Shoot it or watch it??????

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Shoot it or watch it????


  • Total voters
    294

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,666
McBride, BC
I don't like introduced wildlife because the checks and balances in their natural environment have been left behind.
Consequently their competitive success goes up. They get more resources so that they survive to reproduce more successfully.
Mammals in Australia. Cane Toads in Australia. Mustang horses in the States.

As small as they are, one serious issue in Canada is the introduced 2-Spot (Asian) Lady Bird Beetle. It is a fact that they are much more efficient aphid predators than any
of our dozens of native species. Their reproductive success is displacing the native species. Now what do you do? Mash the 2-Spots and crop yields go down?
Leave them alone and document the extinction of one species after another.

Whack the introduced squirrels. I'll predict that with no bag limit, you can't put much of a dent in their population and who should care if you do?
 

Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
I watched an interesting video earlier today where an american hunter shot a fairly large wild boar in the ear, resulting in an almost instantaneous death. Dropped straight away, legs kicking for about ten seconds.
But what surprised me was that he was using .22lr ammo at 40 yards. I think that would be unheard of over here wouldnt it? well, illegal, I mean?
 
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Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
'Round here the reds initially took a bashing but then the pox seemed to hammer the greys harder and they've died out leaving the reds. (My JRT helped in taking out a few greys too.) ;)

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
'Round here the reds initially took a bashing but then the pox seemed to hammer the greys harder and they've died out leaving the reds. (My JRT helped in taking out a few greys too.) ;).

On that subject, 50 years ago the reds were 'labelled' as vermin, right? They are now 'labelled' as 'endangered'

These labels we put on things, vermin etc. They're just animals doing what they are designed to do right?

Wouldnt stop me shooting a few for the pot, but Im just cut out to think a bit deeper than haha, kill it, haha.....

I dont like fly fishing for stockies really either. I fish for wild brownies,

With recent headlines, such as 50% of earths wildlife has vanished in the past 40 years.

In the end though Greed will win. Thats all our modern world is about. GREED.
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,666
McBride, BC
Interesting reversal of attitudes here in BC.
For the last couple of decades the number of hunting licences has been in decline. The amount of hunter effort has been in decline (baby boomer demographic?)
Recently, there's been an increase in licence issue and it is city people! Turns out that it's finally dawned on them that hunting brings home clean meat,
at least synthetic hormone and antibiotic-free.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
I'm not pointing fingers here just using it as an example. But the buffalo herds and passenger pigeons (it was passengers wasn't it?) had almost unimaginable numbers and one was almost wiped out and the other went the way if its cousin the dodo. Just because something is in large numbers don't image human kind cannot but a dent in their numbers.
Personally I'm of the hunting for necessity school of thought and treating my quarry with respect whatever it is. Though part of my job used to be keeping pest species in check. Unfortunately we've mucked up the balance so much that we have to control numbers now as certain native species have lost the equilibrium in nature that would allow them to survive.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,666
McBride, BC
My belief is only that you rarely ever need introduced species. The arrogance of old-fashioned introductions is a modern burden.
Fortunately, people were prepared to invest the effort to manage white-faced range maggots here. Bison is still far better to eat.
After 15 years of testing that hypothesis, I like the answer.

Even some of our native species have exploded with populations numbers so large (snow geese as an example) that in the winter range,
many places have no bag limits at all.

Just today, I was reading that the wolf population is so high in the north eastern part of BC (Peace River district) that the 3/year limit
maybe lifted entirely.

Eat more lamb. 2,000 wolves can't be wrong.
 

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