Coyote Bounty Counter-Productive
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:52 pmCoyote Bounty Counter-Productive
From: James K. Finley
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 9:17 AM
Subject: Letter to Editor re: Coyote Bounty
Coyote Bounty Counter-Productive
Re: Coyote Bounty Harmful, Star Phoenix, Nov 17, 2009 (see below)
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Coyote+bounty+impact+harmful/2231442/story.html
The structure and integrity of an ecosystem is determined by its top predator. That is a basic tenant of ecology. On the prairies this means that the top predator, the coyote, is essential to the health of the ecosystem and must be managed as an integral part of it.
Recent research from around the world has amply demonstrated the phenomenon of “meso-predator release” following decimation of the top predator, resulting in “trophic cascades”. What this means is that elimination of the top predator allows many more smaller predators to fill the niche, causing major, and often catastrophic impacts on prey species. Such a massive ecological impact occurred in the 1960s when the coyote population was severely decimated during the snowmobile revolution, bringing about an invasion of the red fox. This caused a huge impact on many species, including burrowing owls, sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse etc., many of which never recovered and are still on the endangered species list. A parallel situation happened in Australia where elimination of the top predator, the dingo, and invasion of the red fox, resulted in the extinction of many marsupial mammals.
The prairies have more endangered species than any place in Canada. Blame has been laid on various human practices but none compare in magnitude to the ecological imbalance caused by decimation of the top predator. But no one dares stand up for the “wily” one.
The government of Saskatchewan is living in the dark ages. Time and time again, bounties on predators have proven wasteful and counter-productive. In this case, the government will be causing significant environmental damage, and may well push several species over the brink.
James K. Finley
==========================================
Background Documentation
Ecology Letters Vol 10 (3): 197-206
Trophic control of mesopredators in terrestrial ecosystems: top-down or bottom-up?
Bodil Elmhagen and Stephen P. Rushton
School of Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Devonshire Building NE1 7RU, UK
Abstract
It has been argued that widespread extinctions of top predators have changed terrestrial ecosystem structures through mesopredator release, where increased abundances of medium-sized predators have detrimental effects on prey communities. This top-down concept has received much attention within conservation biology, but few studies have demonstrated the phenomenon. The concept has been criticized since alternative explanations involving bottom-up impacts from bioclimatic effects on ecosystem productivity and from anthropogenic habitat change are rarely considered. We analyse the response of a mesopredator (the red fox) to declines in top predators (wolf and Eurasian lynx) and agricultural expansion over 90 years in Sweden, taking bioclimatic effects into account. We show a top-down mesopredator release effect, but ecosystem productivity determined its strength. The impacts of agricultural activity were mediated by their effects on top predator populations. Thus, both top-down and bottom-up processes need to be understood for effective preservation of biodiversity in anthropogenically transformed ecosystems.
Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey : dingoes and marsupials in Australia.
Christopher N. Johnson, Joanne L. Isaac and Diana O Fisher
School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia
Top predators in terrestrial ecosystems may limit populations of smaller predators that could otherwise become over abundant and cause declines and extinctions of some prey. It is therefore possible that top predators indirectly protect many species of prey from excessive predation. This effect has been demonstrated in some small-scale studies, but it is not known how general or important it is in maintaining prey biodiversity. During the last 150 years, Australia has suffered the world's highest rate of mammal decline and extinction, and most evidence points to introduced mid-sized predators ( the red fox and the feral cat) as the cause. Here, we test the idea that the decline of Australia's largest native predator, the dingo, played a role in these extinctions. Dingoes were persecuted from the beginning of Europeon settlement in Australia and have been eliminated or made rare over large parts of the continent. We show a strong positive relationship between the survival of marsupials and the geographical overlap with high-density dingo populations. Our results suggest that the rarity of dingoes was a critical factor which allowed smaller predators to overwhelm marsupial prey, triggering extinction over much of the continent. This is evidence of a crucial role of top predators in maintaining prey biodiversity at large scales in terrestrial ecosystems and suggests that many remaining Australian mammals would benefit from the positive management of dingoes.
Keywords: mesopredator release; trophic cascade; extinction; predation; Canis lupus dingo.
STRING UP THE DINGOES, AND OTHER SPECIES PAY THE PRICE
The eastern hare-wallaby is gone. The lesser bilby is no more. In the past two centuries, these and 16 other mammals have become extinct in Australia - almost half the mammalian species lost worldwide over that time.
