OCR Text |
Show MOUNTAIN year on a ten-year annual average. recent paper, Utah biologist Eric Rickart, Curator of Vertebrates at the Utah Museum of Natural History, and six other scientists, urged wildlife managers to conserve predators or risk transforming entire biological commu- nities in Utah. The scientists cited overgrazing in Yellowstone by the park’s unnaturally large elk herds as an example. The elimination of grizzly bear and wolves allowed Yellowstone elk populations to grow huge and destroy the willow and aspen seedling communities along stream banks. They pointed out a similar danger in Utah if predator populations are not maintained to keep deer and elk numbers in check. # “he paper, “Selecting Wilderness ' Areas to Biological Conserve Diversity,” lished in the April Naturalist. Utah’s was pub- 1996 Great Basin How many of Utah’s predators remain? It's an official guess. To estimate fox populations, for example, the state’s Department of Wildlife Resources counts the number of fox pelts taken by trappers each year. DWR also monitors fox sightings, the animal’s prey base, and reported encounters with livestock growers. No estimate of total population is made, but a “harvest” is recorded. Boyde Blackwell, DWR Mammal Project Coordinator said 500 kit foxes and 1,000 grey foxes are taken each Red fox populations, which thrive in agricultural settings, are growing. Blackwell said increasing red fox numbers are inferred from the fewer number of days it takes to trap more red fox each year. In 1982, 564 red fox were caught. The number has steadily increased to 4,000 in 1996. “We don’t hear much about fox in Utah because not much is known about them,” said Dick Carter of the High Uintas Preservation Council. “The premise of the few studies done is, ‘Do we have too many fox?” When you begin from that perspective, he said, you don’t get the data you need to know if the population is viable over time. A Utah State University study proposes to exterminate every fox and ground-based predator in 16-squaremile study zones to study the decline of Utah’s pheasant populations. Later they will compare the number of pheasants in those predator-free zones with other study zones that have the usual complement of predators. “This ‘study’ is not science,” Carter, a USU graduate, wrote to the school. It amounts to simply killing predators to TIMES often more important than the habitat that we leave for them, Carter said. For example, USU also has a cougar study going on, paid for by DWR and the state legislature. “The question they’re asking is, ‘Are there too many cougar?’ “We should be asking, ‘Is the cougar’s genetic base dangerously reduced?’ Rather than, ‘Are cougars causing problems with deer and elk? which make money for the state gov ernment through the sale of hunting licenses.” Local extinctions of predators from specific areas can happen more easily now because Utah’s wild areas are fragmented and small groups of predators are cut off from each other Though to a layperson one cougar looks like another, cougar populations in one location have slightly different genes than groups in other places. That genetic variation in the larger population is essential to avoid inbreeding and to avoid a catastrophe such as a single virus wiping out an entire population that’s genetically similar Blackwell says that research shows 20% of a cougar population is about the maximum you can kill over time keep a population and viable However, if prey is low, human contact is high, and reports of cougar eat ing livestock are frequent, that 20% can be raised for a time, then reassessed The DWR believes Utah has 2-3,000 cougar, said Blackwell. In 1995-96 DWR issued 872 cougar hunting per Continued on page 10 COT RG nae by Mountain Comfort Furnishings see what happens. The research is funded by upland game—that’s bird—hunting licenses and is mandated by the Utah legislature. Pheasant and other game birds are the third highest money generator for DWR after mule deer and elk. The way we view predators is eS Continued from page 9 SE 2756 West ge i Rasmussen Road, Park City 801-647 cyto FURNT SHIN Maria Paral & Design Live Apres Ski dark City’s Cncercainment - (Wednesday-Sunday Favorite on Florist Historic Main ° Guaranteed Fresh Flowers e European Gardens Curopean Beer List 649-2600 ineside Fondue k = The warm Goldener and World comfortable Hirsch Restaurant serves award winning cuisine in a delightful mountain setting. y Winter Breakfast Lunch Dining * 7:00 Traditional Japanese Hours - 9:30 Food Designed For Today's Gourmet. a.m. ¢ 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Salt Lake City Aprés Ski * 2:30 = 6:00 p.m. ot Bo Radian Dinner * 6:00-- 10:00 p.m. Park City 7 Days a Week 738 Main Street 801.655.7100 PAGE 9 Wide Delivery ey GS |