Over at The Guardian, they suggest that Britain might be able to eat its way out of its invasive species invasion.
Right. Has that ever worked?
Rats and Rabbits are not native to the U.K., but no one is even trying to eat the former, while the latter have been shot, snared, netted, feretted and trapped since the year 1000, but the numbers are still high and everyone seems quite happy with that.
Here in the U.S., we are overrun with Starlings, English Sparrows, Red Fox, Pigeons, Zebra Mussells, and Carp, but there is no one even trying to make a dent in them.
Pheasants? Sure, they too are an introduced species, but they are losing ground under a changing agricultural landscape. The Brown trout is not native, but for the most part no one seems to be complaining, and in fact some are singing their praises.
Cookbooks for Coypu (aka Nutria) have not made much of a dent in their populations anywhere.
Actually red foxes are native to North America, in addition to Europe. I understand your point though. I find it mighty hypocritical that the government invests so much money trying to eliminate some invasives and deliberately introduce and continue to stock other.
ReplyDeleteNow, the grays might be the best squirrel to eat, but the best native squirrel to watch is the fox squirrel.
ReplyDeleteI have one that comes to the feeder that is the size of small groundhog.
He has a thick, bushy red tail, and he's quite docile. He lets the grays eat all around him.
He reminds me of how I would imaging the Roman god Bacchus-- plump, jovial, and in good spirits but always ready to indulge himself!
The Red Fox is native to Canada and a very, very small stretch of boreal woods in the U.S., mostly in the northern Rockies, the northern high Sierras and Maine. It is an introduced specied everywhere else. Most of the red fox we have in the U.S. is actually imported stock from Europe, brought over at about the same time as fox hounds since the Gray Fox would tree as fast as a raccoon. Because red fox were introduced to 98% of the U.S., our mounted hunts were careful not to kill them, and as a consequence we have never had a fox-killing tradition in the U.S. For more on the biology of red fox, see David MacDonald's excellent treatise "Running With the Foxes" (reviewed here >> http://www.terrierman.com/macdonald.htm) or J. David Henry's book entitled
ReplyDelete"Red Fox, the Catlike Canine." I also have more information on red fox (and other North American terrier quarry) up here >> http://www.terrierman.com/quarrybio.htm and here >> http://www.terrierman.com/foxyear.htm Another piece that might be of interest is California "fox war" detailed here >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2004/07/red-fox-as-litmus-test.html
P.
From the Pickwick Papers
ReplyDeleteMr. Pickwick & Sam Weller discuss pies.
Weal pie,' said Mr. Weller, soliloquising, as he arranged the eatables on the grass. 'Wery good thing is weal pie, when you know the lady as made it, and is quite sure it ain't kittens; and arter all though, where's the odds, when they're so like weal that the wery piemen themselves don't know the difference?'
'Don't they, Sam?' said Mr. Pickwick.
'Not they, sir,' replied Mr. Weller, touching his hat. 'I lodged in the same house vith a pieman once, sir, and a wery nice man he was--reg'lar clever chap, too--make pies out o' anything, he could. "What a number o' cats you keep, Mr. Brooks," says I, when I'd got intimate with him. "Ah," says he, "I do--a good many," says he, "You must be wery fond o' cats," says I. "Other people is," says he, a-winkin' at me; "they ain't in season till the winter though," says he. "Not in season!" says I. "No," says he, "fruits is in, cats is out." "Why, what do you mean?" says I. "Mean!" says he. "That I'll never be a party to the combination o' the butchers, to keep up the price o' meat," says he. "Mr. Weller," says he, a-squeezing my hand wery hard, and vispering in my ear--"don't mention this here agin--but it's the seasonin' as does it. They're all made o' them noble animals," says he, a-pointin' to a wery nice little tabby kitten, "and I seasons 'em for beefsteak, weal or kidney, 'cording to the demand. And more than that," says he, "I can make a weal a beef-steak, or a beef- steak a kidney, or any one on 'em a mutton, at a minute's notice, just as the market changes, and appetites wary!"'
I saw a segment about this on one of the Gordon Ramsey programs a year or more ago. That push was regarding the American crayfish and grey squirrel, and it certainly appeared the crayfishing was a profitable enterprise. The greys bullying out Squirrel Nutkin, maybe not so much.
ReplyDeleteSeahorse
There are a few of us falconers taking advantage of the english house sparrow and starling plague. They are boon to an fairly limited quarry list for merlins, sharp-shinned hawks, and even kestrels. Starlings living on grapes don't taste too bad either!
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