Originally Posted by
MudderChuck
My mentor wasn't really sophisticated but very knowledgable about wildlife. His philosophy was basically wildlife belonged in the forest, people in the village. And if you stopped hunting them they would eventually lose their fear of humans, move in, take over and bring bad stuff with them. Sure there is going to be some crossover, but IMO you have to paint the situation with a broad brush and play the odds.
I stopped at a turnout off the interstate to take a pee. A Fox maybe just short of maturity came out of a culvert and right at me, I could hear its teeth clacking, It stopped short and circled in its own length multiple times biting at the air. I picked up a handy large stick and when it got close enough clubbed it to death. IMO it was either Rabid or had another sort of meningitis. I was taught to either dispose of them commercially (incinerate) or bury them deep and pile stones on top to make it harder for another animal to dig them up.
Part of a wildlife Stewarts duty is to cull out the sick wildlife. And to help smooth out the overpopulation and famine cyclic of wildlife.
I hunted all my life but wasn't really a true hunter until I did an apprenticeship and schooling to be a game manager. And after the training was just the beginning, as I started looking at wildlife in a new way and with new insights. In Europe they have been at the game management business a whole lot longer than the U.S. it has evolved mostly in the last 600 years to what it is today, I'm not saying it is better or worse just a little differently organized.
I worked on a study for awhile on Tick control. The idea was to set up covered feeding stations and surround the food source with horse hair floor brushes, bristle up. The brushes were covered in tick powder. The study isn't finished yet, they are still trying to decide on the dose and doing meat testing to see how much of the Tick Powder (chemicals) gets into the meat. Sure worked wonders on the Tick levels in my Deer, didn't seem to be any adverse effects I could see. My guess is they want long term study before they make any recommendations. Used to be I'd gut a deer and hang it in the cooler with the skin on and there would be dozens of Ticks on the floor of the cooler the next day.
again, I can see your views, here,
but something I have to say is, here in the USA, due to we have wildlife in so many places, and the fact of human expansion into where wildlife lives, wildlife has NO choice but to be about humans on a regular basis.
some people learn to live better with wildlife than other.
Some choose to complain and try and alter the wildlife to THEM< and that seldom works well for anyone, from the critter to the humans, Which is something I never understood about people, that move from the city, into the woods, then complain about wildlife being there, eating there shrubs and or plantings in there yards, that were once woods/ and forests where the same animals lived before they , tried to make the place into a yard and a house on top of it!
I have known and helped and worked with a LOT of game dept folks,(typically called Wardens here) when I was younger I slightly went down the road of trying to become one, but, things went another way.
I have been very active and passionate about learning about wildlife and habitat management all my life, and have a pretty good understanding of it all on many level's.
Also have a lot of training in many other like area's, also due to a passion to learn more about things in it!
as d=for tick's and deer,
when I first started hunting deer here, I could hang them with skin on and NEVER ever find a tick on or near a deer, but since about the late 90's, that all changed, and ticks would be found her and there, into the 2010's, there now.
Its very common to find a few dozen or more on them and or around them if hung for any amount of time!
Sort of the same deal with dogs and cats(as in pets) we never found a single one on our pets, till about the mid 90's, now if you don't treat your pet with a topical flea/tick solution, they will get countless ticks on them !
Some folks don't like to talk about , global warming, or weather changes, but IMO< there is something going on, warmer weather, wetter weather, sure seems to have made for a lot more ticks in my area!
Not to mention, just all the crazy weather anymore, I don't think I have gone 48 hours without rain in over a yr now, and its terrible to have so much wet all the time!
I Doubt it can be good for any critter that isn't a fish or like species LOL
Parasites, bacteria, mold, are/is in more places now than ever due to all the rains here!