Prehistoric policy needs updating: Modern megafauna extermination

Okay, so I was wrong about the rhino conference. Turns out I have as good a grasp on time as most other students, so I will be saving that post until next week (when the conference actually is). Slightly sidetracking from Pleistocene extinctions, I thought I should highlight the plight of some modern megafauna… 

In a press release last month, the Centre for Biological Diversity, a U.S. nonprofit charity, revealed the recipient of their national Rubber Dodo award. Proudly continuing the traditions of their forebearers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services has been awarded this year’s Annual Rubber Dodo award, given to those who have done the most to drive species extinct. The program killed more than 2 million native animals in 2013 (up 30% on 2012). This amounts to a horrifying tally of 320 grey wolves, 75,000 coyotes, 419 black bears plus many other animals (Centre for Biological Diversity).

Why has this government department decided to rediscover its roots and ramp up its megafauna killing campaign? National politics and individual gain, obviously. Most of Wildlife Services’ killing is done on behalf of the livestock and agriculture industries (Centre for Biological Diversity).

The methods include aerial gunning, traps and exploding cyanide caps (Centre for Biological Diversity). Is it so difficult to imagine Pleistocene North American settlers foreshadowing this megafauna onslaught with ancient traps, snares, spears, atlatls, bone knives and hand axes? Of course that is just speculation, but it is a sobering thought.

8th Rubber Dodo award for killing megafauna and other wildlife
From Centre for Biological Diversity

“No other government program does more every day to annihilate America’s wildlife than Wildlife Services,” said Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director. “This rogue program does much of its dirty work far from the public’s view, so millions of animals disappear from our landscapes every year with little accountability.”

From personal experience, many people living in North America often want to preserve their wildlife, and a series of petitions by locals in Newark, New Jersey saw the halt of a planned bear cull (at least, this was the case last time I visited). It’s baffling and saddening then that the American government of Wildlife Services in particular "...seems to delight in the endless slaughter of coyotes, wolves, bears, beavers and countless birds,” Suckling said. “It’s a shameful legacy that should have no place in American government in the 21st century.”

This of course is the official account that says nothing about the “shoot, shovel and shut up” attitude to wolves seemingly prevalent in the gun wielding denizens of Washington State, on the front line of reestablishing wolf populations (and no doubt other areas). While illegal, the locals interviewed in this programme were not shy about their intentions toward wolves – see Land of the Lost Wolves Episode 1:  available for 8 more days! 

It's possible that there was some element of dramatisation in the selection of interviewees with more extreme (okay, incredibly extreme) views. I hope this is the case and that it's not a symptom of wider spread intolerance towards these awe-inspiring animals.

In fact, the grey wolf is making a tenuous comeback in the Washington region of the Cascade Mountain range. The Lookout Pack, (see the documentary above and find out more here) was the first wolf pack seen in the Cascades in more than 70 years. Subsequently, they were slaughtered illegally by local poachers, seemingly because the wolves competed with them for game. The Cascades are in need of an apex predator to naturally restore balance to its ecosystem, as seen after wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park (Manning et al., 2009). There is, however, a potential conflicting interest of wolves and cougars. The cougars have become the dominant predator of the local prey species, and as it is an endangered species itself, the effect of wolf introduction on cougar populations will have to be carefully monitored...

Grey Wolf (left) in comaprison with it's Dire Wolf cousin (right)
From DireWolfProject 

I have an awful lot to say about wolves so to do them justice, I’ll talk about why wolves, both extant and extinct, are such key components of their ecosystems in the next post, and the consequences of their absence, both in the Pleistocene and relatively recently.