Alaskan Wildlife and the U.S Government

taunter • 20 March 2017 at 6:23 PM

Essentially the House passed last month a bill repealing support for Alaskan wildlife conservation efforts; this leaves many native predators such as bears, and wolves vulnerable to be hunted.

Repealing protections legalizes baiting these animals while bears are hibernating or while wolves are in the den.

It's incredibly cruel and immensely disappointing.

What do you guys think?

Research the topic more if you want more info!

lykhaos117 • 20 March 2017 at 6:58 PM

@taunter

This is very disturbing, and it goes beyond it being sad that wolves and bears will be hunted, although that is also an issue. ☹️

Wolves and bears are alpha predators, which places them in a high trophic level in their food web. Typically, they stabilize the lower trophic levels by preventing overpopulation, which could result in the overuse of necessary resources such as plants, water, etc. and spread disease quickly from one individual to another in prey animals such as deer. Eliminating alpha predators makes it more likely that overpopulation will occur, increasing the scarcity of resources, possibly causing a sudden drop in population after the initial rapid growth, more diseases, less biodiversity, etc.

I'll have to look into this more to get a better grasp for all the likely consequences, though I learned a lot about these concepts from college level biology classes (I plan on going into the conservation field), and it's worrying that this is happening.

taunter • 20 March 2017 at 7:02 PM

@lykhaos117

It's a sad reflection of the system and also the politicians in the system.

lykhaos117 • 20 March 2017 at 7:10 PM

@taunter

I agree. ☹️ And conservation efforts are also increasingly important since ecosystems are already being destabilized by other factors such as climate change, invasive species, oil drilling, etc. We should try to avoid giving the environment additional stress and value legislation which promotes its wellbeing.

taunter • 20 March 2017 at 7:55 PM

@lykhaos117

It still leaves me dumbfounded how our current president came to be.