Bear Shot in London Today

[Jonny]

I am in the midst of a big Urban Wildlife program for Niagara. We have coyotes, badgers and beavers. We didnt have them 10 years ago....but as their population increases we are becoming a food source. This is setting us up for confrontation. It is very simple. We must adapt before the animals do...if the coyotes and bears see us as food suppliers, things will get bad very fast.

 

The people who set this up have rocks in their heads. Densely populated areas are no place for wildlife larger than a rabbit, and sometimes not even those. Deer are cute until they start eating stuff they're not supposed to and causing car accidents. Beavers are cute until they start cutting trees off people's properties and plugging culverts with their dams. And a bear habituated to humans? That's a threat that people don't want to deal with at all. Wildlife in populated areas simply causes headaches.

 

There really needs to be a massive education campaign to teach people who don't see these animals other than on TV what to do.

 

I think what is needed is wildlife management; otherwise whatever benefit is seen from having these animals around is lost in the controversy of animals being nuisance animals.

 

The animals are coming back...so we might as well get used to it.

 

The "comeback" is artificial. It needs to be controlled or halted altogether. The vast majority of people haven't got time to worry about the problems animals cause when they're not used to it.

[bigfish1965]

The people who set this up have rocks in their heads. Densely populated areas are no place for wildlife larger than a rabbit, and sometimes not even those. Deer are cute until they start eating stuff they're not supposed to and causing car accidents. Beavers are cute until they start cutting trees off people's properties and plugging culverts with their dams. And a bear habituated to humans? That's a threat that people don't want to deal with at all. Wildlife in populated areas simply causes headaches.

 

 

 

I think what is needed is wildlife management; otherwise whatever benefit is seen from having these animals around is lost in the controversy of animals being nuisance animals.

 

 

 

The "comeback" is artificial. It needs to be controlled or halted altogether. The vast majority of people haven't got time to worry about the problems animals cause when they're not used to it.

 

Wow...what planet did that response come from??

First, wildlife management plans are not killing plans, they are plans to deal with the inevitable.

Lets break this down a bit further...I will relate this all to St Catharines since thats where I am.

 

The beavers first came back about 12 years ago in very small numbers. Then successive years of heavy rain created a massive population increase, not only here, but province wide. You CANNOT GET RID OF BEAVERS. You can adapt. Niagara beavers do not make dams. They are bank beavers. Yes, they eat trees but since we don't have a forest management plan in place and since we artificially suppress forest fires here, the beaver may actually improve the over all tree health. The natural ecosystem is always the best manager. They do not eat trees more than 50 meters from the waters edge, so we can plot their likely movements and population threshold.

 

The coyotes-- the same rainy seasons brought an exponential increase in rodent and prey populations. We have few predators here. The hawks have probably increased their numbers by 4 times. But it was not enough. This opened the door for the formerly rural coyote to move in. Since St Catharines has a nearly perfectly aligned connection of green spaces and parks, the coyotes marched through. They adapted by going nocturnal. They multiplied rapidly due to the huge food source of rabbits and beaver and other rodentia. The coyotes in southern Ontario are all wold/coyote hybrids (or more accurately descendants of same). They habe the genetic code for greater adaptation and size.

A cull is a total waste of time. It simply creates larger litters and since the mating pair rarely put themselves in harms way, does nothing to stop reproduction.

Now, if people do not stop doing things like feeding pets outdoors, not cleaning up dog feces in parks, not using animal proof garbage containers, etc, there will be a big problem should the natural foods die off. They are already getting accustomed to us. If we do not ready the people for this, there will be problems.

 

The badger is a VERY recent returnee. It is endangered and may not be meddled with in any way shape or form.

 

The return of these animals is NOT artificial. It is adaptation and new found habitat and we 'green' more areas. They are simply coming back to where they were and are reacting to climate change as well.

 

BTW...if you don't think we have a big ecological and climate shift here, walk through a conservation area in your shorts this weekend. You will be picking out ticks for a week. Ten years ago there were almost none here...now they are every where.