Читать книгу Geography For Dummies - Jerry T. Mitchell - Страница 39

Movies may be responsible for more environmental misinformation than any other source. Thus, in the world according to Hollywood, animals have a maddening tendency to show up in locations where they have no business being. Sometimes the errors are rather obscure. For example, in the nativity scene at the start of the 1959 movie Ben-Hur, a Holstein calf prances by the manger. Holsteins are those dairy cattle with the black and white splotches. The problem is the Holsteins come from Schleswig-Holstein, the part of Germany that borders Denmark. Two thousand years ago, there would not have been a Holstein anywhere near Bethlehem. Like I said, sometimes the errors are rather obscure. Then again, sometimes the errors are downright outrageous, and, in that regard, nothing beats Hollywood’s treatment of the African lion. Check out just about any of the old Tarzan movies, George of the Jungle, or a host of other flicks set in a rainforest. Almost inevitably, one or more lions show up. The problem, of course, is that a lion has a whole lot less business being in a rainforest than does a Holstein in Bethlehem. Lions do not live in rainforests. Could they be near one? Sure, as habitats do rub up against each other. But an African lion really isn’t the King of the Jungle and the reason is simple. A lion has virtually nothing to eat in a rainforest — except maybe Tarzan.

Perhaps it would be better if I personalized the question. Let’s say you really have it in for the king of beasts and want to get rid them. I’m talking extinction. What is a safe, easy, and effective way to go about it? You have a handful of options:

 Shoot every last one of them

 Teach impalas self-defense

 Destroy their habitat

 Pack them off to Australia

Although each response has some possibilities, the best choice is “destroy their habitat.” And that is indeed the main reason for the reduction of lion country from its former dimensions to its present ones and is also the reason why the lion is located where it is now.

A natural habitat can change for natural reasons or for unnatural reasons. As regards to the former, climate change is a major possibility. Natural grasslands are the result of a specific set of climatic characteristics. So if those climatic factors change, you would expect grasslands to change, too. Now, ample evidence exists of climate change in Africa. But the nature and extent of it is insufficient to explain the wholesale disappearance of grasslands over the wide area indicated on the map. So, climate is not the primary culprit. Instead, the fault lies elsewhere and mainly takes the form of human beings. Those humans are building roads, converting land to agriculture, and building settlements. Some people also kill lions as sporting trophies or in retaliation for killing livestock.