>People are truly amazing. We can allow the slaughter of untold numbers of
>deer, quail, pheasant, ducks and other wild creatures by hunters without
>batting an eye; but the thought of shooting a nuisance feral cat or blowing
>away five or six Sea Lions which are decimating a salmon run causes a panic.
>
>John Shelton
>Portland, Oregon

John, I basically agree with you; I view the situation with my usual
concerns about inconsistency. I doubt if many people on tweeters feel the
same about sea lions and feral cats, but there are some parallels. Cat
populations are up because of people; sea lion populations are up because
of people (but only because we stopped killing them). How can we possibly
reconcile cat lovers and bird lovers, sea lion lovers and salmon lovers?
Probably the best way is to somehow keep them (the animals, but I guess
also the aficionados) away from each other.

My thoughts on the matter are that cats aren't really going to eliminate
birds from the fill (they haven't from my yard, and they have tried pretty
hard over the years). Nor are sea lions going to eliminate salmonids.
Should we just let all of them alone? How much and what kind of management
or "control" should be instituted? It's the old question of humans messing
things up and then having to unmess mightily. Sometimes the unmessing
makes its own problems, e.g. Bald Eagles vis-a-vis Great Blue Herons and
Common Murres.

What is *your* solution to this problem? Anyone who criticises the status
quo ought to have suggestions of how to alter it.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416