predator contorl is it wrong?
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 11:49 am
Is predator control a good idea or does it more often than not disrupt mother nature's balance and ultimately have a negative impact on the ecosystem? For example, is it worth killing thousands of animals from geese to minks and otters to foxes for say the safety of 10 birds? Sound crazy? Well that is exactly what is going on at the Cape Hatteras National Recreational Seashore for the last 4 years. To say the results have had a slithery result is an understatement.
The cotton mouth is the most deadly snake in North Carolina. They can kill and are very aggressive. There are only a few predators of the cotton mouth foxes and raccoons will kill cotton mouths on occasion but by far the biggest predator of the cotton mouth is the opossum. All three of these natural predators of the cotton mouth have been killed by the hundreds in the tiny woods in Buxton on Hatteras Island by the National Park Service as part of predator control to help save a few nesting pairs of birds. As a result the number of nesting pairs has remained the same as it has always been however, the number of cotton mouths has risen dramatically. Local bass fisherman, hikers etc say they have seen far more snakes since the predator control began and are not happy about it. Not only are the mammals of Hatteras being killed but they are meeting that death through, drowning in underwater traps, having their necks broken by other traps or even poisoned with gas. These animals cannot relocate because they are stuck on the island and cannot swim 35 miles to the mainland to escape the slaughter. They are the descendants of raccoons and minks from so long ago the island was still attached t the mainland. The word raccoon for example is a Hatteras Indian word that means to scratch and it was on the Outer Banks that the English first saw the animal and incorporated the word raccoon into the English language. Now residents fear they will soon no longer have any raccoons or other mammals and will be left with nothing in the beautiful seashore but a lot of piousness snakes, mosquitoes and a few birds.
The cotton mouth is the most deadly snake in North Carolina. They can kill and are very aggressive. There are only a few predators of the cotton mouth foxes and raccoons will kill cotton mouths on occasion but by far the biggest predator of the cotton mouth is the opossum. All three of these natural predators of the cotton mouth have been killed by the hundreds in the tiny woods in Buxton on Hatteras Island by the National Park Service as part of predator control to help save a few nesting pairs of birds. As a result the number of nesting pairs has remained the same as it has always been however, the number of cotton mouths has risen dramatically. Local bass fisherman, hikers etc say they have seen far more snakes since the predator control began and are not happy about it. Not only are the mammals of Hatteras being killed but they are meeting that death through, drowning in underwater traps, having their necks broken by other traps or even poisoned with gas. These animals cannot relocate because they are stuck on the island and cannot swim 35 miles to the mainland to escape the slaughter. They are the descendants of raccoons and minks from so long ago the island was still attached t the mainland. The word raccoon for example is a Hatteras Indian word that means to scratch and it was on the Outer Banks that the English first saw the animal and incorporated the word raccoon into the English language. Now residents fear they will soon no longer have any raccoons or other mammals and will be left with nothing in the beautiful seashore but a lot of piousness snakes, mosquitoes and a few birds.