North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] people, piglets and deer

Having a son who has studied this sort of thing has helped me a lot.  He showed me that coyotes (at least here), hawks, owls, snakes, etc. feed almost exclusively on small rodents and having them around is a great way to keep the place clean of vermin.  Even cougars, which show up around here, are not a  problem because the ones we see are always just passing through.  Individual males have very large territories, measured in many square miles, and most of the time the ones you actually see are young males trying to find some place to claim as a territory.  Most don't make it and die of starvation and disease.  The few that do, quickly learn to avoid humans and things connected with them.
    As you note, the people who kill off the predators pay for it in much larger populations of rodents and crop destroying pests.  The ones that start taking pets, sheep, etc. are usually very rare and only do it if they are starving or unable to catch other things.
-Lon Rombough
    
> Here in SE Texas, at least in my area of it, we have coyotes. They 
> don't seem to make a dent in the deer population though. Some farmers 
> in the area claim that they kill calves, but I believe that it is more 
> likely feral dogs. Our rabbit population is very small, so maybe that 
> is what they are going after.
>
> Farmers and ranchers in the area are at odds with any kind of predator, 
> including owls, hawks, snakes, etc. and have killed off most of them. 
> Maybe that's why our gopher population is so healthy. If it weren't for 
> federal protection and large fines, the mating pair of American bald 
> eagles on the next property to mine would be stuffed on someone's 
> trophy case, or just shot and left where they fall. There seems to be 
> little knowledge in the area of a balance of natural forces.