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The Christian Science Monitor
January 11, 2014
Read the whole story
here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0110/Meat-eaters-versus-carnivores-Is-your-diet-killing-wolves
Meat-eaters versus carnivores:
Is your diet killing wolves?
Most most large land carnivore
populations are in decline. A
report from Oregon State
University suggests that
livestock production is partly to
blame.
By Fabien Tepper
The world's fanged animals are
rapidly losing ground to humans,
reports a study in the journal
Science, thanks in part to the
spread of livestock farming.
Of the 31 largest species of
land carnivore (including the
Giant panda, a rare herbivore in
the Carnivora order), 23 are in
population decline, the authors
report. One, the red wolf, is
critically endangered, and eight
more are considered likely to go
extinct throughout all or most of
their natural range.
"Globally, we are losing our
large carnivores," says William
Ripple, an Oregon State
University ecologist who was the
paper's lead author.
Human infringements on these
animals are numerous –
including the fur industry and
many forms of traditional
medicine – but the report
gives a special nod to "human
carnivory." To support a global
rise in per-capita meat-eating,
livestock farming continues to
expand, shrinking and fragmenting
natural habitats in the process.
And when cramped predators adapt
by preying upon livestock, some
ranchers go to extreme measures
to keep them away, such as
strapping pouches of neurotoxins
to the necks of grazing lambs, or
calling upon the United States
Department of Agriculture to
shoot down predators from
government helicopters.
"Global livestock production
continues to encroach on land
needed by large carnivores,
particularly in the developing
world, where livestock production
tripled between 1980 and 2002,"
reports the study.
But if our very food
production brings us to blows
with other meat-eaters, surely we
need the land at least as much as
they do. Why should we privilege
wolf and puma habitat over
farmland?
"Human tolerance of these
species is a major issue for
conservation," says Mr. Ripple.
"We say these animals have an
intrinsic right to exist, but
they are also providing economic
and ecological services that
people value."
According to these scientists,
there is every reason to protect
carnivores – and not only
the species, but the individuals
themselves. For one thing,
animals' intrinsic value may
dwell in individuals' capacities
for pain, pleasure, learning, and
social relationships, all
qualities which these megafauna
have in spades.
"Because we're aware and
self-aware, we have a well-being
that can be helped and harmed by
our actions," explains Bill Lynn,
a research scientist at Clark
University's George T. Marsh
Institute, who is an expert on
ethics and predator management.
"With respect to carnivores, they
too are aware and self-aware.
They, too, have a well-being that
can be helped or harmed by our
actions."
"Thus," adds Mr. Lynn, "how
human beings relate to wildlife
and the environment, are of
direct moral concern."
Many large carnivores are also
considered to be keystone
predators, who play crucial roles
within their ecosystems –
roles that are shaped by the
size, metabolic demands,
sociality, and hunting tactics,
of each individuals.
"Each one of them becomes more
important because there's fewer
of them," explains Ripple.
The gray wolf, for example,
whose fate has become the subject
of ongoing policy debates after
its extirpation from much of
Western Europe, the US, and
Mexico, is the top US predator of
deer, after humans. In North
America's now-wolfless areas,
deer populations are nearly six
times higher than elsewhere,
which has led to drastic changes
in plant communities, as well as
increases in automobile
collisions. And sea otters have
been shown to keep North American
kelp populations healthy and well
distributed, by limiting the
growth of sea urchin
colonies.
Both of these ecological
functions – protecting
woodland foliage and aquatic kelp
– are vital for keeping the
earth's carbon sequestered safely
in plant tissues (and out of the
atmosphere), notes the study,
suggesting that charismatic
carnivores actually play a vital
role in keeping global warming at
bay.
In view of this and other
important "ecosystem services,"
the authors have called for the
creation of a Global Large
Carnivore Initiative modeled
after an existing European
initiative which aims "to
maintain and restore, in
coexistence with people, viable
populations of large carnivores
as an integral part of ecosystems
and landscapes."
Such a body could establish
carnivore reserves, suggests
Ripple, and improve the
enforcement of international
wildlife laws.
"Ideally, discussions
regarding potential decreases in
both human fertility rates and
per-capita meat consumption would
be part of a long-term strategy
for overcoming these concurrent
challenges," suggests the report.
"It will probably take a change
in both human attitudes and
actions to avoid imminent
large-carnivore extinctions."
"These are some of the
world’s most revered and
iconic species. Ironically, they
are also some of the most
threatened," says Ripple. "I
think in the end, to preserve
these large carnivore species, it
comes down to humans having
tolerance to live with them."
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