Walter Hingley sent this link to a letter in Shooting Sportsman, a magazine I admire and have often written for. It said:
"I tend to agree with Mr. Fredi [Letters, Jan/Feb] that predation has been a large contributor to the decline of the sage grouse. And the red fox is certainly a major grouse predator. But out here in Wyoming there's another elephant in the room that the government and the environmentalists seem to overlook even more: the golden eagle.
"Twenty-five years ago, during the spring in the high desert, I witnessed a scene that could have been taken from the pages of Jurassic Park. A raptor in pursuit of prey, hunting on the ground, sprinting through the sage until it hooked a young sage grouse, mantling for a minute or two, and then resuming the chase. After a half-hour the bird lifted into the air and sailed off, skimming the brush, still on the hunt. I went over to the spot and found five young grouse carcasses. I could have missed more.
"Young grouse just don't have much chance of escaping a killing machine like a golden, with its superior intelligence, sight, hearing, agility, stealth and, most important, flying abilities. An entire clutch generally is taken out at once.
"The red fox has made significant inroads here, but in the high desert I still have to hand the grouse-killing crown to the golden. (Around here we call the latter "flying coyotes.")
"Golden eagles never will be controlled or even recognized as predators of anything but mice. So they will continue to proliferate, eating grouse, sheep, deer and antelope. And God help anyone who suggests we do otherwise. Unless goldens happen to acquire a taste for wolves, possibly then and only then will the elephant in the room be noticed."
Bob Hafey
Cora, Wyoming
I replied, diplomatically for me:
"My mild (relatively mild) response is OF COURSE they take Sage, but the grouse have been coping with them since the last glaciation. I have spent plenty of time on the sage plains and rampant conversion of riparian and other significant areas to center pivot irrigation is the worst culprit, at least in Idaho-- ask the Grouse Partnership. Sage grouse need large areas, and different food at different seasons.
"Red fox may well be recent and invasive. Eagles eat them. And coyotes. (And antelope-- anyone who thinks they eat mice is not a biologist).
"Killing native predators has never worked. Build the base!
"Falconers have wanted a fair take of eagles for years and still don't have one. Indians can kill all they want."
Just sayin'....
1 comment:
Tom Cade has some good information on this. There have been several flawed studies on predation in sage grouse that seem to fuel this. (One involved flagging fake "sage grouse nests" filled with chicken eggs and seeing how many eggs survived. Of course, the ravens saw the link between flags and eggs and demolished the fake nests. But it was reported that this proved how hard nest predators were on sage grouse).
Also, red fox may be new arrivals, but for the most part they are thriving on agricultural field edges and suburbia. You will see a lot on the outskirts of Boise but not many out on the rangelands. Suburbs and ag fields already have lost their sage grouse. I have no proof but I would have a hard time believing red fox are actually taking that many grouse. Maybe in some areas, but they aren't a primary factor in the decline.
You can see what is happening to the grouse habitat. It seems pretty clear to me.
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