Predators

Back40 at Crumb Trail has an interesting view on predators and their role in the environment. He starts off with a quote from Aldo Leopold from Think Like a Mountain: "I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves. I have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed, first to anemic desuetude, and then to death." And then goes on to cite a recent Oregon State University paper: Predators change the behavior of prey.
Research about wolves that began in Yellowstone National Park has been replicated in an adjacent area, and a growing body of evidence leads scientists to conclude that this historic predator may have an ecological impact far more important than realized in the American West. The near extinction of the gray wolf across most of the West in the past century now appears to have removed the natural element of "fear" from these ecosystems. It has triggered a cascade of ecological effects on everything from elk populations to beaver, birds, fish, and even stream systems - and helped lead directly to the collapsing health of aspen and some other tree species and vegetation...
There is a bit more of the paper quoted and then Back40 comments: bq. Though the researchers note that humans alter prey behaviors too I think that they understate the historic role of humans. Like wolves humans took prey of all sizes in all seasons and knew the habits of prey animals. They were patient and lethal even at a distance so they were difficult to detect and avoid. Sport hunters are blundering, smelly avoidable threats compared to those who hunted to live. bq. I also think that they understate the effects of fear. The damage to streamside Aspens isn't due to selective browsing so much as loafing near water. Elk and deer are ruminants and must spend time loafing. They regurgitate forage that has been partially digested and chew it again to expose more surfaces to digestive bacteria. Cud chewing is an integral part of their digestion process, an evolved ability that allows them to get much more nutritional benefit from forage than non-ruminant ungulates such as horses. They need to relax to do this and they like to be near water. When they loaf near water they also trample and browse more in the area. They won't loaf there if it's dangerous, they'll find a place where they aren't so anxious about attack so that they can relax and digest. There has been a lot of comment from the environmentalists that stream cover is important to the 'recovering' Salmon runs. Once again, the big picture is not mentioned, just the political fragments. As for here, we have coyotes, big cats, deer and elk. We also have great cover near the two streams on our property and the apple trees are doing fine (so far). We have to keep our household pets in at night but having them curled up at our feet is a minor price to pay for having a comfortable ecological balance happening outside...

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on December 8, 2004 9:10 PM.

Head Coverings was the previous entry in this blog.

Heavy Metal shooting is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9