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May/June Spotlight - Predators
Mule deer vs. the predator, What's happening?
Its pretty
basic biology, a predator that kills and eats its prey has a direct impact
on that animal and may to some extent the population of a given area. The
big question is how much of an impact? If an animal's death has little or
no impact on the population, such that another replaces it and numbers stay
the same or increase, we call this compensatory mortality. If its death has
an impact on the population such that it continues to decrease, we call this
additive mortality. A huge amount of research has been conducted over the
last few decades and continues today. This research makes the attempt to address
this question. Because there isn't a clear definitive answer, one of two things
usually comes out of this research. Those who oppose the underlying reasoning
attack the study and/or the findings. Conversely, those who support its conclusions
jump on the bandwagon and beat the drum even louder. Simply stated, if the
research shows coyotes having an impact on mule deer herds, people who like
coyotes have a problem with the results, while hunters and sportsmen who have
claimed that coyotes are killing all the deer, the research shows them exactly
what they have been saying all along. Therefore, research on predators and
predation is often a double-edged sword and results are often inconclusive.
Wolves and Mule Deer - What we know
"We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes- something known to her and the mountain… I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean a hunter's paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither wolf nor mountain agreed with such a view.
Since
then I have lived to see state after state extirpate its wolves … I
have seen every edible bush and seedling browsed…and, the starved bones
of the hoped for deer herd.
I now suspect that just as a deer lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so
does the mountain live in mortal fear of its deer."
Aldo
Leopold, Sand County Almanac 1949
" Relentless pursuit and destruction of the savage-tempered, strong-jawed, fur-bearing animals is in part the salvation of wildlife of to-day and yesterday."
William Hornady, Our Vanishing Wild Life 1913
These quotes from Aldo Leopold and William Hornady capture the essence of the wolf debate in the west............
