The World Cup and the Anthropocene* in a Pocket
by T. G. Goh
It's the World Cup and everybody is talking football, so I'm taking the chance as well. There is a very unique habitat in the sports field near the Law Faculty. Unlike most fields in UM which tend to be wetter and occasionally muddy or large expanses of monocultured grass, this field is covered in hardy grasses and creeping plants, the soil a bit dry and slightly sandy. It's a terrible pitch but occasionally it is used for football or softball practice.
Here you can find birds such as the Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus), which has a long beak that is specialised for feeding in sandy ground or scrubland. These birds are very common in this area and are probably there to feed on the worms and insects. If you walk through the short grass, small moths and gnats scramble out of the way. These are a source of food for many insectivorous birds and groups of Mynas can often be seen hunting for prey in the field. Other bird species, like the Spotted Dove, Zebra Dove, Asiantic Sparrows and Mynas use the sand for sand baths, in which they rub their bodies against the sand to remove small parasites from their body.
But how does a dry sandy environment like this occur naturally in our tropical environment? It doesn't. It's a habitat that is created by anthropogenic or human caused disturbances (and bad groundskeeping). The act of humans playing sports and parking cars on the ground churns up the soil layer and increases the erosion of nutrient rich topsoil, leaving mostly sand. The stomping also prevents the growth of larger shrubs or plants. It's bad for plants, but beneficial for some animals.
This brings up an interesting question, what should we do about environments like this? Whose side should we pick? The unlikely alliance of birds and footballers, or the trees and shrubs that might want to colonise the field? Tough question isn't it? To be honest I don't think there is a clear answer. But these are the types of decisions that man will have to face as we get further into the Anthropocene, the age where mankind has had an impact on virtually every environment. If we can't decide on just a field, imagine how hard it will be to make decisions on a global scale.
*Anthropocene: an informal term for our current geological age, where human activity is the dominant influence on the environment.
T.G. Goh is an entomologist based in the Museum of Zoology. He can frequently be seen walking around campus, ruminating on the state of biodiversity; it is from his shortcuts through untarred territories that he gets the inspiration for his columns. You can contact him at u_loji@yahoo.com.
