A Healthy Ecosystem

                  A Healthy Ecosystem

In past columns I’ve mentioned the more exciting wildlife in our state such as cougars and bears, but what about ordinary group of animals and birds we see almost daily, or did see almost daily? Without a doubt, we are the ones who decide what animals, birds or reptiles live in our state, and which ones to eliminate because we think they are a nuisance or dangerous. I guess our grandfathers, who exterminated all the wolves, cougars, and almost all the bears would say good riddance. But is it really a good thing to kill off a species? We have caused huge numbers of animals, birds, etc. to become extinct, and we took the millions of buffalo down to 26 before we stopped the slaughter. Can you imagine, when the transcontinental railroad was completed, passengers could ride along and shoot buffalo from the train? Just for the sport of killing some large animal. Well, the passenger pigeon wasn’t as lucky, and the estimated billion birds were killed down to the last bird, which died in a zoo.

We have matured in our management of wildlife, but we’re not there yet. I had a man working for me doing yard work and other odd jobs, and I had noticed a number of black snakes and king snakes on our property. I said, “C. D. let’s don’t just kill every snake you see. A lot of those snakes are eating mice and other pests.” Well, C. D. just shook his head and said, “Mr. Mason, I don’t trust none of ‘em.” C. D. has retired now, and I have adopted a “Don’t kill anything you’re not going to eat” on my property, and that includes copperheads. I know a copperhead can kill you, but I don’t remember anyone dying, and during that time a lot of folks were killed by lightering strikes. I guess I’m saying, “I’ll take the slight risk in order to keep the ecosystem intact around my house. I live on 37 acres with two small ponds and only my house on the front of the property. I think animals have developed a sense of safety on this land. A doe had twins in our courtyard not ten yards from my front door, and last night, just at dusk, I drove down my driveway and spooked a herd of deer. Seven to ten---maybe more.  When the raccoons and possums hear my sliding glass door open from the kitchen after dinner, they are almost standing in line to nibble the scraps.  We’ve picked up a family of red-tail hawks over the past couple of years, which I’m sure the squirrels don’t like, but they are holding down the squirrel and rat population really well. Maybe I’m getting the reputation of being to animal friendly because Canadian geese are starting to show up in my backyard around my small pond, and a tree on a small island in my lower pond has become an egret roost.  

But some parts of my Arkansas ecosystem are missing. Up until about 10 years ago I had a nice covey of quail, but slowly, without a quail being shot, they have disappeared. The two small ponds, open areas around the tree line, and the abundance of grasses with seed are excellent quail habitat. Yes, and I know from talking to hunters and others who regularly spend time in the field and woods of our state, that the sighting a cougar happens about as frequently as kicking up a covey of quail.

I’ve quoted the legendary Chief of the Seattle Indians several times before in my columns, but I’ll do it one more time because this one really needs his wisdom. “Man is merely part of the web of life,…” uh, huh you know the rest.  Yes, you might shake your head when you look at my backyard where the armadillos have rooted up the grass, but they have also cleaned out the fire ants, so I’ll take the bad with the good.

Of course, every time I mention Arkansas needs to have a complete, viable ecosystem, someone will always say we need to shoot every coyote we see. “They get the young deer.” Now really folks, anyone who think the zillions of deer we have in this state are in any danger of being reduced by coyotes should just take a look at my back yard around dusk. Studies have shown coyotes basically have a diet of small animals. When the numbers of deer in the state are considered, coyotes are an insignificant factor. However, if coyotes were allowed to multiply, they would help control the out-of-control spread of possums, raccoon, and other small animals.

Then maybe we could see our quail make a comeback. Yes, I know the old “loss of habitat’ story and it sound good, but it doesn’t hold water. What happened to my covey of quail? And what happened to the thousands of other coveys that have disappeared? Of course, we have lost habitat, but we still have millions of acres of prime habitat without one quail. Why? It’s sure not from overhunting, so what is the cause? I think we should look at the ecosystem and see what is different when compared to the quail we had in the 1950s and 60s. First, the net additions to our ecosystem: Feral hogs, armadillos, raccoons, possums, fire ants, and skunks. What do these animal have in common, and why did they multiply in our ecosystem to become such large numbers?  The answer is very simple: Nature abhors a vacuum, and over the past 75 years, we have created a vacuum in our ecosystem and today it has been filled by those additions I just mentioned. Of course, it’s easy to see how the vacuum was created. We killed off all the predators that kept the ecosystem in balance and the vacuum was filled with the animals listed above. Those animals have several things in common, and the most obvious is they are ground-feeding scavengers that will eat just about anything. Which brings us full circle to look at the most obvious missing parts of our ecosystem. Yes, of course, it’s the quail and this is the easy part of the eco-equation. Why? Well, “ground-feeding scavengers” feed on almost anything edible and small quail chicks and eggs are gobbled up eliminating our quail. The answer is as Chief Seattle would counsel is to repair the web, and then the quail will return. Look, I know I have said this several times, but unless we add predators of ground feeding scavengers to our wildlife mix, we will have less of an ecosystem here in Arkansas, and why we’re adding stop eliminating any animal that feeds on these scavenges, and that means stop shooting the coyotes, bobcats, hawks, and owls. Do away with the ill throughout bear season, set a moratorium on cougars and wolves, then maybe we will see the web of nature repaired and our quail will return.

I’ll leave you with another environmental quote from Chief Seattle, “To harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.”