I was reading in another thread here the other day about how Red Army soldiers had to forage and pillage their food on the road to Berlin, and I also remember reading about encircled German troops on the Western Front resorting to hunting wild animals to survive. Just how much damage was done to the ecosystem?
Not necessarily from foraging, but the Brown Tree Snake, native to Australia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands was introduced to Guam during World War 2 in the vast amounts of supplies and aircraft that came through the island. This invasive species utterly decimated a lot of native animals on Guam, as well as the plant life associated with them. In particular, birds took a heavy hit, (Nine species no longer inhabit guam) and as such, plants that relied on bird pollination also took a major hit, and insect populations have experienced a serious boom.
Here is a source on the latter part of the statement, but it's paywalled
This is another decent source, though it makes contradictory claims on the origin, one being that it was introduced in the 1950's, and the very next line it says the mode of introduction was ships from World War Two. Take from that what you will, but since it is possible that it is related to the second world war I think it fits in here. Keep in mind too, that since this source was written in 2001, it does not mention recent culling of the population using Tylenol, which seems to be having a good effect.
Not WWII but during World War I, occupying German troops killed 600 of the European bison for sport in the Białowieża Forest. The Białowieża Forest is one of the oldest untouched forests in Europe and was home to the last large population of the European bison. A German scientist informed army officers that the European bison were facing imminent extinction, but at the very end of the war, retreating German soldiers shot all but nine animals.
The last wild one was shot in 1921 and only around 50 bison lived at that point, all in zoos (prestigious gifts from the Polish kings). At this point it could have ended for this beautiful creature but lucky enough the great enemies of WWII , Germany and Russia, decided to try to save this animal.
They both tried breeding programs and made sure the last few animals were save. I can imagine the nazi 'borrowed' some animals from occupied zoos. After the war they managed to reintroduce the bison back, into the Białowieża Forest, in Poland. There's about 800 living there now.
So in this instance WOII managed to (indirectly) save an animal from extinction.
edit: A lot of grammar
If I recall correctly, the only place that the tardigrade species mesotardigrada was located was Nagasaki pre-WW2 in hot springs. I believe there was debate though on whether their disappearance was due to earthquakes or the second nuclear bomb.
Spin off question: did ww2 have an affect on global warming? For example, did growth of military industries cause a spike in emissions?
If anything, it likely allowed population increases in many fished species such as in the North Sea.