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nafex - [NAFEX] squirrels, crows and cows

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  • From: "Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] squirrels, crows and cows
  • Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:02:29 -0500

I have tried coexisting with squirrels, offering them blueberries, mulberries and assorted treats close enough to the forest to help their digestion (no stressful dashes across meadow).  I have numerous plum trees, but once they start on a single tree they finish every fruit and move along to the next.  The alternative crops that I Ieave for them provide me with enough buffer to usually shoot them off before they move towards the fruit I claim as my own.  This is a very important advantage in a bad squirrel year and when the population is light my buffer can be adequate in itself without the shotgun.
 
I think it was Donna who mentioned that the mast crop had been frozen out in her region this spring.  I have to warn her that in my area a similar freeze several years ago has apparently led to an intensifying of squirrel wars as the oaks and black-walnuts have been thrown into a biennial pattern by having been frozen out just one season.  The year after a freeze-out these trees tend to bear immense crops that then reduce the trees energy to produce anything but a meager crop the following year.  I wonder when this pattern will balance out a bit and we don't have alternating years of population explosion of rodents and then a starve out when they consume everything they can reach before the long cruel winter.
 
As far as loving cows and hating to kill them, I think the cruelest thing to cows would be encourage everyone to go vegan.  Cows are not creatures who could survive well in the wilderness.  They are the creation of human breeding and would surely perish without our care.
Pigs on the other hand thrive in the wild and create ecological havoc although they are a great challenge for hunters.
 
As far as the gaminess of stressed meat, some hunters like that taste and prefer it to the meat from animals that were killed instantly.  This stress in not just caused by traps but also by an imperfect shot.  I have heard hunters say that without the gaminess, venison just tastes like beef.



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