Re: Striking a blow against the predatory guilds

["Scott" <hmwh@comcast.net>]

Well...there are still catamounts and an apparent hybrid coy/wolf in the 
northeast kingdom of Vermont.... The fish & game folks may say the eastern 
mountain lion is extinct, but there have been several sightings of the 
eastern mountain lion in Irasburg, where I live. (True, the fish & game 
people say "it must have been someone's pet," but I don't believe it.)
Scott Perry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michelle Pinsdorf" <drakeducaine@yahoo.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: Striking a blow against the predatory guilds


> Agreed. Look at areas where large predators have already been mostly 
> removed from the ecosystem, for example any highly populated part of the 
> northeastern US. Deer and Canadian goose populations have exploded thanks 
> to the treatment of any wild cat or canid species as dangerous. Bears too, 
> for the most part. With increasing population and decreasing habitat, the 
> deer end up turning to gardens for food, which in turn causes humans to 
> plant more non-native 'deer resistant' species and use deer repellant 
> chemicals. The end result is a lot of starving deer - not a morally 
> superior argument in my opinion!
>
> Michelle Pinsdorf
>
> --- On Mon, 9/20/10, Lee Hall <paleeoguy@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From: Lee Hall <paleeoguy@gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: Striking a blow against the predatory guilds
> > To: koreke77@yahoo.de
> > Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Date: Monday, September 20, 2010, 8:30 AM
> > "...it would be instrumentally good
> > if predatory animal species were
> > to become extinct and replaced by new herbivorous species,
> > provided
> > that this could occur without ecological upheaval involving
> > more harm
> > than would be prevented by the end of predation."
> >
> > He hasn't really thought this through all the way has
> > he? That last
> > part of his thought above shows just how poorly he
> > understands
> > population ecology. Herbivores, without natural
> > predators, would not
> > exist in some Eden-like state (complete with cherubs and
> > pan flutes)
> > and would certainly require culling. So what's more
> > horrific: natural
> > predators processing animals into carcasses and introducing
> > nutrients
> > into an ecosystem, or do we want another 1800's style Bison
> > slaughter?
> >
> >
> >
> > Lee Hall
> > Paleontology Undergraduate
> > Museum of the Rockies
> > Montana State University
> > Bozeman, MT
> > lhall@montana.edu
> > http://sites.google.com/site/leehallpaleo/Home