This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“People now share the landscape with
millions of deer, geese, wild turkeys, coyotes, and beavers; thousands of
bears, moose, and raptors; formerly domesticated feral pigs and cats; and uncountable
numbers of small wild animals and birds.
And more are on the way, moving in among us as their populations thrive
and spread to regions where they haven’t been seen for centuries – in some
cases far beyond their historic ranges.” – Jim Sterba, Introduction, Page xv
“Stewardship means making use of a resource and at the same
time leaving it to future generations in as good or better condition than
before. But this wasn’t happening. In the 1960s and 1970s, the environmental
protection movement grew out of a widespread recognition that the landscape had
been abused and harmed. It fought the
overuse of agricultural herbicides and pesticides; campaigned to clean up air,
water, and land fouled by those and other man-made pollutants; called for
protection of wildlife threatened by overharvesting, pollution, and other forms
of human abuse; and pushed to curtail such extractive eyesore industries as
clear-cut logging and strip mining.” – Jim Sterba, Introduction, Page xvi
“It is understandable that after generations of wildlife scarcity many people might be skeptical of the idea that many wild species are now not only plentiful but overabundant enough to cause serious problems for people and ecosystems. After decades in which wild populations had to be nurtured, the idea that creatures’ numbers needed to be reduced, by lethal means if necessary, was disturbing to them.” – Jim Sterba, Introduction, Page xix
Is This An Overview?
During the 20th century, Americans recognized how the
ecosystems has been harmed and damaged.
In response, various environmental organizations were born. Culture gradually changed to become more
protective of the flora and fauna. The
protection was so successful, that there are species which were near extinct,
which began to flourish, and have become overpopulated. Overpopulation of animals has negative
consequences for people and the ecosystem.
As people have lost tacit experiences with the ecosystem,
people no longer know how to properly protect and interact with the
ecosystem. The more animals there are,
the more food resources are needed.
Species which have become overpopulated due to human intervention such
as by giving them more food, cannot find enough food for themselves in their
habitats, leading to starvation.
Human intervention can be on an ecosystem scale, but often,
people advance the cause of a few or a single species. While the supported and protected species
becomes overpopulated, the species competes with unprotected species, taking
away resources from the unprotected species.
Protecting a single species at the expense of others damages the
ecosystem, as the numbers of the unsupported species decline. An overpopulation can pollute and degrade the
ecosystem thought their consumption methods and waste, which damages the
habitats of other creatures.
Animals which habituated to the presence of humans, and
recognize that humans are not a threat, can become a threat to humans. Those who handle animal related problems are
appreciated by those whose problems they resolve, but are disapproved by those
who idealize the animals.
Various means of controlling species populations are
discussed within communities, often with tense debates as the various interest
groups do not think the means of others are appropriate. As culture has become protective of animals,
many do not want to use lethal means of controlling the population. Even though people do not want to use lethal
means, people appear to not find the frequent road kill as problematic.
Who Invaded Who?
As people invaded animal regions, animals reciprocated by
invading human regions. Though
developing an environment for people, certain species have benefited from these
developments as well. Species which were
able to thrive in developments for people, which otherwise would have had
difficulty surviving. Within human
associated regions, there are various legal protections for animals, such as laws
that prohibit hunting.
How To Control The Population?
There are lethal methods of reducing animal populations, but
they have become disapproved of. The
overpopulation of animals makes hunting seasons less effective, for they remove
less animals than the reproduction rate of the animal, and there are less
people willing to hunt.
A nonlethal method of removing animals from an environment
is to relocate the animal. Relocation is
not a safe method as relocated animals have low survival odds. The animals are relocated to strange
environments and need to compete with animals already there. The relocated animals can also carry
diseases.
When repopulating wild population, domesticated species to
not necessarily thrive. For their behavior
has changed to be domesticated, rather than what is needed to survive.
Caveats?
The focus of the book is on the species which are
overpopulated due to human intervention.
Not all species are overpopulated.
More research would be needed for species which have not recovered.
This book shares a diverse number of species which have
flourished from human contact. Sharing
the biological traits of a species, a history of how they were endangered, how
culture changed to support them, the consequences of their overpopulation, and
the political conflict on population control.
Even with the diversity and varied details on each species, the
explanations can become self-similar.
Such as the conflict over how to manage a species, from different lethal
to nonlethal methods, can appear to be the same as other species but with
different interest group names.
