Thursday, August 24, 2017

Gray and Eastern(Red) Wolves and their "dance partners"----- Deer, Elk, Moose, Caribou and Bison---- have successfully thrived together for over 10,000 years, since the last Ice Age..........Sometimes the Wolves win and sometimes their hoofed prey dance partners win in their beautifully orchestrated predator and prey "tango"...........The bottom line is that the ultimate animal predator, us humans, are the only species that is capable of exterminating any one of the predator/prey species I have just mentioned.............Left to their own devices in unaltered, healthy habitat, Wolves, Deer, Elk, Caribou, Moose and Bison will pendulum up and down in rough equilibrium,,,,,,,,,,,,,,The wild cards in this up and down population flow (for those mentioned predator and prey) is the impact of severe weather(heavy snow Winters, drought, etc) and human hunting.................In Wisconsin, the past four Winters have been relatively mild,,,,,,,,,,,Combined with Wildlife Mangers limiting the number of antlerless(females)deer permits and Endangered Species protection being re-instated for Great Lakes Wolves, there are a record 480,000 deer in the 18 county Wisconsin management zone along with an all-time high wolf population of 925..................And all of this dual population growth going on with the other deer predators in the State(Black Bears, Coyotes and Bobcats) annually killing 54,000 deer along with the wolves dining on another 13,000 deer........The bottom line of all of this is simple-----DO NOT BELIEVE THE FAKE NEWS REPORTS ABOUT PREDATORS DECIMATING THEIR PREY POPULATIONS.......Deer need Wolves chasing them(and killing a % of them) to be the beautifully alert and fleet-of -foot animals they are......Otherwise, we will have something other than deer in our woodlands---- "bloated cows"

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https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/columnists/paul-smith/2017/08/23/smith-hunters-...
Wednesday, August 23, 2017

"Biophilia" is the term coined by Edward O. Wilson to describe what he believes is humanity's innate affinity for the natural world"......... "In his landmark book Biophilia, he examined how our tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes might be a biologically based need, integral to our development as individuals and as a species"..................The question is: Can enough of us focus on the beauty of nature on a day to day basis to perpetuate biodiversity, the genetic threads of life?,,,,,,,,,,Or, is it just the mega-natural moments, the 1 every 100 year events like this week's Solar Eclipse, that is able to get us to marvel at the species richness of our only home--Planet Earth?-----The answer to this question will define just what kind of Planet we and our children come to inhabit over the millenia ahead

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiCo9DquOnVAhXkzl...
Tuesday, August 22, 2017

One of these days I would like to purchase an existing home in the woods,,,,,,,,,,,Have my square mile( one square mile=660 acres or 267 hectares) of woodland, meadow, stream and pond, donate a conservation easement on the property so that it would never be further developed than it already is,,,,,,,,,,,,Then, install a half dozen TRAIL CAMERAS at points where game trails exist,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,And chronicle the comings and goings of the creatures who share the land with me.................The Trail Camera is being used more and more by biologists to supplement GPS collars, and hair DNA snares as viable means of studying animal populations...........Should you be thinking that you would like to become a WILDLIFE AUTEUR, note that your camera(s) should sit lower than you might think, at the height of the core body mass of the animals you’re most interested in photographing or filming – not more than a foot or so off the ground, if you want to get fishers as well as moose..........."Leaves or tall grass growing in front of the camera can twist in the breeze and trigger thousands of empty photos or videos, so clear out these plants and loose branches after you’ve mounted the camera"............... "Even the rising or setting sun can cause false triggers; avoid pointing the lens directly east or west"............"If you’re trying to get the most pictures of wildlife, point the camera down the trail at an oblique angle, which gives the subjects of your photographs more opportunity to trigger the camera"..................."To avoid a gigabyte’s worth of pictures of deer munching twigs in the same spot, set a delay between photographs"............... "Even five seconds between shots can prevent a flood of images representing slight variations on the same theme"..............."Speculating about why the animals behave as they do might be the most interesting part of camera trapping".............. "The photographs offer more than simply an inventory of what animals live on our land; they give us insights into animal behavior"

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Read Full Article A Summer’s Worth of Shots by Sonia DeYoung Game Camera August 18, 2017 0 Comments 2 ...