Such beautiful creatures! I find it fascinating that every creature has such a specific role in nature and dramatically effects it. The more species we have, the better. Yet, we are so good at causing them to die and this directly impacts us. Think about all the food and medicine we get from it? Not to mention it is a natural filter for water and the air we pollute as well as decomposes our waste and decaying flesh.. gross but great.
Wolves besides being majestic, are keystone creatures. which means, for the amount of them, they serve as a huge part of the community they live in. Wolves kill off old or sick elk keeping only the good genes going in elk as well as making room for more resources for more healthy elk. If there are too many elk, they will eat the grass down to the dirt. With out wolves, elk will eat in the open along streams, eating the plants that keep the water banks from eroding.
So why do we not help wolves reestablish, (since we killed them off, like most things through habitat loss and deliberate extermination)? Because we fear attacks and them killing life stock. I agreed with this for awhile, until I looked up some statistics for myself.
The facts:
Live stock are 5x more likely to be stolen then to be attacked by a wolf
Domestic dogs kill more than 5x as many cattle as wolves
How about deaths?
in the 20th century(100 years for those who think we are in the 20th, it's really the 21st :) ) there have been twenty to thirty attacks in North America, and only three were fatal because of rabies. This may sound like a lot, but domestic dogs kill 16-18 people a year.
Crazy huh? Lets be good stewards of the earth. Yeah it will end, but lets marvel at God's creation and not misuse the abundant resources it gives us.
http://wyoming.sierraclub.org/WOLVES%20AND%20LIVESTOCK.pdf
http://www.yellowstoneinsider.com/issues/wolves/wolf-attacks-on-people.php
No comments:
Post a Comment