After the last post, I was asked if goats and cougars are eaten or are mostly trophy animals. I think people eat both, but because they are not regularly taken, I couldn't find too many recipes for them. So I guess they are mainly trophies.
But this brought me to another thought, Rocky Mountain Goats aren't native to Utah. I think our goats have their origins in the Canadian Rockies via other states. The Canadian Rockies are far more austere and barren compared to our local peaks. The goat populations on our mountains have exploded because of the "easy living", plenty of food, mild winters, and gentler terrain. They have moved far beyond where they were initially transplanted, and I heard a story about this.
The Timpanogos herd had grown to many times its original size, so the Department of Wildlife were seeking permission to land a helicopter in the Timp Wilderness area (no mechanized vehicles are allowed in wilderness areas) to transplant a few to surrounding peaks. But before permission could be given, several of the herd had crossed Provo Canyon and moved onto Cascade Mountain (to the south.)
I've now seen or heard of Mountain Goats on every major peak from Lone Peak to Mount Nebo. This is pretty cool, because they're beautiful and they live in the most rugged parts of the mountains. The rub is that they don't come from here, and provide some competition for the native Bighorn Sheep, which are now being re-introduced.
Maybe this will all work out, but there are other more serious examples which really bug me.
The English Sparrow, Starling, and feral Pigeons put a lot of strain on native birds. I once read about the Sparrow's fierce territorial fights with smaller birds. Google "English Sparrow" and "Bluebirds", but I warn you, it is graphic. The sparrows will attack nesting Bluebirds and peck them to death in order to take over the Bluebird's nesting box.
Feral cats destroy huge amounts of ground nesting birds, especially chicks, and all because cats aren't spayed/neutered and people let them roam free at night. I could go on complaining about the damage introduced species do to indigenous animals, but I'll point out Cheat Grass.
In Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, he tells of the havoc this grass from the Asian Steppe causes our environment. I encourage everyone to read this book. It teaches without preaching and has a soothing style.
This is the grass that is about 6-8 inches tall, and is one of the first to green up in the spring and first brown in the early summer. It doesn't support livestock or wildlife, and because it isn't eaten, its dead stalks choke out other grasses. It also takes nutrients that useful native varieties need and weakens soil without being returned by the digestion of animals. Because it dies very early in the summer, it is the perfect tinder for the lightning-strike and man caused wildfires that plague the West. Native grasses and underbrush are still green when the summer monsoon and lightning storms roll in, reducing fires greatly. And if all this weren't enough, their seeds are some of the sharp, pointy variety that poke in your socks when you go for a walk in the hills.
Aldo says it all better, but my point is that it's important to consider the consequences, intended and other wise.
6 comments:
I guess I can stretch and imagine eating goat, but not so much on the cougar, interesting. I guess our world is getting smaller in all kinds of ways, and not always better. It makes me sad for the little bluebirds.
It is kind of crazy the effect seemingly small things can have!
I am saddened by how widespread this concept is. The introduction of foreign, genetically modified species in animals, plants and food all seem to use up resources and even cause damage.
I am amazed at how intricate and well designed ecosystems are from every angle...the grass staying green during monsoons which lessons chances of fires.
I liked learning more about the goats. They are beautiful animals.
It is incredible how intricate ecosystems are. Change is a natural, permanent part of all of them, but some changes have more drastic consequences than others and cause greater problems for their inhabitants.
I'm all about hunting cats, but I suppose there are no tags for that yet.
Are you interested in hunting goats? I can't remember you ever saying you were. Now, there's some required hiking no matter what!
You've made me remember something Sam Rushforth and I wrote a few years ago for Catalyst Magazine:
27 October 1999, Strawberry Valley
Ok, round two of the fox story. Red foxes are generally thought to be an introduced species in North America. They were likely brought to the eastern United States more than 200 years ago by fox hunters. Now, these years later, reds are all across the continent, some likely brought into Utah by hound hunters.
On the surface, this doesn't seem to be much of a problem. Most people like red foxes and are as happy to see them in the wild as we have been on the Great Western Trail. Trouble is, as Barry Commoner states in his First Law of Ecology, everything is connected to everything else.
Turns out in the Strawberry country, red foxes are hard on native sage grouse which are in significant decline. Jerran Flinders, a wildlife biologist at BYU, believes the population of reds has increased at Strawberry due to the continuous elimination of coyotes, an important fox predator.
Reds are excellent burrowers and climbers. Flinders has seen reds climb a tree to escape a predator. Once established, reds are hard to get rid of even if their predators return.
On top of being released from coyote pressure, reds are smart and omnivorous. At Strawberry, according to Flinders' student Kevin Bunnell, reds are taking dying kokanee salmon in the fall. The foxes likely stash these salmon and have a ready food supply all winter.
So, here is a case where a species was introduced to the east by and for hunters, has expanded its range all over the west, increases substantially due to the elimination of a native predator and gets a boost from an expanded food resource. Yet another introduced species. Then in the spring, the foxes prey on sage grouse, pushing that species nearer to extinction. Like the man says, everything is connected to everything else.
When the concept of interconnectedness goes mainstream I think we can fix a lot of the worlds problems.
On a side note it is very exciting to hike and see those goats and also moose which we see a lot of. (I've only seen the non-native variety)
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