Never underestimate Man’s ability to f@ck up nature by attempting to “science engineer” it. The easiest best lesson is, “Leave it the f@*k alone. It existed for millions of years without our help, and will prosper again if we stay out of its way.
Anecdotal non-native species introduction: The oh so brilliant dopes at VT Fish and Game in an effort to reduce the porcupine population (if you don’t know, porcupines eat the bark from trees, ultimately killing the trees. The forestry industry was negatively impacted, so they lobbied for a remedy) introduced the Fisher Cat. It’s a non-native species and happens to be the only natural predator for porcupines having learned to turn them onto their backs and eat them belly first.
So the Fishers do a great job, decimate the porcupines, the trees flourish. But what of the Fishers? Now that they’ve eaten their food source, they’re hungry and commence hunting turkeys, partridge, squirrels, rabbits etc. So now the hunters are furious. So, Fish and Game says, “Oh we will introduce coyotes; they kill Fishercats. And they do, damn well.
Now there’s no Fishercats to speak of, no porcupines, all good right? Nope. Coyotes are hungry so they turn their attention to, guess what? Yep, deer, Turkey, partridge, squirrels, calves, chickens, pigs, rabbits, dogs… basically anything that is ground-based.
Lovely situation these government know-nothing zoologists concoct….
And if that has you wondering if these are isolated situations, bear with me for another….
Twenty years or so ago, I was in SDak hunting Mule deer and Grouse. As it happened, there was a current turmoil between Fish and Game and the Sheep Ranchers. You see, Fish and Game was pressured to implement a bounty on coyotes due to their havoc on the sheep. Well some animal lovers intervened and protested and things got testy. So they held a “town meeting” to air both sides and attempt to resolve the conflict. (Picture the local High School gymnasium, about 300 people, you know, heart of America family generations of ranchers and hunters and farmers versus the DC Bureau of Land Management and Dept of Interior reps.
So this back and forth goes on for about an hour and there’s not a chance in hell the locals are giving an inch. The State Fish and Game director stands up, quiets the crowd and offers: “There’s a rep from DoI in DC here and I’d like you to hear her proposal”. Crowd calms down and gives this young lady their attention for her slideshow.
Her proposal: Live capture male coyotes and neuter them. Turn them loose, and thus impact the breeding cycle. Sounds idyllic right? Not. Anyone who knows anything about coyotes is that they are incredibly smart, wary animals and seldom move during daylight. And how you distinguish a trap to attract only males? No clue.
Well, the back and forth resumes and some gentlemen from the crowd stands up (apparently someone of note as the crowd stilled). He says, “Young Lady, you’re obviously real smart, maybe smarter than all of us in this town. Except you have overlooked the most obvious problem with your idea. Ma’am, they aren’t f@*king my sheep, they’re eating them.
Meeting adjourned. Bounty restored.
Sorry for the lengthy post.
