Predators invaluable to environment
December 30, 2001

The trail of the Cottontail rabbit leads from the brushpile in the woods through the wild raspberry patch to the edge of the corn field and ends in a bloody spot in the snow.

An X-shaped track and wing feather marks about four feet apart identify the killer as a great horned owl.

Some people may consider such killing repulsive; some find it despicable. To the owls and other predatory animals such as hawks, foxes, wolves, weasels and wild cats-it is simply the way of life for which they are adapted.

Man has always been at war with predators. Farmers who lost livestock held all predators responsible. Hunters resented competition from predators for game animals. Then there were people who felt that any animal that killed to survive was inherently bad.

in the United States local governments paid bounties to encourage the destruction of predators and states hired professional hunters.

Predators were trapped and shot on sight.

Some of the results of the warfare soon became apparent.

the mountain lion, or cougar, was exterminated from most of the eastern part of the U.S. by the end of the last century.

The wolf had been reduced to a small remnant in the northernmost states.

Research has shown the true role of predators in the ecological balance.

These valuable animals establish population limits on the plant-eating species on which they prey.

Sine the elimination of wolves and mountain lions they deer on which they preyed have multiplied to the point where they have even become pests. Deer are eating acres of crop land and shrubs in urban areas.

Without other predators rabbits would everywhere become as numerous as they are in some suburban gardens.

Mice, rats, rabbits and squirrels could become so abundant that they, also, would destroy farm crops.

Attitudes are changing. The endangered wolf has been reintroduced in some states. Most states, including Wisconsin, now protect all hawks and owls.

Predators naturally take the prey that is easiest to find and easiest to catch. Foxes and large soaring hawks pry mostly on mice and rabbits. Other hawks live on birds---mostly the abundant blackbirds, house sparrows and pigeons.

When one prey species declines in numbers, the predators switch to more abundant species. when overall prey populations are lows, predators are unable to raise may young to maturity and their population also declines.

Predators can make inroads on the numbers of introduced game animals that are surviving only marginally in their new environment, but usually a balance in predator-prey-population is achieved.

Since the beginning of recorded history, man has been the only predator to bring about the extinction of any other species