Deadly animals

[Fraggle Rocker]

As much as we love the pandas and the kakapos (the largest parrot species, flightless, nearly exterminated by domestic carnivores brought to New Zealand by Europeans), the large animals have our attention and affection, and we'll muddle through and keep barely viable gene pools of all of them alive in zoos and reserves.

The real pending ecological disaster lies in the smaller creatures. We're obliterating entire species of rodents, primates, cetaceans, birds, reptiles and amphibians at an alarming rate. Surely even fish, although we're not as well equipped to monitor the catastrophe that's brewing in the oceans. And the lower phyla in the Animal Kingdom: insects, arachnids, crustaceans, molluscs.

The Plant Kingdom isn't faring too well under our stewardship either. I don't know about the Fungus, Algae and Archaea Kingdoms, but my guess is that only the Bacteria Kingdom is thriving in the world we've created.

Speaking of fungi, White-Nose Syndrome is killing off America's bat population. Bats hibernate in caves, and cave explorers have carried this fungus plague from one flock to the next. Bats are one of the most important checks on the insect population: if we lose the bats, our crops will be under siege.

 

[Skeptical]

There are some species that thrive in the human influenced world. Rats and mice have spread throughout the world riding with humans. Ditto the English sparrow, the European rabbit, the mongoose, and others.

Humans are not going to destroy the natural world, but we are sure changing it. New species compositions in pretty much every ecosystem.

 

[Orleander]

I'm more afraid of traveling to the tropics because of mosquitoes. I'm content living where its cold and deer might be the most dangerous animal.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

I'm more afraid of traveling to the tropics because of mosquitoes. I'm content living where its cold and deer might be the most dangerous animal.

Mrs. Fraggle and I have been to several tropical locations and neither of us was ever bitten by a mosquito.

However, deer are a genuine menace on the roads here in Maryland. When I drive at night anywhere but a limited-access highway or a brightly-lit urban boulevard, I put the cruise control on 35 and drive with my foot poised over the brake pedal.

Bison are one of the most dangerous animals in America, measured by the number of people they kill. Perhaps second only to deer.

 

[M00se1989]

A deer took out my side mirrior the other week. I'm just driving along when out of knowhere I see this big head of a deer smash into the side of my car. Scared me a bit and my dangeling mirror fell off a little bit down the road.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

A deer took out my side mirrior the other week. I'm just driving along when out of knowhere I see this big head of a deer smash into the side of my car. Scared me a bit and my dangeling mirror fell off a little bit down the road.

Excerpted from an article in the Washington Post earlier this month:

In Fiscal Year 2010 there were 1.1 million deer vehicle accidents in the USA, resulting in more than $3.8 billion of insurance claims and driver costs, according to State Farm. The NHTSA counted 182 deaths in animal vehicle collisions and estimated that 75-80%, approximately 140, involved deer. Even Washington DC has about 500 deer vehicle accidents a year, mostly caused by the deer infesting Rock Creek Park. Be especially vigilant from 6pm to 9pm and remember that deer travel in herds. There were 21% more accidents last year than five years earlier, even though vehicle miles have not increased significantly. This increase is surely due to the rapid growth of America’s deer population. When you see the New Jersey Audubon Society carefully selecting people to shoot deer on its game preserves, you know that the deer surplus is an ecological disaster.

 

[M00se1989]

I like how they slid the words "carefully selecting people" into the article. If we have a problem like that in Georgia we grab a gun, a bottle, and shoot up some road signs on the way to the hunting grounds. I can only imagine what New Jersey does.