Podcast: Download (27.6MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts |
It isn’t easy to save a species. It’s just as hard to convince your neighbors of the need to do so. Join us as we discuss the plight of the red wolf in the eastern US, and the troubles of other species throughout North America.
Metadata and Credits
WagzTail Season 3 Episode 95
Runtime: 30m
Cast: Braniff, Eli, Firefoxkac, Levi, Wolfin
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2015 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0. If distributed with a facility that has an existing agreement in place with a Professional Rights Organisation (PRO), file a cue sheet for 30:00 to Fabien Renoult (BMI) 1.67%, Josquin des Pres (BMI) 1.67%, WagzTail.com 96.67%. Rights have been acquired to all content for national and international broadcast and web release with no royalties due.
About The Author
levi
I am the coyote of the group! This means I am the handsome one, the intelligent one, the one who says all sorts of positive things about himself because he can even though he may be stretching the truth a little.
When I'm not hosting or editing the show, you can find me writing the next great furry novel.
I know in western Montana, one of the big problem with wolf re-introduction is that they tend to eat domestic animals. Wolves, being smart, know catching things like sheep and cattle is easier than going for wild animals. When it comes to sheep, wolves are even known for killing them for the sport. (There are reports of dozens of sheep killed in a night.) The only option I can see is not allowing wolves in ranch country. Wolves seem to be doing fine in Alaska and the wild parts of Canada, so I don’t think they need to be reintroduced to places like Yellowstone. (If they are in Yellowstone, it would be fine, but the problem is they don’t stay in the park.)
I don’t know much about red wolves, though I’d be less worried about their reintroduction since they’re smaller, making them less of a threat to humans or livestock, though they’d still be capable of killing calves and sheep.
The problem with natural regulation, where the wolves eat prey animals like elk, and then the wolf population goes down when there’s a lack of game is that these wolves won’t starve in peace. When they run out of prey, they’ll leave their territory and hunt something else, such as livestock or dogs.
Coyotes still manage to live in rural areas because they’re small enough that if the population is controlled by hunting, they can survive off pest animals like mice and voles without threatening cattle. (I can’t speak for sheep though.) Wolves are more dangerous and can’t easily keep a breeding population in areas with cattle or sheep without causing trouble. They’re just too big.
Predators can cause local extinctions. In our part of the country, we used to have foxes, until the coyotes moved in and wiped (or drove) them out completely. The foxes had reduced many of the local game birds, if not exterminating them. Once the coyotes moved in, the birds came back. We also had a pair of bobcats wipe out the only flock of turkeys on our place. A new flock has now taken its place now that the bobcats are gone.
Bison can’t really be reintroduced because they’re a large animal that tends to go through fences. If they were reintroduced, they’d destroy crops, spread disease to cattle, and generally cause trouble. (Around Yellowstone park, this already happens. The same goes for wild horses, and to a lesser extent, elk. (Elk are wild in human areas and they tend to cause trouble for ranchers.) The bison who are bred for meat are still very much wild animals. My grandfather got some for a few years, and they are nothing like cattle. I don’t think the mixing with cattle is that common, at least not to the point it’s likely to be detrimental to the species.
The issue with what to do is a hard one. I don’t want to see governments getting involved since they’re very inefficient, like anything government run. It would be better if there was a private option to save animals. This would mean the money was spent in a cost-effective manner, and it wouldn’t use tax dollars. (Taxing people for something they don’t care about tends to breed resentment.)
On our ranch, one thing we’ve done is cut off deer hunting. We noticed the deer population was getting low, so we stopped letting people hunt. The population is now coming back up. (We believe the low deer population was caused by a bad winter, not human activity.) Yes, these are deer, which aren’t an endangered species, but it’s an example of what land owners can do to help wild animals.