One problem that can arise (due to us killing the predators) is overpopulation which can cause issues with an ecosystem
Which unfortunately puts us humans now in the position of needing to be their predators to make sure that their population doesn’t boom so hard it wrecks the ecosystem
So pretty much to keep the animal from from eating so much of their environment that other animals (including them) starve in large numbers or destroy entire areas we have to cull them
Ideally through hunting licenses (or something similar) so that way they don’t go to waste and also so that there’s less of a reliance on large scale animal farming
To create a stable population human intervention is absolutely required and I don’t disagree with anything you said. However, I’d clarify that large die offs don’t cause extinction (in a vacuum) and are a rather natural response to environmental instability. Animal populations naturally fluctuate over time as food sources become abundant and then the abundance of animals leads to an abundance of natural predators which then over hunts the animals leading to die-offs. These effects naturally ripple through food chains - often being triggered by particularly abundant plant growth (due to a light winter or heavy rains etc…) or due to a deficiency (a drought or storm).
Humans are fucking crazy so when we overhunt there’s no natural correction, so we’ll sometimes aggressively cull predators (as in this case) and then need to step into that role ourselves until natural predators can restablize. In the past two centuries it’s been our habit to actively extinct predators (I.e. dingos, Catamounts, wolves) to protect domestic livestock and that’s a fucking hard problem to undo… sometimes we can track down a breeding pair and aggressively repopulate, other times we need to import a similar predator.
Nature can correct a lot of damage… but humans can do a shit ton of damage.
One problem that can arise (due to us killing the predators) is overpopulation which can cause issues with an ecosystem
Which unfortunately puts us humans now in the position of needing to be their predators to make sure that their population doesn’t boom so hard it wrecks the ecosystem
So pretty much to keep the animal from from eating so much of their environment that other animals (including them) starve in large numbers or destroy entire areas we have to cull them
Ideally through hunting licenses (or something similar) so that way they don’t go to waste and also so that there’s less of a reliance on large scale animal farming
Though of course the ideal solution is to reintroduce the lost predators.
Ideally yes, but when they’ve gone extinct due to humans it makes that very difficult
To create a stable population human intervention is absolutely required and I don’t disagree with anything you said. However, I’d clarify that large die offs don’t cause extinction (in a vacuum) and are a rather natural response to environmental instability. Animal populations naturally fluctuate over time as food sources become abundant and then the abundance of animals leads to an abundance of natural predators which then over hunts the animals leading to die-offs. These effects naturally ripple through food chains - often being triggered by particularly abundant plant growth (due to a light winter or heavy rains etc…) or due to a deficiency (a drought or storm).
Humans are fucking crazy so when we overhunt there’s no natural correction, so we’ll sometimes aggressively cull predators (as in this case) and then need to step into that role ourselves until natural predators can restablize. In the past two centuries it’s been our habit to actively extinct predators (I.e. dingos, Catamounts, wolves) to protect domestic livestock and that’s a fucking hard problem to undo… sometimes we can track down a breeding pair and aggressively repopulate, other times we need to import a similar predator.
Nature can correct a lot of damage… but humans can do a shit ton of damage.