Unfortunately, I don't see the BLM grazing improvements replanted with sage brush, nor the center pivots replaced by ditch irrigation; the trophy houses won't be restored to winter range, and the calving ranges won't get the controlled burns to provide shelter.

So, what are we going to do? JMO, Dutch.

I would bet that fire ants and timber management/agriculture are MUCH more negative than coyotes. It is well documented that coyotes often aid ground nesting birds via their impact on other mammalian predators, especially bird killing specialists like foxes which take the hens as well as the nest, and raccoons, oppossums, feral cats etc.

I had a better and longer post to this effect, but suffice it to say that the effects of predators on prey is often counter intuitive - often being about 25-35% of the time, and ocunterintuitive being that they increase populations, not decrease them.

I have lived in the Southwest, the Southeast, and the middle nowhere. In all places I have found it virtually impossible to talk to hunters about predators. Their minds are made up, and few on either side of the argument are willing to listen, to learn, or to study. But that's America for you - everyone is an expert from an armchair so these discussions are difficult at best.

good luck and save a quail - stomp a fire ant.

Brent

If fire ants are really that much of a problem I would not be surprised. The only thing that kills fire ants with any degree of success is chlordane. That stuff unfortunately also wiped out the raptor population in the Western hemisphere until it was banned. When I was a kid I used to make napalm and bomb the little buggers (seemed an appropriate thing to do, but it had little effect on the fire ants). I got stung many times by fire ants, coming up in south Alabama.

My Dad used to go work out west as a guide years back during the hunting season. He said he only saw two mountain lions in all those years in the high country during that time. The boys on the ranch would shoot first! It was a very pretty sight to sit on one bench of a mountain and watch the deer come out late in the afternoon to feed before sundown. I guess that doesn't happen to much anymore, since most the deer are gone. I have only seen a dozen mule deer in 4 hunting trips covering 6 years.....most of those were does. I understand the plight of the rancher out west trying to make a dollar on raising his stock and off the hunting season. Its real hard to do when there is no deer around to offer hunters.

I have a cousin that is a retired wildlife biologist with the State of Georgia. He heartily agrees that the predator population explosion due to the death of trapping is one of the primary causes for the decline in our wild quail population. But, he says, any biologist that were to publicly advocate heavier predator control risks being denounced and demoted due to POLITICAL considerations. The Discovery Channel, Amimal Planet, National Geographic Channel, etc., has convinced the average American that predators are ALL endangered, and that anybody who would harm one is a knuckle-dragging oaf.

I was wondering how I got all those scabs on my fist.

I think there is alot of truth in some of Gahunter's thoughts , I don't believe game biologists of these days will agknowlege the toll that predators really take on game popoulations .

Hey Brent , you still haven't convinced me that the wolves in Minnesota subsist on mostly beaver. I'll just take the Mn DNR' s word that their diet in the state is 80% whitetail deer .........

Brent

I am curious as to why you wouldn't believe Mn DNR research ? They are not anti wolf at all , and have no axe to grind as far as I can tell ........

quote:

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Originally posted by beemanbeme:

#1
Macd37, I would have to say I agree with a good deal of your post. However, I do think your lip-curled use of the word "redneck" was a bit excessive.

#2
You know, you being a texan and all. Perhaps your condescension is why texicans are rarely liked outside of their home state.

#3
Since I have moved to West Virginia and started frequenting some of the various rooms, I find the philosophy of "it moved, lets kill it" that you attribute to "rednecks" is pretty widespread up and down the east coast.

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<<<<< GRIN >>>>>

#1
What is excessive about telling the truth?My lip didn't curl when I wrote it either.

#2
What has being a TEXICAN got to do with being a REDNECK? I think, also, that just about anyone who is outside his own state is viewed with a suspicious eye. The fact that I used the word REDNECK was a play on words, in relation to REDTAILED HAWK, and I still maintain the cause of the loss of game everywhere is more due to REDNECKS, (read GAME HOGS)and poor farming practices,than it is to REDTAILED HAWKS.

#3
The wide spread "IF IT MOVES SHOOT IT" attitude you have found on the east coast is exactly the point I was trying to make, and it isn't just on the east coast, but anyplace where GAME HOG REDNECKS live. I find that many people are Rednecks, and don't even know it,it has absolutely nothing to do with economic status, but more to do with a person's attitude. You know, the guy dressed in a Filson game coat that cost $300 carrying a $2000 shotgun, but sees no harm in takeing four or five birds OVER the limit, or killing a deer,and after that deer is at home, then useing the tag to take another. Bemanbeme, I think you are confused as to what constitutes a REDNECK! Ignorance is not reageonal, it's universal, and anyone who thinks it would be good to wipe out all preditors is IGNORANT, no other way to say it.

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..Mac >>>===(x)===>
also DUGABOY1
DUGABOY DESIGNS
Collector/trader of fine double rifles, and African wildlife art

I would like to try that diet again, but have a hard time obtaining the amount of beaver I did when I was younger.

Anyone else have this problem?

When the sheep are gone, what will the cats eat then? I think we ought to get PETA to hold a couple of camp outs in this area to help out with the couger starvation problem.