Lessons from the Lion

            In the epilogue of Where the Wild Things Were, Stolzenburg proposes the question..."Are humans now functionally equivalent to large mammalian carnivores?" I would answer him yes, and that unfortunately we do not manage populations in the same beneficial ways as a natural predator (there are exceptions to this).  We are too efficient predators. If a hunter wants to remove entire populations in a short period of time, he/she has to technology to easily do so. Humans have the power to negatively impact populations by complete removal, where as natural predators are healthy and essential regulators of populations.

            Think about comparing the human predator to a lion. The priorities and hunting modes of each predator are both different and similar. In some cases, both the human and lion could be considered sit and wait predators. Imagine lions laying low in the grass and hunters posted in tree stands. However, hunting priorities of the human and the lion are very different in that the lion's contribution is sustainable. The lion goes for young, old, or weaker individuals, where as the human goes for the individual with genetic perfection. Thus, the human removes individuals that need to pass on their genes to keep the population fit and adaptable.  

            Since we did eradicate natural top predators from certain ecosystems, maybe it is now our duty to take the place of the top predators. I was recently watching an episode of Wild Ohio that was describing drastic declines in native wild flower populations due to over grazing by deer. Many parks in Ohio since the 90s decided to implement public hunting to facilitate declines in deer populations. The park ranger hosting this episode ended his segment with this statement..." It is much easier to find "volunteers" to hunt and manage deer than to participate in invasive plant removals". This ending statement is disheartening and implies that the hunters are concerned only about the benefits of hunting, for whatever reasons (food, profit, the "thrill"), and that conservation of the ecosystem is an after thought. Of course, this is not to be said about ALL hunters and there must be some hunters that consider themselves conservationists.