This is starting to sound like the cougar problem. Way to go animal rights people & Anti hunting people.

I totally agree with you. Until we get the general public to understand that hunters keep down the most aggressive of predator species (by preventing their genes from being transmitted) the problem will get worse. (Sideline comment - deer in the northeast US now browse on house foundation plantings in my state of NY and raccoons {a strictly nocturnal animal in my youth} now regularly raid garbage in broad daylight} Yeah, the "environmentalists" (to use the polite term for them)sure know how to handle the "balance of Nature"! Oh, by the way, I moved to Long Island (in the most southern part of NY) some years ago. I found deer (full grown bucks that were not any bigger than a Great Dane dog - product of restrictive deer hunting rules. Too many deer for available food? The "environmentalists" don't care.

I've hunted Gators in Florida for several years & as a resident it's a shame what it takes to get a tag & then try & use. I did not punch a single tag last year & had tags for two gators at three different lakes (two hunts were called off due to hurricanes & the last well I just could not find the big boy). Even if you don't tag you still pay & only get a few days to use it. Try that with our weather that time of year. It does not suprise me that Gators are a problem.

I live on Long Island and for the past 10 years there has been a huge problem with deer eating all vegetation. The deer hunting season on Long Island (Suffolk CTY only - there are no deer in Nassau Cty) is too short and too restricted.

The other day 2 deer were roaming through the Bronx! That's one of the 5 boroughs of NYC. The deer come down from the heavily populated Westchester Cty. About a month ago they trapped a coyote in Central Park.

It's getting out of control. They need to extend the hunting seasons or hand out more tags. They need to encourage the taking of more anterless deer.

Nope!! I think they should introduce the puma, grizzly, and wolf into Central Park. And make the Norwegian wharf rat an endangered species (like the dumb asses are trying to do with the Pdog). Then let's hear those bunny-hugging, cliff dwellers whine.

Don't look for logic !! In an interview of a Long Island citizen - he was feeding deer which he knew was illegal - he was angry that the deer were eating his flowers - he was very anti hunting - he demanded that the state give contraceptives to the deer !!!!

quote:

Originally posted by iwzbeeman:
Nope!! I think they should introduce the puma, grizzly, and wolf into Central Park.

The sad thing is, there are those who would almost agree with you. A number of years ago--if I recall correctly, it was in the late '80s--there was an abortive attempt to institute a whitetail hunt of Fire Island (a barrier island about 25 miles long and some hundreds of yards wide, with substantial "summer colonies" on the western half) to cull out some excess deer.

As expected, the antis came out in force (they are some of the most militant deer-contraception advocates) to oppose the hunt; one was quoted in Newsday, the local paper, that the problem was a lack of predators, and stated that a pair of mountain lions should be introduced to Fire Island.

In truth, it is frustrating. Long Island is overrun with deer, but there is so little accessible land that hunting them is extremely difficult (although archers have it a little better, with a 3-month season on the few parcels of state land that are available) unless you have the good fortune to know an East End landowner.

As far as the aligators go, it's like in areas where there are big bears, crocks, big cats, hyenas, wolves, Komodo dragons, sharks, pirrhanas, etc. If you are going to venture into their territory or frequent areas where you know they will be found, you take proper precautions or you're on the menu. Natural selection in action. Remove the stupid ones from the gene pool before they reproduce.

whiteeagle - And there lies the problem: very little state land available in Suffolk county. Fire Island does have Rober Moses State Park. They could open that portion to hunters. That would ultimately thin the herd. But that's such a small piece on the western part of the county.

