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- Xref: sparky rec.backcountry:9086 sci.environment:12904 talk.environment:4698 alt.wolves:233
- Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!charnel!rat!koko.csustan.edu!nic.csu.net!vmsb.is.csupomona.edu!cvakgaaq
- From: cvakgaaq@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu
- Newsgroups: rec.backcountry,sci.environment,talk.environment,alt.wolves
- Subject: Re: Alaska to shoot hundreds of wolves from airplanes
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.124348.1@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu>
- Date: 20 Nov 92 20:43:48 GMT
- References: <1992Nov20.183713.25800@news.arc.nasa.gov>
- Organization: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
- Lines: 32
- Nntp-Posting-Host: acvax2
- Nntp-Posting-User: cvakgaaq
-
- > A number of wildlife biologests say that killing
- > hundreds of Alaska wolves each year would not guarantee a
- > population explosion of large animals. In some areas,
- > 80 percent of the wolves, which run in packs of eight to 30
- > animals, would be killed.
- >
- > 'Bad biology'
- >
- > "This decision is bad biology all around,
- > almost insulting from a scientific standpoint,"
- > said Dr. Gordon Haber, a wildlife scientist
- > who has been studying wolves in Alaska for 27 years.
- >
- Is this for real?
-
- This will radically stress the current culture of the Wolves.
- Will the sudden decrease in competition from other packs and the corresponding
- increase in prey give rise to new organizations among the wolves? Will their
- range increase or their pack's size? Or the opposite? It is sure to lead to
- a famine and mass die-off amongst the prey after a brief expansion. Look
- for a lot more highway deaths and train derailments, too.
- The funny thing about this is that in the next few centuries the
- populations in the North will decrease because the treeline is rapidly moving
- south in response to Global cooling caused by the Milankovitch cycle. The
- Caribou will hang around, but the Moose and the Deer will have to head south,
- too. You think they could just plant more food species or clear more forests if
- they want more herbivores.
- I think someone just wants to hunt wolves..
-
- -Austin
- The Law of Unintended Consequences will have a lot of things to say
- about this.
-