Ethan Pinero – Nature vs Development

The woman I interviewed was an 18 year old who is also a student however does not take this class.  She is very interested in nature and other surrounding themes.

A group of deer off of Gemini road close to UCF.  This image highlights how the environment that the deer are living in is getting closer and closer to developed areas as more and more of the development expands.  The deer being so close to the road and pavement is highlighting a large issue of deer possibly getting hit by vehicles and motorcycles which on a motorcycle could be deadly to both the deer and the person.

Seeing so many deer so close to such a large campus is worrisome.  A place where deer use to live without people around has now been taken over by a large population of people.  With many roads around the probability of deer getting hit by cars is increased substantially compared to a less populated and less developed area.  One of the main issues one of having so many people around is that normal behavior of a lot of the animals in this case the deer is altered.  This picture is still regardless a good representation of how these animals are able to adapt and overcome the obstacles that are placed in front of them.

This image is composed of a fox in a parking lot in London.  This fox was spotted right outside an apartment complex, the fox was right next to the city.  The natural environment that the foxes generally live in is miles and miles away from where they are right now.  While in London, gained the knowledge that they are very similar to raccoons, always kind of lurking around not an uncommon experience to see a fox just walking around the city.  This has created a problem for the foxes in which their natural prey and food is no where near them and their behavior has changed immensely.

Similarly to the deer in largely populated and developed places some animals have to change and adapt to the changes around them.  In this case, the fox is in a parking lot.  Which differs from their natural and normal environment which would be forested areas.  This has changed the foods that the foxes would normally eat which can introduce different diseases and other pathogens into their system as well as mess up the ecosystem.

This image was taken in Central Florida, the Park Ave area.  This town is very nature friendly, with it being a very progressive town the amount of nature that is combined with the normal architecture is almost seamless having a lot of nature and developed areas in very close proximity.  This area has created an environment where both people and animals can coexist in a small area.   With so many trees and grassy areas it is very similar to what you would find before the area was developed, obviously it isn’t as biologically diverse as it once was however the mix of both people and animals is safe for both of them.

Nature and development can go hand in hand though.  In this image the trees and nature landscape is somewhat preserved to create a balance through both the developed areas and the nature areas.  Similar to something like central park in New York there are many benefits to having these green areas. It gives the animals a place to continue to act as they would in their natural environment, while as well giving people the benefits of disconnecting from their developed lives which improves mood as well as other benefits.

The one main theme to all of these is how nature and development interact with each other.  More specifically pointing towards how different animals interact in the more developing environments that surround them.