Even as far as we’ve come with more appreciation and tolerance of nature, it’s still largely reserved for nature of convenience. Birds and berries are great, and they’re doing well in the little patchwork of places we call nature now, but is it really natural diversity when anything not riding on the wind is hardly welcome? Beavers are still being killed almost everywhere, despite everything known of their role in wetlands and the importance of those, because they’re too inconvenient, even when they only threaten trees humans enjoy seeing or places they want to walk for fun. I don’t think larger predators or even larger herbivores will be widely tolerated any time soon, when we can’t even stand threats to our amusements by and large.
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Thank you for using “McKibben” terms. It’s hard to think of heavily managed places as being really nature. It’s also hard to think of a population where all members are radio collared as being really wildlife.
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hard to believe a honking great radio (did I read yesterday they can put one on a dragonfly?) does not affect quality of life for the creature.
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There’s a lot of evidence that young male Cougars from the west regularly travel east nomadically in search of territory and mates. But females tend not to do the same, which restricts the establishment of new populations. Currently they’ve established as far east as Nebraska, but it sounds like hunting and trapping regulations in the plains states may be a factor limiting further expansion.
America’s Cat Is on the Comeback | American Scientist
No Exit: Nebraska Shuts Another Door East - Mountain Lion Foundation
Threats on the Edge of Expansion - Mountain Lion Foundation
New Panthera Study Suggests Cougars Won’t Recolonize Eastern U.S. By 2100…And Perhaps Not Ever | Panthera
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transmitters weighing only 300 milligrams — about a third as much as a paper clip.“Dragonflies routinely carry prey that weighs more than that,” said Wikelski.
but then I wonder what effect that has on the dragonfly. It has to lift and fly with the transmitter AND the prey together. Still - migrating before birds ever flew !!
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Inferring from this article, apparently not much drag effect from the added weight:
https://thedragonflywoman.com/tag/radio-telemetry/
"First, the dragonflies all migrated within within 4 days of receiving their radio transmitter, so they were still inclined to migrate even with the transmitter in place. "
Dragonfly migration: wow: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2023.1152384/full
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Over abundant large preys can definitely be a problem, but I would say those accidents were caused by the cars, not the animals
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Hunting deer does also include archery. Compound bows have a much shorter range, so can be safer and have more hunters. If the hunting is done safely from raised stands, the safety goes up.
Although incidents involving tree stands are actually the top source of hunting incidents in the US, so they are often not used safely. Not that people shouldn’t use them, they just should be sure to do so appropriately/correctly.
That said, I agree that hunting reduces deer problems (ie, hunters are essentially filling the role of top predator).
Yes the stands are inherently dangerous, and foolish decisions lead many to accidents. I know many who eschew the use of safety harnesses.
Here in Michigan, the hunters help immensely with deer populations and raise vital funds to help manage herds. The younger generation will need to step up to continue this
Sorry to get off topic!
It took the DNR decades to admit we do have mountain lions here. I think they wanted proof of mating.
I hope to see one, someday. I’ve seen bobcat tracks on the property, my housemate has seen one walk through during the day.
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Yep, exactly! And if I remember correctly, the number of bow hunters in Massachusetts has been increasing in recent years. There’s still the problem that in many parts of suburban eastern Mass, there’s not much public land open for hunting nor big enough private properties that a hunter can get out of sight of houses. Now, take what I’m saying with a grain of salt, because while I worked for the MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which oversees hunting in MA, my job had very little to do with hunting and I’ve never hunted anything, much less deer.
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I wonder how accurate the new taxonomy is. Florida panthers have/had (not sure how much the Texas cougars changed that) recognizable morphological differences and the definition of a subspecies is that there is admixture as opposed to a species. Then again I guess the amount of admixture would have been huge considering how much males especially wander.
In part yes, but there are also many bad roads around Appalachia and the foothills, where the speed limit may be 45 and full of blind curves, and wooded banks along the road. Should wildlife incidents be a consideration of speed limits? I’d say so but that probably won’t happen. You can always go the speed you want, but 25 angry people with road rage behind you isn’t very good either. In any case, the apex predator shouldn’t be a vehicle.
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This upset me and a bunch of folks greatly when it happened.
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In December 2014, a Kentucky Fish and Wildlife officer shot and killed a mountain lion in Bourbon County. The lion was chased into a tree by a dog and was shot in the shoulder and rear quarter. It climbed down and landed on its forelimbs, and traveled 30 to 45 feet before it collapsed and died. Later they said this was a captive animal release or escape. The evidence isn’t convincing to me, but it doesn’t matter in a way. What we learned was that in Kentucky, there is no chance that mountain lions will return for long.
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Sad to hear that. Our caracal (which fills a similar niche) urban edge between rat poison and roadkill.
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They haven’t been seen since, but they were on private property ( in the Upper Peninsula) and it is illegal to trespass and looking for a den is considered harassment, also illegal.
Proof that they are in Michigan and at least one is female!
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Also, how much did the dragonfly weigh to begin with.
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I saw that as well, very exciting!
https://www.wxyz.com/news/cougar-cubs-spotted-in-michigan-for-the-first-time-in-more-than-100-years
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