Animal conservation

Everywhere in the worlds animals are on the brink of extinction. Indeed, animals in the wild killed for ivory while lions and giraffes are not even safe in zoos. And when animal numbers recover, humans complain and say we need to kill them. I've warned before against blaming animals for the destruction of the environment and climate change or we start to reduce their numbers - now your own species. And thus now there is a discussion about whether deer need to be killed and more specifically about the numbers of animals that should be killed. But did they study other ways? Here some suggestions:


Deer in Richmond Park, located in the middle of London, UK

  • Maybe relocate them to other parts of Europe where they went (almost) extinct?
  • Maybe reintroduce wolfs. Of course, not large numbers but sufficient so they can hunt the deer without being a treat to humans.
  • Maybe castrate a number of male deer so they can live without multiplying.
  • Maybe replant trees in enclosures the deer can't enter so they can't damaged the young trees?

As long as Europe can't manage larger numbers of animals than it should not lecture developing countries to keep their more often much more dangerous animals.


Example how biodiversity control animal numbers in a natural way

An article that shows how biodiversity can help to control a population. Higher I wrote how the introduction of wolfs in Scotland may help to control the deer population. Here an example how it may work.

Although grey squirrels are playful animals, many in the UK hates them because they drove away they red squirrels while now they are too numerous. And thus they may be shot at a high cost for taxpayers; as hunting is forbidden, other ways are needed to allow the killing of animals.



But, it seems where pine martens live few if any grey squirrels remain while the red squirrel populations recover. Indeed, as the red ones are lighter, they can escape pine martens via the smallest branches of trees while the heavier grey squirrel can't so the grey ones move away from territory where pine martens hunt.

The article also mentions:
"... grey squirrels in the region haunted by pine martens are much thinner than those elsewhere...".
Thus, may a smaller version of grey squirrels rise to live together with red squirrels so pine martens can hunt both and balance their populations?

With predators, potential prey such as squirrels for pine martens has less time to spend time breeding while young animals are easier prey and thus fewer become adult. And thus a natural reduction of what are considered "pests" until a new healthy balance is reached.

I wonder if the pine martens has been allowed to do the job of reducing numbers of grey squirrels or did hunters win so they can kill? Still, bringing unbalance is not good for the environment. And thus, what will be the result of the current major cull of badgers? Which animals will become the next "pest"?

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