Subject: Re: Birds'n bears (perspective - long)
Date: Aug 27 09:30:15 1998
From: "Rob Conway" - robin_conway at hotmail.com


Tweets,

Though not a particularly "birdy" subject, an interesting one none the
less. (I'll interject some birds into my discussion).

I read the stories about human and bear/cougar encounters and laugh.
The typical reaction people have when this occurs is "OH MY GOD -
DANGEROUS WILD ANIMALS IN MY YARD". These encounters are most often on
suburban margins, something that was probably the animals yard only a
short while ago. I went through the same thing 25 years ago when my
grandparents began selling off their 25,000+ acre cattle ranch in the
Sierra Nevada foothills in California in 10 acre parcels to people who
were either coming to the foothills from LA or the Bay Area to retire,
or to commute to the nearby Central Valley. People would move in and
find out: deer don't care about your stupid 6 foot fence; skunks really
do smell bad; rattlesnakes don't know about your property line; and yes,
given easy pickings a cougar will munch your puppy. They also found out
that if you bring water to an otherwise fairly dry place you'll attract
BIRDS and butterflys and deer - and the things that eat them - in
incredible numbers.

As ranchers my family always had to cope with losses from predation.
Cougars took an occasional calf or foal or sheep. Coyotes were a menace
at lambing time, and animals do die of snakebite on occasion. We took
it in stride, it was part of living where we lived and doing what we
did. If a predator was turning to livestock it was probably a sign that
we were grazing too densely and chasing off the deer, rabbits and
squirrels that the resident carnivores usually fed on. We lived far
more in fear of rattlesnakes, rabid skunks, and the neighbors dogs than
we did of large predators.

People who live in rural areas or rural margins should expect encounters
with wild animals. These animals are afraid of humans unless they are
stressed (starving, caught without territory, etc..). If the problem
truly is too high a density of animals then shooting or removing
invasive individuals will do very little to solve the problem as some
other animal of the same species will be forced to use the "marginal"
territory previously occupied by the removed animal in a very short
time.

As for hunting cougars and bears. If you have to do it at least be
sportsmanlike. This means NO BAIT EVER. Dogs? They are a traditional
hunting tool for these and similar species and have been for thousands
of years, but then blood sport was often a matter of survival in ancient
times, and when it was recreational the tools of the hunt were bows,
arrows and spears, and not high powered rifles with scopes and 500 yard
ranges. If you want to bag a bear or cougar and be proud of it then bow
hunt - that will prove something.

Now some ending observations -

We "city" folk know very little about what wildlife really surrounds us.
Going to work at 4:00 am will give you an idea of whats around. I
regularly see coyotes, raccoons, porcupines, deer, possums, bears, and
yes - 2 years ago - even a cougar and - 3 years ago - an elk, in my
BELLEVUE neighborhood. They are there, we just don't see them. Same
with birds. If you really want to know what's in your neighborhood go
to a single birdy spot an open area forest margin with some water, and
spend the whole day, dawn to dusk, in the one spot - you'll be amazed at
what you'll see when you "blend in" to the environment rather than just
pass through it.

A final thought - we fear wild animals in our neighborhood but think
little about bringing dogs into our homes. According to the AMA (JAMA
1998;279:51-53) there are an average of 333,687 hospital visits yearly
for dog related injuries and 20 deaths from the same. (In perspective
there have been 11 documented cougar deaths in the US during the past
century). We keep horses. The American Medical Equestrian Assn (August
1994, vol IV no. 3) reports 121,490 horse related injuries and 219
deaths annually. An AJMS report lists 14 snakebite deaths and 33 insect
related deaths annually in the US as an average. So why all of the
attention to the animals who are basically in the same situation but
aren't "domesticated" or "big and dangerous"? Panic and
misunderstanding? Anyway....


Good Birding to All

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_conway at hotmail.com


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