Iwzbeeman:

There are a few nesting pairs of falcons in NY City (concentrated overlooking Central Park) There is a kind of nervous acceptance of them by the liberal crowd (falcons KILL) and, in fact, one nest on the upper floors of a Fifth Avenue building (a very swanky, high price area)was deliberately destroyed. (That "America's sweetheart", Mary Tyler Moore lives in the building. She and a bunch of other real left wing liberals living there denied they had anything to do with it. The uproar in the tabloids made the building management restore the nest)

The funny thing about all this is that most New Yorkers HATE pigeons for the most part. Forget those photos in the papers about cute kids feeding the pigeons. They are filthy, disease carrying birds - and the falcons prey on them. If it were up to me, I would have falcons by the thousands living in NY. "Survival of the fittest" is my motto!

quote:

Originally posted by mmaggi:
whiteeagle - And there lies the problem: very little state land available in Suffolk county. Fire Island does have Rober Moses State Park. They could open that portion to hunters. That would ultimately thin the herd. But that's such a small piece on the western part of the county.

There are bits and pieces all over the county where at least the archers could go. Connetquot and Hecksher have too many animals; Southhaven is potentially huntable (and still offers waterfowl blinds); there are similar bits and pieces to the east (I don't know how far east the Fire I. deer population extends, but the entire eastern half of the island is public land, either national seashore of Smith Point Park). Unfortunately, the opposition convinces the government that it's not worth the effort. They backed off on Fire I. twenty years ago, and now they don't even broach the subject. Wertheim NWR finally did open up with a limited hunt as a management measure, but not before the Feds had to listen to antis complaining that it would be "traumatic" for children to have to see a dead deer in the back of someone's truck (why it is less traumatic to see one smeared all over Sunrise Highway remains an unanswered question).

My father lives in a very suburban town in southwestern Connecticut. A couple of years ago, they hired White Buffalo to conduct a cull. It was expensive, and only a temporary measure; they're now attempting to put together a registry in which the town connects homeowners with deer problems with interested hunters (in the northern part of the town, estates have properties large enough to make that practical--4 acres is the minimum plot size, and many are much larger; I believe that Connecticut requires at least 6 acres before hunting may take place, though my memory as to that may be faulty). Something like that wouldn't work in densely populated western Suffolk, but could be used out east--if the landowners didn't complain. Unfortunately, considering how many, particuarly on the South Fork, are Manhattan imports, complains are virtually assured.

The last report I saw claimed the same Gator got all 3 has anyone heard this?

quote:

Originally posted by Rug:
The last report I saw claimed the same Gator got all 3 has anyone heard this?

Couldn't have happened--the women were killed in very different parts of the state.

Versifier:

In your beautiful state it is still possible to keep a dividing line between people and wild critters. (Yes, I certainly agree with you that people venturing into the animals' domain should take ordinary sensible precautions) The problem in states like Florida and NY is that the line isn't so clear anymore. Everyone seems to like a house on a water canal in Florida and gators swim in water, etc.etc. and we New Yorkers have suburbs that push out year by year. Even in New Jersey, one hears of some poor bruin that wandered into where he was not wanted becoming a news item on the evening TV news quite frequently.

Maybe it's just that we are becoming too many people for the available space for wild creatures and us to be able to co-exist. I hope not. The "environmentalists" don't make it easier to work out a solution. (if, indeed there even is one)

Humans are indeed encroaching on habitat, no doubt about that, but I wouldn't look to environmentalists for the solution.

Remember they are the same assholes who gave us the out of control number of breeding pairs of wolves in the woods of Idaho, Montana, & Wyoming... a colossal screwup if there ever was one.

Time to have some common sense hunting seasons for alligators in Florida.

One of the biggest problems is these Snow Birds start feeding the poor little Gators and first thing you know they start following them home for more handouts. They loose their natural fear of humans and when they get hungry humans get added to their list of treats. It’s the same problem all over with wildlife.

And alligators ain't just a problem in Florida, it's a problem, or may I say a problem in the making, all over the Coastal and Middle South.

These things are smart as hell, take for instance, they love beaver ponds and will eat beavers at will but they won’t clean all the beavers out of an area because the Dam Builders is what provides the Gators favorite habitat. They simply move on the next beaver pond and eat for awhile then move on to the next. In four or five years they’ll be back.

At first we all thought, hey what a great control factor these gators are going to be on beavers, but we soon found out they practice better Conservation manage control than humans do as far as managing sustainable food resources. All the beaver ponds are still here and so are the beavers, and ever so often so are the Gators.