I have to comment on Gene's story about the black-crowned night-heron. If
anyone still wishes to put human titles on other animals, you could get by
with calling black-crowned night-herons "evil." Perhaps because their
nocturnality gives them access to a shadow world where they can't be seen
so well, they are very effective predators on young birds of all kinds.
They are known to systematically "ravage" heron and tern colonies, gulping
down any chicks they find untended. People studying or guarding colonies of
rare terns have had to "control" night-herons as well as great horned owls,
which were just too effective as predators. In my darkest scenarios, I can
envision a future in which so many species are rare that much of "wildlife
management" consists of wildlife agents working out techniques to control
the common species that are either predators on or competitors with these
many rare species. Brrrr. And all we would have had to do was control
human populations!

I've never heard any such stories about yellow-crowned night-herons, which
would be interesting to check.

Dennis Paulson