should pay the price mind you but we certainly are underestimating their motivation, they do have wings after all. Nothing like mating season to motivate flight. That photo is begging for a photoshop appointment.
USA is the new communism. Big fences do not make good neighbors. But you stole half of Mexico and now you protect what is "yours". I do not give USA too much to live.
from coral gables, fl
Seriously, what are we China?
Trying to build a wall around the country because we're so superior we need to keep everyone else out.
What this country is supposed to be about is the free exchange of ideas. The fence is a symbol of that era being over - now this country has become so closed minded and ethnocentric we're repeating the mistakes of ancient China.
I expect the Mongolians to come tear down the fence as soon as its finished anyway.
Who are we keeping out anyway? Was some study done showing that Mexicans don't know how to dig? The fact is Mexicans work harder trying to get in than we ever will trying to keep them out. And that work ethic is a good reason to let them in in the first place.