‘Predator pits’ pure fiction
The views elaborated in Michael French’s Feb. 14 article “Get Over It” exemplify the old adage, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Does Mr. French really think the biggest difference between Idaho and Alaska is that sportsmen in Alaska can shoot wolves from aircraft? Not the vast difference between the two states in area, sheer numbers of game animals or infrastructure and development?
While wolf populations in Idaho have grown faster than anticipated, it hardly seems likely that they are anywhere near posing a danger to the “sustainability of the North Idaho wolf population itself.”
While Mr. French pretends to objectivity, he insists on repeatedly calling wolves “superpredators.” I suppose we can excuse the use of a term usually reserved for hypothesized megafauna that roamed the Americas before the last ice age, in the name of solid journalism. However, the most egregious offense of this article is the misrepresentation of the predator-pit hypothesis. First, I could find no such article from 2006 in Can. J. Zool by Van Ballenberghe. The Van Ballenberghe article I did find from 1994 (Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1994, 72:(12) 2071-2077) contained the following statement: “Predator pits do not occur.”
Perhaps French was thinking of the 2006 article by Zaker & Beecham in Ursus: “The role of American black bears and brown bears as predators on ungulates in North America.” The authors of this article state that predators (bears in this case) may take an increasing proportion of an ungulate (hoofed mammals, like deer) population, “if the ungulate population has declined to very low levels as a result of poor habitat, excessive adult female mortality rates (due to hunting), or severe weather.”
The only other article I can find in Can. J. Zool that has to do with the Predator Pit Hypothesis is a 1985 article by Bergerud & Elliot describing dynamics of caribou and wolves in B.C. This article asserts that a predator pit is self-limiting, and will likely reverse itself once prey populations decrease enough. So, in spite of Mr. French’s Chicken Little assertion that without management, wolf populations will cause the entire ecosystem to fail, there is little evidence to support this.
In reality, it seems Mr. French unsuccessfully tried to cherry pick the literature for references that would support his half-baked hypothesis.
Lucius Caldwell
University of Idaho
Biology (PhD)
‘Long road ahead’ well written
Hi Max Bartlett,
I just wanted to say thank you for the great article you wrote entitled “Long road ahead.” Planned Parenthood has been helping the Add the Words campaign because we recognize that no one should be fired for who they are or who they love. You did a very good job illustrating how far Idaho is from mainstream, and did a great job discussing the issue.
Thanks for your great writing.
Jennifer Whitney
Field organizer
Planned Parenthood
Parents should teach, Plan B should not
This is in response to Alex Barnes’ letter “Plan B: Teens Need Access Too.”
I respect Barnes in pleading for the case of teens with the many pregnancies occurring every day. However, I do not believe the answer to this problem is to hand teens a pill so they can just repeat mistakes. I sincerely do not want teens to have unplanned pregnancies and this is why the solution is not a pill that does not teach, but rather in education and parenting. Parents offer children shelter, clothing, food and their wisdom. I have wonderful parents who brought me up to make my own decisions, but shared insight with me into what those decisions might bring.
I never needed a pill because I had parents who taught me if I want a relationship, there needs to be not only mutual consent, but more importantly mutual respect. What better way to put respect to the test than to wait? We have far too many casual hookups that leave people hurt and used. Since our focus is on teenagers, I have to wonder if children and adolescents understand this concept of respect or if they’re just thinking of pleasure. I thank my parents for taking the responsibility of parenting me to think not only of myself but also of the other person involved (as well as the consequences). A pill, although solving the immediate problem, does not help adolescents learn from mistakes that caused the predicament in the first place and therefore should not be offered as an over-the-counter remedy to a worldwide growing problem.
Sincerely,
Casey Dail
Moscow – See more at: file:///Volumes/argonaut$/stories/sections/opinion/stories/2012/Feb/28/mail_box.html#sthash.bk7RMBJU.dpuf
The views elaborated in Michael French’s Feb. 14 article “Get Over It” exemplify the old adage, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Does Mr. French really think the biggest difference between Idaho and Alaska is that sportsmen in Alaska can shoot wolves from aircraft? Not the vast difference between the two states in area, sheer numbers of game animals or infrastructure and development?
While wolf populations in Idaho have grown faster than anticipated, it hardly seems likely that they are anywhere near posing a danger to the “sustainability of the North Idaho wolf population itself.”
While Mr. French pretends to objectivity, he insists on repeatedly calling wolves “superpredators.” I suppose we can excuse the use of a term usually reserved for hypothesized megafauna that roamed the Americas before the last ice age, in the name of solid journalism. However, the most egregious offense of this article is the misrepresentation of the predator-pit hypothesis. First, I could find no such article from 2006 in Can. J. Zool by Van Ballenberghe. The Van Ballenberghe article I did find from 1994 (Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1994, 72:(12) 2071-2077) contained the following statement: “Predator pits do not occur.”
Perhaps French was thinking of the 2006 article by Zaker & Beecham in Ursus: “The role of American black bears and brown bears as predators on ungulates in North America.” The authors of this article state that predators (bears in this case) may take an increasing proportion of an ungulate (hoofed mammals, like deer) population, “if the ungulate population has declined to very low levels as a result of poor habitat, excessive adult female mortality rates (due to hunting), or severe weather.”
The only other article I can find in Can. J. Zool that has to do with the Predator Pit Hypothesis is a 1985 article by Bergerud & Elliot describing dynamics of caribou and wolves in B.C. This article asserts that a predator pit is self-limiting, and will likely reverse itself once prey populations decrease enough. So, in spite of Mr. French’s Chicken Little assertion that without management, wolf populations will cause the entire ecosystem to fail, there is little evidence to support this.
In reality, it seems Mr. French unsuccessfully tried to cherry pick the literature for references that would support his half-baked hypothesis.
Lucius Caldwell
University of Idaho
Biology (PhD)
‘Long road ahead’ well written
Hi Max Bartlett,
I just wanted to say thank you for the great article you wrote entitled “Long road ahead.” Planned Parenthood has been helping the Add the Words campaign because we recognize that no one should be fired for who they are or who they love. You did a very good job illustrating how far Idaho is from mainstream, and did a great job discussing the issue.
Thanks for your great writing.
Jennifer Whitney
Field organizer
Planned Parenthood
Parents should teach, Plan B should not
This is in response to Alex Barnes’ letter “Plan B: Teens Need Access Too.”
I respect Barnes in pleading for the case of teens with the many pregnancies occurring every day. However, I do not believe the answer to this problem is to hand teens a pill so they can just repeat mistakes. I sincerely do not want teens to have unplanned pregnancies and this is why the solution is not a pill that does not teach, but rather in education and parenting. Parents offer children shelter, clothing, food and their wisdom. I have wonderful parents who brought me up to make my own decisions, but shared insight with me into what those decisions might bring.
I never needed a pill because I had parents who taught me if I want a relationship, there needs to be not only mutual consent, but more importantly mutual respect. What better way to put respect to the test than to wait? We have far too many casual hookups that leave people hurt and used. Since our focus is on teenagers, I have to wonder if children and adolescents understand this concept of respect or if they’re just thinking of pleasure. I thank my parents for taking the responsibility of parenting me to think not only of myself but also of the other person involved (as well as the consequences). A pill, although solving the immediate problem, does not help adolescents learn from mistakes that caused the predicament in the first place and therefore should not be offered as an over-the-counter remedy to a worldwide growing problem.
Sincerely,
Casey Dail
Moscow – See more at: file:///Volumes/argonaut$/stories/sections/opinion/stories/2012/Feb/28/mail_box.html#sthash.bk7RMBJU.dpuf