- A mother Bobcat got into my backyard and eventually got 3 of my backyard chickens over a few weeks. The last one was taken out of a completely enclosed cage. She was a clever cat. She jumped up 6 feet on the roof of the coop and then jumped down through the bird netting that covered the top of a 20 X 20 foot cage. Then somehow jumped out with the chicken in her mouth. My neighbor saw the cat with the chicken in its mouth walk across her deck then underneath it. Checked later and there was a pillow full of feathers under the deck. My neighbor also saw the kittens walking along the top of the redwood fence.
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- I do not have chickens any more. But, I do not begrudge the Bobcat. She was just trying to survive and support a family.
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- Predators do not have easy lives these days. The number of large predators have fallen by 90% over the past 30 years . 90%!
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- Over hunting and over fishing is the largest reason for predator decline. Since 1940 the lion population has fallen from 400,000 to 20,000.
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- Shark populations have declined by 90%.
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- The Brown Bear has disappeared from the forests of Asia.
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- There are only small and isolated populations of Tigers.
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- Yellowstone National Park lost all of its Wolves ( 1920 to 1995). This allowed the Elk population to increase The Coyote became the more prevalent predator. There was a decreasing number of aspen and cotton woods being eaten by the Elk. There were fewer small prey animals and Pronghorns. The number of Beavers decreased. Red Deer damaged the parks trees the Beavers lost their building material. The whole cycle of biodiversity was affected due to the loss of this one predator, the Wolf. Yellowstone is reintroducing the Wolves in hopes of restoring some of these loses.
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- 1995 to 2012, 17 years and already the aspen trees are coming back to Yellowstone.
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- Wolves provide food for ravens, eagles and coyotes.
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- In the past 200 years half of the mammal species have gone extinct on the island of Australia. 19 species are extinct. 29 have disappeared from the island. The biggest reason was the introduction of domestic cats and the foxes. These animals have no natural large predators in Australia. Foxes have exterminated the Rufus Hare Wallaby. The Dingos are wild dogs that are abating the fox’s success allowing the Dusky Hopping Mouse and the Bilby to survive.
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- Over 90% of the 11 species of large sharks have disappeared from the Atlantic. Cownose Rays have assumed the top of the Atlantic Ocean’s food chain. Today there are over 40,000,000 of these rays off the Atlantic coast. Rays eat the scallops and commercial crops are declining at the rate of 300 tons per year.
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- Sea Otters have drastic declining numbers. The Otters control the sea urchins. The sea urchins devour the seaweed forests.
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- Eagles, vultures, hawks and owls also have declining populations. raptor population decline is credited to human takeover of land resources.
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- There is also illegal immigrants to deal with. Two of the most prominent are the Asian Carp and the Burmese Pythons.
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- These two invasive species have a built in advantage over the native species. They are taking over. They have no natural competitors living here that are not human.
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- Asian Carp were introduced by well meaning environmentalist to control algae. The carp escaped the algae ponds during floods and got into the Mississippi River.
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- The carp have multiplied profusely. They are up and down the Mississippi River and the fear today is that whey will get into the Great Lakes through the canals the flow through Chicago.
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- These carp eat 40% of their body weight in a single day.
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- The Silver Carp are renowned for leaping out of the water when startled by a motor boat. The will literally jump into your boat.
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- Chicago has been asked by Canada to close their locks to prevent carp from getting into the Great Lakes. Illinois declined due to the loss in shipping revenue. The dispute went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court has chosen not to rule on the issue. They have bigger fish to fry.
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- The Burmese Python is a new predator in the Florida landscape. These python grow to 20 feet long. They get big enough to eat alligators. They have gotten good at eating Key Largo Wood Rates and the Wood Storks. The only predator for the python so far is the cold weather that hit Florida in 2010 killing a large part of the python population.
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- Naturalists are resolved that these species are too established to be eradicated. They are in the control mode only. Somehow they hope to help the native species share the same environment with pythons.
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- When I was a kid he Fish and Game Department in Indiana put a 5 cent / pound bounty on carp in the natural lakes. That is when I learned to shoot a harpoon arrow. We would take a rowboat and flashlights out at night spearing carp and gar. 5 cents per pound was big money for a kid. My biggest catch was an 18 pound carp, that was worth a dollar. It bought my fishing tackle.
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707-536-3272, Thursday, November 22, 2012
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