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The Vital Role Of Predators

When people visit zoos, they rush to see the lions, tigers, bears and seals. Yet, if they learn predators live near their town, they besiege officials with demands that the animals be killed.

Unfortunately, our fear and hatred of predators has more impact on wilderness than our fascination does. Most American predators are in danger of being wiped out or reduced to pitiful remnants.

Both fear and hatred are rooted in ignorance. In fact, predators are rarely dangerous to humans, and the damage they do to human property (mainly livestock) is very small – far smaller than the money wasted on cruel efforts to exterminate them.

Many livestock losses blamed on wild predators are due to other causes. Predators may eat animals that died of disease, injury, birth defects or old age. Roaming dog packs kill livestock. Few owners have the expertise or willingness to tell the difference.

Expert farmers and ranchers know how to protect livestock without harming predators. Proper fencing, sheltering of animals about to give birth, prompt removal of dead animals (to prevent scavengers from developing a taste for livestock), and the use of guard animals (trained dogs, llamas, etc.) – all these are proven methods to reduce predation to the vanishing point.

But the ignorant and lazy prefer to call on government to kill predators at someone else's expense. And we all pay dearly, not only for the direct cost of these foolish murder campaigns but also through serious environmental problems that occur when the predators are eliminated.

EXAMPLES:

— Much of the U.S. is overrun by deer, which damage natural habitats, farms and home gardens. Hunting does not control them. Wolves and cougars could, but we have wiped them out most places.

— Coyotes have expanded in range and numbers, putting pressure on some wildlife species and some human settlements. Studies show the presence of wolves reduces coyote populations...but of course there are few places where wolves survive to do that.

— On the other hand, persecuting coyotes is senseless, too. They mainly eat rodents, which are far more dangerous to human crops and health than all predators combined. Also, the presence of coyotes enhances duck breeding by reducing fox and skunk numbers.

— About 1900, fur hunters wiped out the weasel-like fisher in the Pacific Northwest. Soon the timber industry was in peril as trees were killed by exploding porcupine populations. It seems fishers are among the few predators that kill porcupines. Fishers had to be imported from Canada to save the lumber business.

— Atlantic fishermen once shellacked eggs to wipe out terns that were eating "their" fish. Next year, there were no fish. It seems the baby fish lived mainly by eating tern droppings.

— A farmer who religiously killed every wild animal on his land was shocked one day to find millions of birds on his land. Upon inspection, he found them eating billions of insects...insects that were alive because he had wiped out their natural enemies.

— Recent reports say Chinese farmers are being eaten out of business by mice. Reason: a craze for eating snake meat has cut snake populations and threatens some species with extinction.

— An Israeli project to kill fruit bats (which actually do not hurt fruit crops because they prefer over-aged fruit) also killed 90 percent of the insect-eating bats in Israel. Now Israel spends millions pouring possibly carcinogenic poisons on her crops to kill insects the bats used to get rid of safely, at no cost.

— Fishermen demand the killing of seals that eat "their" fish. The best solution is polar bears, but they are under pressure due to global warming and pollution.

— Hunting of otters allowed population explosions among urchins, which eat the holdfasts of kelps, reducing the kelp's dampening effect on ocean waves, endangering coastal houses.