Best Answer
The relationship between the big predators and trees,It has only recently become clear how the killing of wolves
leads to the diminishing of the forests .
Lets take Yellow Stone park,
photos from 1954 ,show far more aspen then,
then there are today .whole sections of forest have gone
And all the willows on the waters edge ,
which the beaver needed to make dams,
also disappeared and so did the beaver,
The river banks were eroding ,and top soil was being lost all along the banks ,
Before the willows held the edges together
Of course anything else that was part of these tree`s worlds was also gone ,the animals ,birds and insects that live within the branches or live of the seeds or leaves.
How could entire forests disappear in the middle of a protected area????
(they Estimated that in 50 years all the Aspen would be gone)
research revealed that no new aspen had regenerated since the 1930 ties
This coincides with the last wolf being shot there.
between 1883 and 1917 more than 100,000 wolves were killed in Montana and Wyoming alone
by the 1970 ties they were listed as endangered in the USA
--------------------------------------...
The wolves ,mountain lions coyotes etc.
keep the deer on the run ,
who will other wise browse any new growth coming up,
The shoots of aspen and willows being some of there favorites.
They originally re introduced 31 gray wolves with much political opposition, and by now have 14 packs ,total 150 wolves
all named and fitted with radio collars
The wolves impact starts with their kill,which becomes a small epicenter of activity
Ravens ,magpies coyotes ,bold eagle ,grizzle and black bears are coming to scavenge followed by the insect world
In this way one kill serves hundreds
By killing elk, the willows are returning ,
After the return of the wolves great patches of new Aspen growth is seen,there are more ducks on the water ,and recently the first beaver was again seen building a dam.
Wolves through elk, through new growth ,actually determine the character of the forests and river
--------------------------------------...
This leaves us with a dilemma,
Always when getting close to the wilderness ,
man kills the dangerous animals first,
for his safety or the safety of his livestock
we used to ask
How can we live side by side with dangerous animals ??
Because they will leave their alloted boundaries ,
and some will go for domestic animals
What is more important our forest`s or our cows .?
Only with very strict monitoring ,
and removing any delinquent predator, the moment it exceeds his diet.
Can we hope to rescue both ,
unless somebody comes up with a better idea?
Removing the predator all together ,will eventually
lead to the death of the whole eco system.
Now we ask can we live without them
Because the same principle applies to all carnivores, both on land in the air and in the water .
--------------------------------------...
Killing Orcas and Sharks will also have drastic effects,on the
ocean flora with excesses of grazers, kelp forests disappear and so do the fish,or when whole eco systems of fish are gone because all the big fish are fished out, predators and grazers alike ,coral beds suffocate under blankets of algae,
and what once was teaming with life becomes a ghost reef
Farmers in South Africa now have Vulture restaurants ,where they dump any dead live stock,
As before they used to shoot the Vultures ,now they treasure them.
Killing snakes has resulted in plagues of Norwegian rats that undermine fields with a net work of tunnels causing the tractor to sink in.They are now releasing mole snakes ,to rectify this problem.
--------------------------------------...
Yet again examples of the inter relationships between all life
and how messing with it affects us directly ,or will eventually.
This question or similar is frequently asked.
--------------------------------------...
In Carioni Valley in Venezuela,where they made huge dams, a lot of islands resulted,which where the tops of the hills.
these places ended up
with 3 to 10 times more iguanas .maroons,howler monkeys ,leaf cutting ants ,parrots , etc
anything that ate the leaves,,seeds or fruits .
but NO predators.,
They were rescued by the many rescue operations going on ,being larger and easier to find and catch.
The social structure and normal behavior of the grouped animals that are left ,is drastically affected ,
They are silent ,unless they are fighting over food.
they do not groom each other any more
and many plants as well as the animals have diseases.
One would have thought that islands surrounded by water ,
Would be covered in growth,
(when before the trees only had water occasionally.)
Instead
all growth is dying and the island are becoming bare
with animals in deep trouble starvation is there fate
The place is crawling with scientists ,
because here is a window into the future .
showing us the reasons for deterioration
The solutions are something else.
that is what we have to figure out
And we are causing these same ecological imbalances,all around the planet , Watch a documentary called --strange days on planet earth,
no 3 called --predators,This deals with this question
there are 4 altogether in this very good series
i recommend to watch all of them
but it will fall on many deaf ears
P.S.
This is the kind of messages i get in my mail ,for giving this same answer to this question--Predators in modern America?should we kill them?
Message: Are you one of the ones that has been sending ranchers computer generated photos of their houses burning down, their vehicles exploding, and their children with scope cross hairs on their heads for threatening to defend their property, businesses, families and pets from your darling wolfies?
(this is the answer the people want to hear)
Best Answer
of course they should... predators are wonderful.. but if they are brave/desperate enough to go after livestock.. it won%26#039;t be long before they are going after people.
Other Answers (10)
-
like permaculture byderule stated, on some occasions the wild animals gone wild /without natural selective processes/ actually damage the tree populations.
A an example I will use the central european forests. My country factually having zero population of large carnivores /total of three to five bears roaming at the eastern border, 20+wolves and estimated population of 200 lynx, local farmers currently suffer from over-populated wild boars. the less visible yet existing is thenegative effect of overpopulated deer androardeer who generate serious damage to the young broadleaf forests. they graye on the sprouts during winter. That, per se is a totally natural thing but not in the scale recently observed. of course the large trees are protected, but the population depends on spreading through the seadlings.
I would like to add, from my forrester point of view, that the people are usually hunting the game for the trophys and are not reproducing the predator function well. if you constantly remove the fittest individuals the population degenerates. the ungulate game mates earlier, and produces lower quality outcomes as result.
summary: the climax forests of the Europe have evolved last four thousand years at least and are fitted well to cope with their challenges. including the grazers and predators. Anyway removing one part of the food web can cause serious problems unpredicted -
Animals often carry seeds of plants or maybe even a tree seed and disperse them places. They eat bugs that could be harmful and it%26#039;s just the circle of life everything leads to another in the whole picture...their manure probably helps for fertalizer, I read somewhere that in the rainforest if you take away one species it could have a harmful effect on the tree especially if it has fruits sometimes it won%26#039;t have any fruit because it has to adapt to a new change of no help from even a small thing like a gnat which another animal eats which another one does that helps the tree so the others lose the foodchain.