Modern GeographyNewbigin, Marion I. (Marion Isabel)
Science
Modern Geography
Newbigin, Marion I. (Marion Isabel)
Geography
It is possible that further investigation will show that not the mammals
only, but land animals in general can be grouped according to their
habitat like plants, but so far the attempts made in this direction have
been tentative only. Generally, we may say that the mammals of Central
Europe are of the woodland type, but no detailed classification into
steppe and woodland animals exists. It may be useful, therefore, to
indicate the chief kinds of mammals found in the European area, grouped
according to affinity, in the absence of a geographical classification.
Mammals, apart from the egg-laying monotremes, and the marsupials of
Australia, are divided into nine orders, and of these, one, that
including the anteaters, etc., of South America, Africa and India, is
entirely unrepresented in Europe. Another, the Cetaceans, or whales, has
no land representatives; and the same is true of the aberrant sea-cows,
though their ancestors lived on land and occurred in Egypt.
Excluding these orders we are left with six which have European
representatives. These are the following:--
Primates, or monkeys and apes.
Insectivores, or insect-eating mammals, such as moles, shrews and
hedgehogs.
Chiroptera, or bats.
Ungulates, or hoofed animals, including horses, cattle, sheep, deer,
pigs, etc.
Carnivores, or flesh-eaters, including lions, cats, foxes, dogs, etc.
Rodents, or gnawing animals, among which are rats, mice, squirrels, etc.
The _Primates_ are represented by one form only, the Barbary ape, found
in Gibraltar. _Bats_ are numerous, but are of less geographical
interest than land forms. The remaining four orders are all important.
The _Ungulates_ include the largest land mammals, and their size and
conspicuous nature have led to the gradual replacement of the wild forms
by domesticated ones. Only a very few, such as deer, wild goats (ibex),
the wild boar, the wild sheep (moufflon) of Corsica, manage to survive,
and that mostly by aid of special protection. The presence of the large
wild forms is incompatible with almost any form of agriculture as is
often proved disastrously in Africa, hence man's ruthless warfare upon
them.
But if man has destroyed the large ungulates he has found himself unable
even to reduce the numbers of the _Rodents_, who gain in many ways by
civilisation. The destruction of their rivals, the grass-eating
ungulates, increases their natural food-supply. In South America, where
there were very few ungulates till the white man brought his flocks and
herds, the rodents were very numerous and reached a great size. Again,
the operations of agriculture give the rodents enormous artificial
sources of food-supply, and the number of man's domesticated or
semi-domesticated animals makes him wage a bitter war against the small
carnivores, the natural enemies of the rodents. Protected from their
enemies, abundantly fed by man's providence, it is no wonder that these
small animals have multiplied greatly.
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