My son recently visited the Amazon jungle in Ecuador, booking a spot on a series of guided hikes into the jungle. On arrival, he and his friend found that they were the only ones signed up. The guide said they might see wildlife, like monkeys and sloths, but there was no guarantee. What great luck, to be able to go into the jungle with only three people, rather than a large, noisy group.
Over a couple of days of hiking, they saw not a single monkey. Why not? I suspect the constant parade of people along the trails caused the animals to move deeper into the jungle. This would be consistent with the studies reported in another post on this site, in which researchers found that wildlife densities decreased near trails.
So what happens along the South Fork of the Peachtree Creek in the narrow corridor of wildlife habitat when a trail is built and traversed by people and their dogs? There is nowhere for the animals to go except along the creek. The fox in the photo above now lives near Robin Lane. People near the Johnson-Taylor park say they used to have foxes, but no more since usage rates increased following the construction of an access bridge. That’s when the creek beaches were improperly adopted as a “destination” off leash dog run. The foxes had to move on.
If the SFC plan results in a 32 mile continuous trail along the entire creek, the animals will go ___?____.
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