RE: [at-l] In season

["Mayer, Jim" <JMayer@crt.xerox.com>]

Solar Bear,

In "natural" conditions, animal populations are constantly changing.  In
years where resources are plentiful populations grow (sometimes
dramatically).  In years where food or shelter are tight, populations
shrink... either by moving, finding new sources of food, or dying.  As
populations come under stress, they may be easier targets predator
species.

Today "moving" typically means coming into close contact with people,
and "finding new sources of food" usually means getting food from
people.  This is almost always a bad thing, especially since people
almost give a "double message" to animals.  For example, a bear - if it
wanted to - could take anything it wanted from me.  Without technology
people are wimps.  Unfortunately for the bears, add the appropriate
technology and we aren't wimps at all.  We are very, very dangerous.

It is best for all concerned if bears, and other species, regard people
as very dangerous animals.  We are.  We just don't always act that way.
Unfortunately, once a bear becomes habituated to human food it is
already well down the slippery slope to being killed.

When deer populations explode (and they are very good at that) they have
no place to go, and we have eliminated most predators.  So what happens?
They hang around roads (where the cut in the forest canopy supports good
browse) and eat ornamental plantings out of peoples' gardens.

In my opinion, hunters perform two valuable environmental services:

(1) Helping to keep prey species like deer in check.

(2) Helping to give people a dangerous "reputation."

In addition to direct services, hunting groups are a powerful lobby for
the preservation of open land.  We can all argue about game management
policies, but when the forests have all turned into strip malls and
housing developments there isn't much point.

For protected areas or species, the second service may be achievable by
aggressive use of adverse conditioning.  Some parks are reporting good
success helping bears that have come to see people as food sources by
using specially trained dogs or adverse conditioning techniques like
rubber bullets or both.  Try doing an advanced AltaVista search for

	"rubber bullets" near bear

for some specific stuff.  In the long run, though, I wonder if there
will be enough trained dogs and rangers to go around.

For populations that have grown beyond what our limited "wilderness"
areas can support, I don't know of any good alternative to hunting.
Some of the Rochester New York suburbs have this problem with deer and
have started thinning the herd through a bait and shoot program using
paid sharpshooters.  The human population is just too heavy there to
institute a hunting season.  There is a fight every year where people
propose using "birth control" or other, less violent, means to keep the
deer population under control.  Unfortunately, all of the alternatives
to hunting are labor intensive and expensive.  They just aren't
practical.

Anyway, if you haven't guessed by now, I tend to agree with Jim Owen on
this one.  And I've never been a hunter.

-- Jim Mayer


> -----Original Message-----
> From: TOKTAADN@aol.com [mailto:TOKTAADN@aol.com]
> 
> In a message dated 9/13/98 11:41:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> jrowen@ibm.net
> writes:
> 
> << And the results are
>  obvious - a MAJOR bear problem in the Sierras (such that 
> some people are
>  pushing for MANDATORY use of bear canisters through the 
> Sierras) while
>  PA has an occasional single problem bear.  As Ginny points out - it's
>  probably also related to the deer season in PA as well.  Bears are
>  perfectly capable of learning from that. >>
> 
> I usually follow your logic very well Jim, and admire it, but 
> the concept of a
> "bear problem" really troubles me.  I go to the woods to 
> connect with the
> wilds, not to something tamed down to the level of petting 
> zoo.  If the bears
> are left alone, then the problem disappears.  Only by our 
> alpha species
> arrogance can we proclaim bears to be a problem.  And by 
> cowering behind high
> powered weaponry, our mighty hunters display their courage 
> and bravery as they
> tame the world for backpackers.  Sorry, not buying into that.
> 
> Happy trails,
> 
> Solar Bear
 
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