The reality of people’s lives often means that identities are not easily categorized into binaries like this. Sometimes these groups are divided along a hunter/non-hunter line or an urban/rural line. There are often groups who share common cultural perspectives about predators. The question is, how do we shift our collective perceptions around predators? READ Where Do You Draw the Line? Technology in Hunting Collective Values The ultimate goal of wildlife management is not simply to maintain low levels of predator species in the interest of protecting livestock or to maintain higher levels of desired prey species like deer. On the contrary, I am a strong advocate of harvest-based predator management however, I think there is an important distinction between meaningfully managing predators and portraying this task as simply “predator control”. Now, this does not mean that predator populations shouldn’t be managed. There is nothing somehow immoral about these roles and we need to avoid anthropomorphizing predator-prey interactions. Both predators and prey are active participants in their ecosystems and their evolutions. The role of predators is to seek, kill, and eat their prey, and that is what they do. This is ridiculous, and we need to put this kind of loaded language to rest.īears and other predators do not “devastate” or “decimate” prey populations. While this is certainly true, the repeated use of value-laden language about predators risks giving the impression that bears are somehow intentionally wiping out moose populations or that bears are inherently evil for the impacts of their predation. I’ve heard Cameron Hanes and Joe Rogan comment that bears need to be managed because they impact moose populations. In Ontario in particular, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) recently implemented an immediate ban on hunting and trapping for a wolf species in selected townships throughout the province. I’m interested in exploring the sociocultural perspectives around both the idea and physical existence of predators, in particular between hunters and non-hunters – often the cultural line that seems to divide much of the binary thinking about predators.Įastern coyote ( Canis latrans) Framing of Predator Managementĭespite this longer-term understanding of the ecological role of predators, our social values still paint a particular portrait of predators. Second, there have been a number of recent controversies about the conservation status of predators in various North American jurisdictions and the subsequent management actions proposed for those species. First, I recently read environmental historian Dan Flores’s new book American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains. I found that impetus in a mixture of personal interest and the politics of managing large predators. I began this post some time ago, but just didn’t quite have a clear direction for it, so I shelved it until I had a real impetus to put it together. It’s not only proper management practice to protect the place and role of predators in North America, it’s both a patriotic act and a moral responsibility. They belong here, and neither the landscapes we call home nor our own cultures would be the same without them. We need wolves, bears, and large cats on the North American landscape.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |