Posted on 08/18/2005 5:52:59 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Lions stalking deer in the stubble of a Nebraska cornfield. Elephants trumpeting across Colorado’s high plains. Cheetah slouching through the West Texas scrub.
Prominent ecologists are floating an audacious plan that sounds like a “Jumanji” sequel — transplant African wildlife to the Great Plains of North America.
Their radical proposal is greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to relocate foreign species halfway around the world, often with disastrous results.
The authors contend it could help save Africa’s poster species from extinction, where protection is spotty and habitat is vanishing.
“We aren’t backing a truck up to some dump site in the dark and turning lose a bunch of elephants,” said Cornell University ecologist Harry W. Greene, one of the plan’s authors.
While most modern African species never lived on the American prairie, the scientists think today’s animals could duplicate the natural roles played by their departed, even larger cousins — mastodons, camels and saber-toothed cats — that roamed for more than 1 million years alongside antelope and bison.
But the scientists’ plan, which appears in today’s issue of the journal Nature, is triggering thunderclaps of criticism, with discouraging words such as “stupid” and “defeatist” raining down.
Critics point to Australia, which was overrun by rabbits and poisonous cane toads after misguided species relocations.
Some conservationists said the plan would further damage the prospects of African species on their native turf, as well as that continent’s hopes for sustainable economic development.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestate.com ...
bump
One turned up in suburban Omaha a couple of years back. My neighbors claim to have seen tracks; I'm still skeptical, though.
This one dragged a hog carcass off, and had great prints in fresh snow. I have seen cougar tracks in New Mexico before, and that was what it was.
They are pretty common out in the western pan handle. A couple of friends see them every season out there. What worries me is around Omaha the cougars are going to figure out not to many people are going to shoot them.
Heck, someone shot one with an arrow in Illinois last deer season!
Maybe they could try Mexico. 8^)
and then I'd charge suckers an arm-and-a-leg to view the critters from a fleet of air-conditioned, gas-guzzling SUVs!!!
Well, yes, but that's because the Africans are not so stupid as to allow them to roam freely anywhere near them.
I doubt that the predators don't know this as well, and stay pretty far away.
They don't call them "rouges" for nothing.
These people are bone crushingly stupid.
Hmmm, I wonder what Warthog tastes like?
Well, it's certainly possible. I suspect there are many more here than anyone ever sees. Might even give some competition to the dang coyotes.
Makes sense. The young males wander hundreds of miles.
I used to do a lot of camping in the western panhandle, with my kids, even when they were very young. Beautiful country. I'd do it again, but not unarmed.
"Wait until their pets start getting snacked upon"
Wait until they start getting snacked upon. Or their children. If they haven't aborted all their kids away.
Blood thirsty bastards.
Leave it to a Liberal university to attempt to justify bringing African animals to America on one hand while at the same time doing all they can to get the "Invasive Species" idea passed into law.
Yer rifle in that picture is an almost photo copy of mine in appearance. Mine has the banded barrel front sight and is a rechambered Ruger No# 1H in 460 Weatherby Magnum, whitworth sights an all......That one looks to be a Hass or Farquharson action vs a Ruger .......Cool !
a) Their gun failed them. Not the caliber but the gun itself. A jammed rifle can lead to many bad results, particularly when your rifle sights were pointed towards a charging elephant a mere moments before.
b) Their nerve failed them. After all having a charging Cape buffalo erupt from the thicket 9 feet to your left tends to give many the creeps. Now imagine being on foot, in an African thicket (which can ahve white thorns the size of fingers), and you know there is a wounded buffalo in there somewhere. And then you detect movement. Many people will have their nerves fail them, especially once you consider the sheer size of some of those critters.
c) Shot placement: Going back to the Cape Buffalo example. Let's say you shoot, and your slug hits the buffalo's boss (where its great horns converge on the top of the head). All you did is give it a mild headache, and a raging bloodthirst. Chances are you only have one more shot before it gets to you. This is why most of the great hunters used to use double rifles ....powerful, with 2 shots that have virtually no chance of jamming. And 2 shots are more than enough, because if you miss with both of them you would be dead either way. Shot placement counts, and this is even more paramount when it comes to elephant. Unless you are basically murdering the beast (eg using kalashnikovs) instead of hunting, shot placement will really count. Many people with good guns and powerful rounds died due to being an inch or two off. The bush does not forgive such errors.
d) Mr Murphy and his ludicrous laws. There are stories of people shooting lions right through the heart and it still manages to get to them and kill them. Or someone hunting leopard and wounding it, just as the sun is setting. Tracking down a wounded leopard at night (or low light) is directly tantamount to suicide. A leopard may be the size of a cougar, but leopards are regarded as the most efficient man-eaters (and they actually have a larger tally of people than tigers and lions), while all a cougar does is pick off some old lady or young'un every 6 months or so. Another example of Murphy scr#wing up one's day is if one forgets to put off the safety. Sound stupid, but in the rush of things ...particularly when you have a 500 pound lion charging you at 50 miles an hour ....such 'simple stuff' have led to the death of professionals. OR, the inverse, having someone behind you with his safety off and a nervous twitch that has a direct line to his trigger finger ....and that finger twitches. Again, better men have been killed by that.
Anyways it all boils down to skill as well as a bit of luck, and not just in terms of weapon choice but also hunting strategy. For example any fool with a scoped rifle can bring down the most blood-thirty lioness from a distance, however the game changes if the hunt is taking place in thick woodland, an it totally flips if the hunt is in dense shrub. Killing a lion can be far easier than shooting duck (if one is in a plain), or it can be more difficult than finding a virgin nun at an Amsterdam brothel (if the same beast is in scrub). Oh, and if you shoot at a lion and miss then you can be sure it will never make that mistake again. That is why man-eating lions are so darn hard to kill. They learn very quick never to make mistakes, and thus can take forever to put down since they show an almost demonic intellect.
Anyways, the proposed idea is rather silly. Introducing exotic fauna (or flora even) to new locales almost always leads to problems. Particularly when one is introducing apex predators (eg lions and leopards), niche predators (eg cheetah), as well as large animals (eg elephant, which are part of the big 5 for a reason). What will happen is either the project will be a disaster in terms of the animals dying due to an ill fit with the environs, or a disaster in terms of people getting killed (either by 'accident,' studipidity, or just plain bad luck).
Anyways, imagine a nice lil' picnic and a big buffalo like this one appearing. It would be easy to put it down from a distance with a scoped rifle, but at close range you'd better hope your chips are right with St Pete.
I'll not even try and change the typos i made in the post above. Mea culpa. LOL.
I have a old sporter mauser that is chambered in 375H&H and with reloads configured for the game at hand I have hunted everything from white tail to caribou, ferral hogs, elk, moose and mulies with it. It is IMHO the most versital caliber in the world and with it's "perfect design" it doesnt jump when the sholder hits the edge of the magazine in a fast reload and jam. It is slicker that sheep sh*t on ice for reliability and accuracy. It's my favorite caliber for hunting. Albeit I have never hunted Bear as I am not a trophy hunter and don't like bear meat nor can I afford to etc etc ..... I liked the warm and fuzzy stopping power of the 375 H&H in regions where I was not top of the food chain while I sought to harvest meat for the freezer.
Shot placement is key as ya state. I have seen big polar bears taken with a 303 enfield above the artic circle and Elk with a 243 Winchester in the Rockies.
Why not just buy Belgium? Better chocolate, though it does come with Belgians. Ugh.
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