[at-l] Bobcats on the AT

["Ed Kendall" <kendall@enter.net>]

The Pennsylvania Game people have determined that there are enough
Bobcats in the state to have
A hunting season for Bobcats.  They plan to issue 290 licenses
next year for bobcat.  Since there is not much demand for bobcat
meat at the dinner table, the hunters are claiming that we need to
kill at least 190 of these beautiful creatures in order to do a
little scientific study so we can protect this animal.  This
"harvest" will be in the best interest of the science of Bobcat
protection.  You may get lucky on the AT and see a Bobcat.

This says loads about the provincial nature of Pennsylvania.  (The
first day of deer hunting season is a school holiday.)  I have
never seen a bobcat.  I would like to see one in the wild.  Same
story with coyote.  I've seen lots of coyotes hiking and canoeing
in the Big Bend areas of Texas...beautiful pack creatures with
wonderful howls.  In Pennsylvania, if enough folks see a wild
animal, then there are enough to hunt and kill...rather "harvest".

I'm not totally against hunting, but I would like to see the
populations of critters grow to a size where its not unusual for a
guy like me to see an animal like the bobcat.  I live in the woods
and very rarely get to see a black bear, but each year the hunters
kill thousands.  A friend of mine had a job this year running
through the woods yelling so that the bears would run away toward
the "hunters".....in Arkansas they use dogs for that....In
Pennsylvania they use poor people....dogs are outlawed.

Since I'm carping about Pennsylvania, I may as well mention the
"No Trespassing" signs...there everywhere.  Along one of the most
beautiful streams in the county there are over 230 signs per
mile...I've counted them while cleaning litter from the side of
the road where the fishermen "harvest" trout.  Think of
it....between you and the stream are signs on every tree....just
to keep some jerk from poaching a trout.  As a landscape
photographer I spend a lot of time getting permission to trespass,
and a lot of time keeping signs out of my photographs.

I have lived or traveled in about 35 countries....There are nutty
situations everywhere you go.  I am cursed with being a critical
person.  I wake up every morning carping about something.....today
it's ....."Bobcats!....Why are the killing Bobcats?"  And I
haven't even had my first cup of coffee.


------------
Hike On and On


* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================