Invasion of Humans Actually Helped!

History shows that human population expansion tends to destroy the environment that they invade. The land gets destroyed and the animal life diminishes. This is very true with the expansion of urban environments, but not so much with the Aboriginal population in Australia! Their presence in the desert helped a population of lizards thrive. 

The Aboriginals live off of the land and had to figure out the best way to collect and hunt food. Most often, lizards will run away in the presence of humans. A certain species of lizard, the goanna lizard, preferred to make their nests in the abandoned fire pits of the Aboriginals. This made them easy targets when the Aboriginals needed food. 

Now why did these lizards prefer this up-close and personal nesting area that made them targets? These small, controlled fires offered the perfect environment for biodiversity and plant growth. The lizards took advantage of this. Feeding off of bugs, these fire pits provided plenty of food for them. Once the Aboriginals moved off of their land for a period of time, the population of the goanna lizard suffered. Upon their return, the population of lizard returned. 

Although this blog isn't necessarily about molecular biology, it shows the relationship between different organisms and how the most unexpected relationships can occur. Who would have thought that the appearance of a human population would help out the animal population. Makes me happy though, human involvement does not have to destroy everything. 

Read the article here.