Mountain lions are notoriously elusive creatures, and although they have been studied in South Dakota over the last ten years researchers say there’s still more to learn. State biologists say they are learning what lions eat, where they prefer to live, and how long they are expected to survive.
Wildlife officials say there are currently twenty-eight mountain lions in South Dakota that are fitted with radio collars and that is where researchers are gaining much of their information. They say lions in the Black Hills appear to be in good health despite occasional harsh weather conditions, being hunted by humans, and stiff competition for food.
South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Big Game Biologist Kevin Robling says lions in the state seem to be in prime condition with good fat reserves. He says so far they’ve not seen any that are sick or emaciated and they seem to be eating well.
“A study that we recently conducted here in the Hills looking at their diets – approximately eighty percent of their diet is deer and the other twenty percent is a combination of small rodents, porcupines, groundhogs, and some elk, some big horn sheep,” says Robling.
Robling says adult lions typically eat close to forty deer-sized meals each year. They are opportunistic though and will eat whatever is available – even scavenging old carcasses at times.
Robling says the Black Hills are prime real estate for lions.
“They do seem to avoid open areas, open meadows, that sort of thing. They kind of have travel corridors that follow timber lines, tree lines, and then steep slope. Terrain ruggedness is a pretty important characteristic to mountain lion habitat so wherever the terrain is steep and rugged is a good place to find lions,” says Robling.
Although the Black Hills provides mountain lions with their preferred meal and terrain, Robling says the population is declining and survival rates are low.
“The last few years though our survival rates are right around that thirty to forty percent for the males and right around sixty to seventy-five for the females,” says Robling. Robling says the low survival rates are partly due to the lion hunting season and partly due to the fact that male lions are extremely territorial and will kill other lions. He says they also take into account that female cats only give birth to about three kittens every other year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAMOUS QUOTES ABOUT HOW HUMANS REGARD AND TREAT ANIMALS
"If all the beasts were gone, man would die
from loneliness
of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast,
happens to the man."
--Chief Seattle
"Until he extends the circle of compassion
to all livings things,
Man will not himself find peace."
--Albert Schweitzer
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard
also in his dealings
with men. We can judge the heart of a man
by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
"By ethical conduct toward all creatures,
we enter into a spiritual
relationship with the universe."
--A. Schweitzer
"...We know from the truths of evolution
and ecology that we are
all related and interdependent.
Anthropomorphism (crediting
animals with human emotions and traits)
is, however, outdated.
Rather we know that we are like animals."
--Michael W. Fox
"I want to realize brotherhood or identity
not merely with the
beings called human, but I want to realize
identity with all life,
even with such things as crawl upon earth."
--Mohandas Gandhi
"The question is not, can they reason? Nor,
can they talk? But can
they suffer?"
--Jeremy Bentham
"The greatness of a nation and its moral
progress can be judged
by the way its animals are treated."
--Ghandi
"I am in favor of animal rights as well as
human rights. That is
the way of a whole human being."
--Abraham Lincoln
"Love animals: God has given them the
rudiments of thought and
joy untroubled. Do not trouble their joy,
don't harass them, don't
deprive them of their happiness, don't
work against God's intent.
Man, do not pride yourself on superiority
to animals; they are
without sin, and you, with your greatness,
defile the earth by your
appearance on it, and leave the traces of
your foulness after you--
alas, it is true of almost every one of us!"
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (novelist)
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics,
which is the goal
of all evolution. Until we stop harming all
other living beings,
we are still savages."
--Thomas Edison (inventor)
"Even one thing befalleth them: as the
one dieth, so dieth the
other; yea, they have all one breath, so
that a man hath no
preeminence above a beast: for all is Vanity."
--Ecclesiastes 3:19
"Our task must be to free ourselves...by
widening our circle
of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole
of nature and its beauty."
--Albert Einstein (physicist,
Nobel 1921)
"Not to hurt our humble brethren
(the animals) is our first
duty to them, but to stop there is
not enough. We have a
higher mission--to be of service to
them whenever they
require it... If you have men who
will exclude any of God's
creatures from the shelter of
compassion and pity, you will
have men who will deal likewise
with their fellow men."
--Saint Francis of Assisi
(mystic and preacher)
"All cruelty springs from weakness."
--Seneca (4 BC - AD 65)
"We have enslaved the rest of the
animal creation, and
have treated our distant cousins in
fur and feathers so
badly that beyond doubt, if they
were able to formulate
a religion, they would depict the
Devil in human form."
--William Ralph Inge (1860-1954)
"Love of animals is a universal impulse,
a common ground
on which all of us may meet. By loving
and understanding
animals, perhaps we humans shall come
to understand each
other."
--Dr Louis J.Camuti (1893-1981)
"It should not be believed that all beings
exist for the sake
of the existence of man. On the contrary,
all the other beings
too have been intended for their own
sakes and not for the
sake of anything else."
--Maimonides (physician and
philosopher)
"For as long as men massacre animals,
they will kill each
other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of
murder and pain
cannot reap joy and love."
--Pythagoras (philosopher and
mathematician)
"Animals share with us the privilege
of having a soul."
--Pythagoras (philosopher and
mathematician)
"Compassion for animals is intimately
connected with
goodness of character; and it may be
confidently asserted
that he who is cruel to animals cannot
be a good man."
--Arthur Schopenhauer (philosopher)
"The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies
in earnest."
--Henry David Thoreau (essayist
and poet)
"The soul is the same in all living
creatures, although
the body of each is different."
--Hippocrates (philosopher)
|
|
Posts
2 comments:
Thank you for gathering all those amazing quotes together
We are the species that degrades all others ... My heart weeps
Rebecca
some of best and brightest understand that we need to value all of creation---Too bad so many of us are clueless
Post a Comment