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during Marsh Madness this weekend a number of attendees mentione
Quoting David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>:
* I trust it will be okay with you if I quote this to the Ontario Herp
Atlas page? My main thought about 'coons is that, charming as they may
be individually, the main ecological response of humanity to their
numbers should be to exploit their delicious character - it's not just
dogs that used eat them.
fred.
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> a key message that I have attempted to convey many times, with
> limited success it seems, is the overriding importance of habitat
> and this includes air, water, climate and freedom from disruptions.
>
> If these necessary conditions are out of whack and getting
> whackier then the only thing protected when you deliniate a
> 'protected area' is the delusion that the life forms within that
> area are thereby protected.
>
> The Painted Turtle is a good example of an animal that has a dim
> future due mostly to good intentions gone sour. Some 70 years ago
> they were abundant in every pond on our Cornwallis River meadow in
> Cambridge. Seeing a Raccoon track there, in any of the numerous
> muddy areas, was a big event. Dogs were not chained then and any
> Raccoon that came near settlement was likely to be given a canine
> escort to elsewhere. We grew corn every year, some fields ~1/4 mile
> from the nearest house and never lost a cob to Raccoons.
>
> Unfortunately we now have the mirror image of the above, dogs
> not allowed to run and Raccoons abundant everywhere. This would all
> be harmless enough except for one circumstance. Raccoons are fond of
> turtle eggs and quickly learn when and where to look for them.
>
> Raccoons numbers were lowered by disease recently but that will
> be temporary. As I noted some years ago on Naturens ~15?), those who
> want to save Painted Turtles should build Raccoon barriers over
> turtle egg laying sites.
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
Vulnerable Watersheds - http://vulnerablewaters.blogspot.ca/
study our books - http://pinicola.ca/books/index.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
striving to be, with Rachel Carson,
"fanatic defender[s] of the cult of the balance of nature"
------------------------------------------------------------
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