Changes in how people use fire to clear land, the introduction of rabbits and disease, and sheep farming have in the past been blamed for the extinctions. Now a team led by Chris Johnson of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, says the cause is far simpler: the persecution of mainland Australia's only top predator, the dingo. " Where there are no dingoes, introduced predators are rife, and up to 65 per cent of ground-dwelling mammal species have disappeared, " Johnson says. " If dingoes hadn't been so savagely persecuted, we wouldn't have had this total catastrophe."
By mapping habitat type and the range of ground-dwelling marsupials, rabbits, foxes, dingoes and sheep, Johnson's team has shown that wherever dingo populations have slumped, prey species such as the lesser bilby have become extinct ( Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3711). That adds to circumstantial and historical evidence that dingos protect small marsupials by reducing numbers of introduced predators, such as the fox, whose numbers explode in the dingo's absence." NewScientist, 11 November 2006.
........
Finley, J.K. 2005. The fox that stole the apex of Palliser’s Triangle: a correction. Blue Jay 63(3) : 135-138. My father shot the first fox ever seen on the prairies which I initially thought to have occurred in 1964 or 65, and reported in the Blue Jay in 1996. However, by fortuitous circumstance, the event was documented in my Grade 4 scribbler. It occurred on December 5, 1960, five years earlier than previously thought, and prior to the introduction of the snowmobile. Thus the niche space was already opened somewhat by poisoning and other eradication programs however the main invasion took place after severe decimation of coyotes by snowmobiles occurred in the mid 1960s. On February 28, 2005, my brother shot another fox just 4.5 km from where the first fox was shot in the same broad treeless valley. This coincidence, at the beginning and at the end of the invasion, is explicable because the foxes were surviving in a neutral zone, a heavily-cultivated area where there was no suitable coyote habitat remaining. It is my contention that removal of the apex predator brought about an ecological collapse, beginning in the late 1960s, due to the invasion of an exotic species.
Finley J.K. 2006. The rise and fall of the Red Fox beneath the apex of Palliser’s Triangle. Blue Jay 64(3): 155 - 159. Christmas mammal counts were initiated by Nature Saskatchewan in 1974 to complement Christmas bird counts. Preliminary analyses of occurrence and abundance of selected species in the short-grass prairie region indicate that foxes have declined in abundance over the last two decades as coyotes have increased. The inverse relationship between coyote and fox abundance is plotted for one locality, projected back from local knowledge, before the fox invasion of the 1960s. The rise of the Red Fox, five decades ago, was due to the creation of a vacant niche, brought about by the snowmobile revolution and decimation of the Great Plains Coyote. The fall of the Red Fox, over the past two decades, is due to the rise of the Coyote population, brought about by a combination of socio-economic circumstances. The phenomenon of the red fox invasion is unrecognized by science but has very important implications in wildlife and endangered species management. This exercise points to the critical role of top predators in maintaining the structure and integrity of ecosystems, and the importance of adopting ecosystem management practices that recognize this dynamic.
======================
Bounty on coyote kills a bad idea: groups
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Bounty+coyote+kills+idea+groups/2227259/story.html
Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-PostNovember 16, 2009
Nature and wildlife conservation groups say the provincial government is barking up the wrong tree in its solution to Saskatchewan's coyote problem.
"I think it caught everybody off guard," Nature Saskatchewan president Lorne Scott said about the province's decision to offer a bounty on coyote kills.
Scott said his organization wasn't consulted prior to last week's introduction of the Saskatchewan Coyote Control Program, which will offer $20 per kill. Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said the program was established to help producers deal with the loss of their livestock to coyotes, which are numerous this year.
Had it been consulted, Scott said Nature Saskatchewan would have noted similar control programs didn't work in the past and won't work now.
MORE:
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Bounty+coyote+kills+idea+groups/2227259/story.html
=======================
Coyote bounty impact harmful
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Coyote+bounty+impact+harmful/2231442/story.html
The StarPhoenix November 17, 2009
Just more than a year after Saskatchewan caught the nation's attention as the bastion of backwardness by organizing a gopher derby, it's back in the news -- this time for placing a bounty on coyotes.
It may have escaped the notice of Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud that coyotes are much more adept than are .22s at dealing with a problem of excessive gophers, but this misplaced priority didn't escape the notice of those who actually study wildlife in this province.
Lorne Scott, head of Nature Saskatchewan, was taken by surprise when he heard of the new bounty. Darrell Crabbe, executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, suggests coyotes are probably much less of a problem than what the minister suspects.
"Coyotes play a very important role in the health of the ecosystem out there in many places," he said.
