Urban Sprawl
What is Urban Sprawl? The definition of urban sprawl is: the uncontrolled spread of urban development into neighboring regions, so basically it is the cutting down of forest in your backyard to make it in to a neighbors' house, but on a gigantic scale. How this affects the moraine can be seen below.
In this enlarged picture of the moraine you can see that the houses have been built into the moraine already, causing habitat loss for many animals, but what do you think is going to happen once the moraine is cut in two by the housing industry? Ya, that's right the animals won't be able to come and go from either side causing dramatic population decrease for the animals.
Impact
The impact of urban sprawl can already be witnessed in the moraine. Some of the effects are:
- the loss of habitat for many animals. If you looked above at the map, all that pinkish area has already been deplete of its original habitat for the animals.
- the loss of food and shelter. Without a habitat for the animals to live then obviously the animals would have a hard time finding food for themselves and their young.
- the decrease in population of certain animals. If animals can't find food for themselves and their young then their population would decrease.
Peregrine Falcon
The peregrine falcon is a falcon with habitats on steep drops like a cliff edge or a tall building. They are common migrators spotted in the Oak Ridges Moraine. They move North in the summer from South either to take shelter from the cold or for some to breed. The birds that live in the trees are a major food source for the falcon when they migrate north.
The urbanization of the moraine has caused the migration of the birds that peregrine falcons feed on, meaning the falcon have to fly further to find food when migrating.
The urbanization of the moraine has caused the migration of the birds that peregrine falcons feed on, meaning the falcon have to fly further to find food when migrating.
