Proof that hunting isn't necessary.

[turil]

Here's a random thought that I just had. Maybe it's been talked to death about before, but I've not seen it anywhere, so

Comments

[dayweletgo]

haha thank you!! I was just talking about this with someone the other day and that was is poor sappy excuse.

[kate_eats]

with animals like deer, we have replaced their natural predators.
i think it is only concerning that animal, and maybe rabbits, that that reason makes any sense.

[turil]

So are there too many deer or rabbits in places where there aren't any hunters and there aren't any natural preditors? I can't think of any such place...

[turil]

I was talking about places where hunting is illegal, but there aren't any natural preditors. Say, the suburbs, for example. I live in New England, and there are lots of areas where there aren't many humans, there are lots of natural areas, and there is no hunting permitted. There don't seem to be too many deer here or rabbits. Just a few. That's what I'm talking about. That's why I was saying that the hunting excuse is unrealistic.

Also, when food is scarce fertility rates go down, so that a species population is naturally controlled without the need to external help by preditors. Deer are very capable of regulating their own population levels, naturally. Plus, natural selection kills off the lamest of the species, so that the gene pool remains strong and sustainable. Hunters tend to like to kill the strongest of the species (compensating for some percieved lack in their manhood, perhaps!), thus weakening the species' gene pool.

[whisperdryad]

Um, the reason is that there were once a lot of deer who were also heavily hunted by large predators AND had a whole LOT of land to run around on. Now there is less land -- we're pushing into their territory constantly -- and the big predators moved out

[turil]

So who "controls" the preditor species' populations?

The answer is the species controls it's own population. Fertility rates decline when food is scarce. Fewer babies mean more food for the individuals already there. When food becomes more available, fertility rates go up. Viola! Natural species population control! No meddling humans with guns necessary...

[vgnwtch]

In suburban NJ, cars appear to be the major "predators" - you see dead deer by the roadside from summer through winter. Many deer come and eat suburban gardens - my in-laws have several groups of deer that like to munch on their plants, so they've taken to accepting it and not planting things they desperately want to flower outside the deck area. They're very common, and I think that it's a) their tendency to get into people's gardens (and sometimes leap into the swimming pools and drown), and b) get into the traffic that causes people to see them as "overpopulated". I can tell you from bitter experience that having a large deer leap out in front of your car at 2am and not being able to brake in time is terrifying; sitting with a stunned and dying animal you accidentally hit until it passes, and then moving its corpse off the road so it doesn't get hit again is distressing; and then having to buy a new car because the old one is utterly wrecked is expensive. It's something people do try to avoid, but it happens a lot.

[turil]

Yuck. I can imagine how unpleasant it is to hit and kill a deer.

It's funny though, motorists are far more likely to hit a human being with their car, but we aren't going around saying that there should be a hunting season on homo sapiens. (Well, most of us aren't. My husband does occasionally, but he's not particularly well balanced!)

[blueheron]

I know a few people who have died from hitting a moose. Because they are taller animals, when you het them, their body (and giant antlers) come crashing through your windshield, because all you hit is their legs.

I really wish that we had better methods to keep animal populations off of roads while at the same time allowing them to roam both sides.

[vgnwtch]

Frightening. And I agree - I don't know where you'd start, though.

[vgnwtch]

Cattle, which are not native to the US, are massively overpopulated, and are doing extensive damage to the American prairies and causing severe problems for other animals native to the area.

But they don't count, because people really, really have to have their beef.