MORE:
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Coyote+bounty+impact+harmful/2231442/story.html
From: James K. Finley
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 9:17 AM
Subject: Letter to Editor re: Coyote Bounty
Coyote Bounty Counter-Productive
Re: Coyote Bounty Harmful, Star Phoenix, Nov 17, 2009 (see below)
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Coyote+bounty+impact+harmful/2231442/story.html
The structure and integrity of an ecosystem is determined by its top predator. That is a basic tenant of ecology. On the prairies this means that the top predator, the coyote, is essential to the health of the ecosystem and must be managed as an integral part of it.
Recent research from around the world has amply demonstrated the phenomenon of “meso-predator release” following decimation of the top predator, resulting in “trophic cascades”. What this means is that elimination of the top predator allows many more smaller predators to fill the niche, causing major, and often catastrophic impacts on prey species. Such a massive ecological impact occurred in the 1960s when the coyote population was severely decimated during the snowmobile revolution, bringing about an invasion of the red fox. This caused a huge impact on many species, including burrowing owls, sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse etc., many of which never recovered and are still on the endangered species list. A parallel situation happened in Australia where elimination of the top predator, the dingo, and invasion of the red fox, resulted in the extinction of many marsupial mammals.
The prairies have more endangered species than any place in Canada. Blame has been laid on various human practices but none compare in magnitude to the ecological imbalance caused by decimation of the top predator. But no one dares stand up for the “wily” one.
The government of Saskatchewan is living in the dark ages. Time and time again, bounties on predators have proven wasteful and counter-productive. In this case, the government will be causing significant environmental damage, and may well push several species over the brink.
James K. Finley
==========================================
Background Documentation
Ecology Letters Vol 10 (3): 197-206
Trophic control of mesopredators in terrestrial ecosystems: top-down or bottom-up?
Bodil Elmhagen and Stephen P. Rushton
School of Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Devonshire Building NE1 7RU, UK
Abstract
It has been argued that widespread extinctions of top predators have changed terrestrial ecosystem structures through mesopredator release, where increased abundances of medium-sized predators have detrimental effects on prey communities. This top-down concept has received much attention within conservation biology, but few studies have demonstrated the phenomenon. The concept has been criticized since alternative explanations involving bottom-up impacts from bioclimatic effects on ecosystem productivity and from anthropogenic habitat change are rarely considered. We analyse the response of a mesopredator (the red fox) to declines in top predators (wolf and Eurasian lynx) and agricultural expansion over 90 years in Sweden, taking bioclimatic effects into account. We show a top-down mesopredator release effect, but ecosystem productivity determined its strength. The impacts of agricultural activity were mediated by their effects on top predator populations. Thus, both top-down and bottom-up processes need to be understood for effective preservation of biodiversity in anthropogenically transformed ecosystems.
Rarity of a top predator triggers continent-wide collapse of mammal prey : dingoes and marsupials in Australia.
Christopher N. Johnson, Joanne L. Isaac and Diana O Fisher
School of Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia
Top predators in terrestrial ecosystems may limit populations of smaller predators that could otherwise become over abundant and cause declines and extinctions of some prey. It is therefore possible that top predators indirectly protect many species of prey from excessive predation. This effect has been demonstrated in some small-scale studies, but it is not known how general or important it is in maintaining prey biodiversity. During the last 150 years, Australia has suffered the world's highest rate of mammal decline and extinction, and most evidence points to introduced mid-sized predators ( the red fox and the feral cat) as the cause. Here, we test the idea that the decline of Australia's largest native predator, the dingo, played a role in these extinctions. Dingoes were persecuted from the beginning of Europeon settlement in Australia and have been eliminated or made rare over large parts of the continent. We show a strong positive relationship between the survival of marsupials and the geographical overlap with high-density dingo populations. Our results suggest that the rarity of dingoes was a critical factor which allowed smaller predators to overwhelm marsupial prey, triggering extinction over much of the continent. This is evidence of a crucial role of top predators in maintaining prey biodiversity at large scales in terrestrial ecosystems and suggests that many remaining Australian mammals would benefit from the positive management of dingoes.
Keywords: mesopredator release; trophic cascade; extinction; predation; Canis lupus dingo.
STRING UP THE DINGOES, AND OTHER SPECIES PAY THE PRICE
The eastern hare-wallaby is gone. The lesser bilby is no more. In the past two centuries, these and 16 other mammals have become extinct in Australia - almost half the mammalian species lost worldwide over that time.
