Here and here are two rather ugly photos of Kyrgiz taigans attacking a tethered wolf. They have caused controversy in both European AR groups and, most recently, in one of our tazi lists. The general consensus appears to be that the Kyrgiz are reprehensible and that they should be stopped (also, everyone apparently thinks that …
Tag: Predators
Re- Wilding
Laura Niven sends a link to this Wired magazine piece on the controversial practice of “Re- Wilding” — reintroducing the megafauna to environments that have lost them. To me the most interesting part is that Sergey Zimov’s Pleistocene Park is succeeding as predicted in changing swampy taiga to biologically more productive steppe. This agrees with …
Predator defense mechanisms
As a livestock producer, I have an everyday relationship with predators that seem to like lamb for dinner as much as my family does. Our back fenceline borders the Mesa big game winter range, which serves as a coyote refuge with human presence prohibited during the winter months. What to do? We have no interest …
Meteor Strike Update
Dr. Valerius Geist has some ideas. “There may be some thing to this meteor strike. However, the cosmic event did not get rid of megaherbivores, such as mammoth and mastodons. However, the short, but severe depletion pf large prey may have eliminated Arctodus simus, and Miracinonyx. They seem to be gone about 13,000 BP. With …
New Wolf Species
Darren has been too busy to post anything but amazing pictures, but he did email me a heads up on–!– not one but TWO new wolf species! “I’ve been following the story here (popular articles and shorter papers reporting the relevant discoveries have been appearing since 2003 at least), but finally we have the full …
The Roller Scandal
Eight (so far) California roller pigeon fanciers have been targeted in a Federal sting operation and accused of killing as many as 2000 raptors, apparently mostly urban Cooper’s hawks. Some of the info is pretty ugly: “Navarro allegedly told an undercover Fish and Wildlife Service agent that he likes to “pummel” the hawks that he …
Little Red Riding Hood Was Right
It seems an article of faith in American environmental circles that wolves are harmless. While (until recently) there was no record of modern North American wolves harming anyone, a bit of research shows this to be an anomalous situation. Wolves of the exact same species preyed on humans in Europe and Russia; wolves even smaller …
Bird- Eating Bats
Dr. Hypercube was kind enough to unearth Darren’s old post on bird- eating bats and my additions re New World hoary bats: “The hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus, has some very strange “spatial” habits. In the summer, the males live in the southwest, while the females range as far north as the Arctic circle. In the …
Giant Bats Snatch Birds from Night Sky
I heard this interesting story on NPR while driving into work this morning. Bat researchers in Spain have discovered that the giant noctule bat or Nyctalus lasiopterus preys on migrating songbirds who fly at night, something not previously known. It was previously thought that some songbirds migrated at night to avoid predation by diurnal raptors. …
Ancient Enemies
Proof that at least one species of prehistoric cat, Megantereon, hunted humans– it’s in the isotopes. “”Paranthropus robustus and the early Homo species,Homo ergaster, had a diet that reflected a mix of carbon isotopes, suggesting that they were omnivorous, which is similar to what modern humans are today,” said Lee-Thorp. “Knowing the hominid carbon isotope …