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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Alaska Wildlife Alliance supporting subsistence hunting(killing animals for food)..................But they(and deservedly so) are very outspoken against Predator trophy hunting which as previous blog entries have discussed, can throw our trophic predators into disarray......destroying social bonds, creating juvenile populations of predators that will look for the easy way to feed a new family(domestic livestock and pet dogs and cats).............

Hunting for the right reasons: Predator control harms ecosystem and isn't helping our rural hunters
by Alexander Simon

The Alaska Wildlife Alliance is a diverse group composed of both hunters and nonhunters. The AWA supports true subsistence hunting, i.e., hunting at the local level, for the sole purpose of attaining meat. Hunting to provide meat for one's self and loved ones can have a variety of positive social and ecological consequences. Commercially produced meat that is consumed in Alaska often travels thousands of miles between its site of production and its site of consumption. Hunting at the local level has a much lower ecological footprint and causes far less suffering to animals than meat shipped from factory farms.Hunting can also enhance the hunter's understanding and appreciation of the species he or she is hunting and how local ecosystems function. Aldo Leopold, a hunter, scientist and founder of the modern environmental movement, observed that "there is value in any experience that reminds us of our dependency on the soil-plant-animal-man food chain, and the fundamental organization of the biota."
The AWA does not support any form of either sport hunting or trophy hunting. Hunting for "sport" or for "trophies" adversely affects wildlife, local ecosystems and local hunters who rely on wildlife as a food source. With the misguided goal of artificially inflating the number of moose and caribou, some hunting organizations, e.g., Safari Club International, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and the Alaska Outdoor Council, pressure the Alaska state government to radically reduce the number of both wolves and bears.
Leopold contended that predator species have an inherent right to exist and that they play a vital role in maintaining the health of ecosystems by preventing prey species from becoming over-populated and over-browsing flora. Moreover, he maintained that in most cases, human hunters could not fulfill the biological role that predator species play in maintaining the health of ecosystem.The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in 1995 provided wildlife biologists with a unique opportunity to study how wolves affect the health of ungulate populations and the overall health of ecosystems. A multitude of studies in Yellowstone and other areas continue to support Leopold's argument that in the absence of wolves and-or other natural predators, ungulates tend to over-browse plant species, which, in turn, results in dramatic declines in both ungulates and their predators. In fact, some wildlife biologists are now advocating that wolves be reintroduced to various areas of the Lower 48 as a means of restoring the health of ecosystems.
In 2007, Gov. Sarah Palin received a letter signed by 172 scientists expressing their concerns regarding the ecological impacts of the state's predator control programs. The letter concluded that the current methods the state employs to reduce predator numbers may have multiple adverse ecological consequences, including "habitat damage from high ungulate populations that may result in population crashes of both ungulates and predators."
Trophy hunting also deprives both nonhuman predator species and local, rural hunters of access to food. On average, nonresident trophy hunters have killed 2,057 caribou and 1,102 moose annually. Karen Deatherage found that in three of the five wolf-control areas, the majority of the moose were killed by either urban hunters or by hunters who reside outside of Alaska. Deatherage suggested that, "Perhaps a rural preference for subsistence during periods of low prey availability would be helpful in resolving this issue for residents more dependent upon wild game." Both the Alaska Outdoor Council and Safari Club International are opposed to preferential hunting rights based on geographic location. In contrast, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance supports a rural hunting preference as a means of providing greater opportunities for true subsistence hunters and as a means of preserving indigenous cultural practices.

Alaskans are privileged to live in a state which has vast tracts of wilderness. We share these ecosystems with an abundance of wildlife that is either extinct or endangered in other states. The Alaska Wildlife Alliance supports ecologically sustainable hunting practices. However, it strongly opposes any policy or activity which endangers individual species or the integrity of Alaska's aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems.  

Alexander Simon, Ph.D., is a board member of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau.

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