Changes in how people use fire to clear land, the introduction of rabbits and disease, and sheep farming have in the past been blamed for the extinctions. Now a team led by Chris Johnson of James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland, says the cause is far simpler: the persecution of mainland Australia's only top predator, the dingo. " Where there are no dingoes, introduced predators are rife, and up to 65 per cent of ground-dwelling mammal species have disappeared, " Johnson says. " If dingoes hadn't been so savagely persecuted, we wouldn't have had this total catastrophe."
By mapping habitat type and the range of ground-dwelling marsupials, rabbits, foxes, dingoes and sheep, Johnson's team has shown that wherever dingo populations have slumped, prey species such as the lesser bilby have become extinct ( Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3711). That adds to circumstantial and historical evidence that dingos protect small marsupials by reducing numbers of introduced predators, such as the fox, whose numbers explode in the dingo's absence." NewScientist, 11 November 2006.
........
Finley, J.K. 2005. The fox that stole the apex of Palliser’s Triangle: a correction. Blue Jay 63(3) : 135-138. My father shot the first fox ever seen on the prairies which I initially thought to have occurred in 1964 or 65, and reported in the Blue Jay in 1996. However, by fortuitous circumstance, the event was documented in my Grade 4 scribbler. It occurred on December 5, 1960, five years earlier than previously thought, and prior to the introduction of the snowmobile. Thus the niche space was already opened somewhat by poisoning and other eradication programs however the main invasion took place after severe decimation of coyotes by snowmobiles occurred in the mid 1960s. On February 28, 2005, my brother shot another fox just 4.5 km from where the first fox was shot in the same broad treeless valley. This coincidence, at the beginning and at the end of the invasion, is explicable because the foxes were surviving in a neutral zone, a heavily-cultivated area where there was no suitable coyote habitat remaining. It is my contention that removal of the apex predator brought about an ecological collapse, beginning in the late 1960s, due to the invasion of an exotic species.
Finley J.K. 2006. The rise and fall of the Red Fox beneath the apex of Palliser’s Triangle. Blue Jay 64(3): 155 - 159. Christmas mammal counts were initiated by Nature Saskatchewan in 1974 to complement Christmas bird counts. Preliminary analyses of occurrence and abundance of selected species in the short-grass prairie region indicate that foxes have declined in abundance over the last two decades as coyotes have increased. The inverse relationship between coyote and fox abundance is plotted for one locality, projected back from local knowledge, before the fox invasion of the 1960s. The rise of the Red Fox, five decades ago, was due to the creation of a vacant niche, brought about by the snowmobile revolution and decimation of the Great Plains Coyote. The fall of the Red Fox, over the past two decades, is due to the rise of the Coyote population, brought about by a combination of socio-economic circumstances. The phenomenon of the red fox invasion is unrecognized by science but has very important implications in wildlife and endangered species management. This exercise points to the critical role of top predators in maintaining the structure and integrity of ecosystems, and the importance of adopting ecosystem management practices that recognize this dynamic.
======================
Bounty on coyote kills a bad idea: groups
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Bounty+coyote+kills+idea+groups/2227259/story.html
Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-PostNovember 16, 2009
Nature and wildlife conservation groups say the provincial government is barking up the wrong tree in its solution to Saskatchewan's coyote problem.
"I think it caught everybody off guard," Nature Saskatchewan president Lorne Scott said about the province's decision to offer a bounty on coyote kills.
Scott said his organization wasn't consulted prior to last week's introduction of the Saskatchewan Coyote Control Program, which will offer $20 per kill. Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said the program was established to help producers deal with the loss of their livestock to coyotes, which are numerous this year.
Had it been consulted, Scott said Nature Saskatchewan would have noted similar control programs didn't work in the past and won't work now.
MORE:
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Bounty+coyote+kills+idea+groups/2227259/story.html
=======================
Coyote bounty impact harmful
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Coyote+bounty+impact+harmful/2231442/story.html
The StarPhoenix November 17, 2009
Just more than a year after Saskatchewan caught the nation's attention as the bastion of backwardness by organizing a gopher derby, it's back in the news -- this time for placing a bounty on coyotes.
It may have escaped the notice of Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud that coyotes are much more adept than are .22s at dealing with a problem of excessive gophers, but this misplaced priority didn't escape the notice of those who actually study wildlife in this province.
Lorne Scott, head of Nature Saskatchewan, was taken by surprise when he heard of the new bounty. Darrell Crabbe, executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, suggests coyotes are probably much less of a problem than what the minister suspects.
"Coyotes play a very important role in the health of the ecosystem out there in many places," he said.
MORE:
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/environment/
Coyote+bounty+impact+harmful/2231442/story.html