KshGoddess's Journal: Deer are cute, Mountain lions not so much.

I'm pretty sure this is the interview I listened to on Sunday. It's about this book: The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature. It's on my wishlist now.

It started with him looking at the deer problem in Boulder. Boulder started providing protected green spaces, and as people started moving out to the suburbs, and houses started appearing around the green spaces. As houses came into the space where the deer usually grazed, they continued to graze. The population became an overpopulation. Boulder residents protested against allowing hunters to hunt the deer, to thin the herd.

Where there are deer, there will be mountain lions. Oddly enough, the "Fish & Game" type people are reluctant to help.

I really want to read more about it, because it underlines some of the issues I believe in, and some of the issues I thoroughly think are crap.

Today sucked. I may talk about that later, but let's just say today sucked, and leave it at that.

Can't have your cake and eat it too

[RevMike]

People that have always lived in rural areas are used to seeing the interplay of predator and prey. More 'urban' people think they want to live in a rural area, but what they really want is a Disney sanitized version or rural life. There is another term for people like this: idiots. The Mountain Lions can't eat them fast enough. Let them see a little Darwinism in action.

Predators and prey are in a symbiotic relationship, and neither group can live without the other.

Suburban/Urban wildlife

[ces]

We see that around here too. Suburbanites freaking out when cougar or bear are spotted in their neighborhoods, often with 'top story' coverage on the TV.

Also the same "don't kill bambi" attitude about hunting. You should have seen the outrage when the State Game Department wanted to do something about the serious Canadian Goose overpopulation locally. The idiots don't want the geese crapping all over the place in waterfront homes and parks, but don't want the geese harrased or killed either.

Re:Suburban/Urban wildlife

[janeowit]

That reminds me of the big drama that went on in my small town about the geese at the waterfront. People complained about the permanent geese population crapping all over the beautiful waterfront. So it was decided to "remove" the geese if you know what I mean. People started complaing about how they were going to get rid the geese population. In conclusion, the city promised that the geese would be removed alive and sent to a goose farm. And the people who were so worried about killing the precious geese a

Re:Suburban/Urban wildlife

[ces]

Goose 'farm' eh? Sounds like those geese are going to be spending some quality time with currant stuffing and gravy if you know what I mean.

Personally I think they should have just let some hunters have at it but I think that would have gone over even worse than just having them 'removed'.

I wonder how long it will be until people start bitching about either the coyotes or the racoons around here.

Mountain lions *are* cute!

[sulli]

From a distance, mind you. (Nice kitty.)