Post by Travis on Apr 20, 2021 16:49:40 GMT -8
*The Cougar Conundrum,
Sharing the World with a Successful Predator
This 280-page book was copyrighted less than a half-year ago. Mark Elbroch, the author, is director of Panthera's mountain lion program. Panthera scientists are world leaders in wild cat conservation.
Mountain lions are good for us. They can promote healthy ecosystems, reduce expensive car collisions with deer, fight chronic wasting disease by killing sick animals, and bring tax revenue to communities with wildlife tourism.
Yet western movies depict the big cat killing livestock or innocent victims in wagons or on horseback. News media splashes news of mountain lion attacks across their pages. Social media spreads rumors. And hunters travel hundreds of miles for the chance to kill and stuff a furry conversation piece for their living rooms. The stories center upon humans and now, not ecosystems and our future.
Mountain lions have a publicity problem, and if they do, we do. The extremes can amaze. In one state with no known mountain lion population, a state agency still blamed a thousand depredations of livestock on mountain lions. When reckless publicity blames mountain lions, gullible people, up in arms, call for management. And that means killing.
Generally speaking, State wildlife commissions in mountain lion territory are undemocratic political appointments dominated by hunters and ranchers. Such constituencies have little interest in promoting or even allowing research that might question the value of hunting mountain lions.
But what research we have suggests that hunting does not help protect livestock, game species, or people from injury or death. Hunting may make the problems worse by disrupting lion social ties that keep younger lions in check.
The author analyzes funding, tradition, the Pittman-Robertson Act, and the so-called North American Model of Wildlife Conservation to show historic fallacies and a tradition that stifles funding and input from non-hunting, non-firearm sources.
Misinformation leads to counter-productive management that often worsens situations and creates more problems than it solves. The author criticizes state wildlife management focused on pleasing only a small percentage of people in the state it is supposed to serve. He describes how wider consideration of more people's interest can benefit state management, funding, and research.
___________
*Elbroch, Mark. The Cougar Conundrum: Sharing the World with a Successful Predator. Washington: Island Press, 2020.
At Amazon.com: The Cougar Conundrum
Sharing the World with a Successful Predator
This 280-page book was copyrighted less than a half-year ago. Mark Elbroch, the author, is director of Panthera's mountain lion program. Panthera scientists are world leaders in wild cat conservation.
Mountain lions are good for us. They can promote healthy ecosystems, reduce expensive car collisions with deer, fight chronic wasting disease by killing sick animals, and bring tax revenue to communities with wildlife tourism.
Yet western movies depict the big cat killing livestock or innocent victims in wagons or on horseback. News media splashes news of mountain lion attacks across their pages. Social media spreads rumors. And hunters travel hundreds of miles for the chance to kill and stuff a furry conversation piece for their living rooms. The stories center upon humans and now, not ecosystems and our future.
Mountain lions have a publicity problem, and if they do, we do. The extremes can amaze. In one state with no known mountain lion population, a state agency still blamed a thousand depredations of livestock on mountain lions. When reckless publicity blames mountain lions, gullible people, up in arms, call for management. And that means killing.
Generally speaking, State wildlife commissions in mountain lion territory are undemocratic political appointments dominated by hunters and ranchers. Such constituencies have little interest in promoting or even allowing research that might question the value of hunting mountain lions.
But what research we have suggests that hunting does not help protect livestock, game species, or people from injury or death. Hunting may make the problems worse by disrupting lion social ties that keep younger lions in check.
The author analyzes funding, tradition, the Pittman-Robertson Act, and the so-called North American Model of Wildlife Conservation to show historic fallacies and a tradition that stifles funding and input from non-hunting, non-firearm sources.
Misinformation leads to counter-productive management that often worsens situations and creates more problems than it solves. The author criticizes state wildlife management focused on pleasing only a small percentage of people in the state it is supposed to serve. He describes how wider consideration of more people's interest can benefit state management, funding, and research.
___________
*Elbroch, Mark. The Cougar Conundrum: Sharing the World with a Successful Predator. Washington: Island Press, 2020.
At Amazon.com: The Cougar Conundrum
