Endangered Species Day

Today is Endangered Species Day, a time set aside by Congress to honour the biological heritage of the United States. Serendipitously, today is also my friend Atka’s Birthday! In this photo he plays with his wolf pup plush toy.

The plush toy did not last long I am sure.

Atka toy

Atka is a special and happy spirit, and has the great staff of the Wolf Conservation Center to care for him and teach the world about wolves. But this year’s Endangered Species Day is not so happy for wolves in general.

As noted previously, the USFWS has been playing loose with wolf recovery since the early 2000s. Using a combination of gerrymandered maps and ecologically unsound recovery goals, the service has bowed to conservative pressures in promoting ethically and scientifically unsound plans for wolf management. It did not help that in 2011 the US Congress removed wolves in the northern Rockies from the endangered species list via a rider to the Defense Authorization Act. President Obama shamefully refused to veto the bill.

Throughout this time the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States, and Friends of Animals and Their Environment have been fighting a rear-guard legal battle to try and stem the delisting of wolves. Yet having failed to articulate the ethical reasons for wolf recovery, they were outflanked by the wildlife agencies and politicians.

Now a leaked draft of a USFWS proposal to delist Grey wolves (Canis lupus) throughout the lower 48 states was recently leaked to the LA Times.

According to this and other news reports from the International Wolf Center and Earth Island Journal, the USFWS plans to remove all protections for grey wolves except those in the languishing Mexican Wolf Recovery Program in the Southwest, as the service is finally accepting the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) as a distinct subspecies. Red wolves (Canis rufus) continue to be listed as endangered and sequestered in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

What then about grey wolves in the northeast? Well, the service is now claiming that grey wolves were never in the Northeast. The wolf that was here is the Canadian wolf (Canis lycaon) and that “more study” is needed before wolf recovery in the East is attempted.

Whether the Canadian wolf is a separate species or a hybrid of grey wolves and coyotes is still being debated. However, by declaring the grey wolf never inhabited the Northeast, the politicians in and outside the service give themselves more time to delay wolf recovery across the US. While it may be prudent to study the Canadian wolf more carefully, this is a political maneuver using the veneer of science. One wonders what the excuse would have been if the Canadian wolf had not happened along.

Image: Wolf Conservation Center.

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Rebranding

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It has been quite some time since I last wrote. My apologies. Changes to the website, the Boston Marathon bombings, a bout of pneumonia, and extensive speaking engagements have kept me a tad occupied.

I do not think I will ever catch up with what I might have written, but I will do my best over the upcoming weeks to discuss a few of the more interesting events.

Today, allow me to start with the changes to the website.

I have rebranded. The url is now www.williamlynn.net (www.practicalethics.net will continue to redirect here). Nevertheless, the mission remains the same, and I will continue to reflect on ethics and the interpretation of public policy. I am keeping past entries that accord with this focus.

While the front end changes were implemented without a hitch, there was a great deal of work on the back end that made that possible. I want to thank Paul Trogolo who did most of the work here. He is a free-lance graphic artist, website designer, and systems administrator from Louisiana. I have worked with Paul on several other projects in the past. He is great to work with, has an uncanny ability to explain technical details in language easily accessible to a layperson (like me), and his work is superb. I highly recommend him to those of you looking for help with one of your projects. So thank you Paul! It is always a pleasure working with you.

The blog also sports new Services and Events pages. You can use these to explore the consulting services I offer, or find and attend one of the public talks I give on animals, the environment and sustainability. More content is being planned, but I don’t want to far ahead of myself here. It is a slow process, to be sure. But I hope that the added functions will be of value to you.

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Boston Marathon Bombings

My heart grieves for the victims, survivors, family and friends of the bombings at the Boston Marathon. My sincerest condolences and hopes for all involved.

The bombings are a despicable act, and echoing Obama, I hope the perpetrators “feel the full weight of justice“. Discovering who did this, why, and bringing them to account will take time. Investigations, arrests, arraignment, trial and sentencing are necessarily long term processes. This is as it should be. A rush to judgment is a sure source of future injustice.

But this well-worn insight has not stopped extremists from determining the cause of the bombings on their own. Two examples.

For noted islamophobe Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs it is a Saudi jihadist prosecuting Islam’s war against the West.

Alternatively, Alex Jones believes the bombings to be a “false flag” government conspiracy, a prelude to seizing our guns and extending the power of the federal government. Jones is a noted conspiracy theorist.

As for myself, I have no idea. Experts in such matters are reportedly trending towards a domestic act of terrorism. But that could change, and I am going to reserve judgment until we know much more.

Still, I worry that the demagoguery of Geller, Jones and their colleagues provides an enabling climate of rhetoric that justifies acts of vengeance against Muslims, government employees, progressives, and others painted as a threat by extremist ideology. I want to add my voice to those calling this fear mongering for what it is, and urging all of us to watch out for acts of harassment or violence against people who had absolutely nothing to do with the horrible events of Monday.

The Guardian has an excellent slideshow and set of videos that document the bombing. I have included a few photos from that slideshow, most of which are sourced by AP, Reuters or Getty images. There is also an excellent interactive graphic that puts the events in larger geographical context.

As you look at the photos, note the actions from first responders and citizens. When the blasts occurred many naturally and appropriately sought shelter. Still, first responders (e.g. police, firefighters, EMT’s, doctors, nurses), race officials, and citizens rushed to the blast sites to help the injured. Others offered food, shelter, communications and transportation for international and out-of-state visitors suddenly stranded in Boston. Those acts of courage and care represents the best of humanity, a moral response that is deeply praiseworthy.

So along with my condolences to everyone harmed yesterday, please accept my deepest gratitude for those helping others in need.

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Coexisting with Coyotes

Belmont coyote

The Friends of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge recently sponsored a talk on coyotes by John Maguranis, the MA representative of Project Coyote. A former Animal Care Specialist in the US Army, John is now the Animal Control Officer in Belmont, and trains other ACOs on how to manage coyotes in their communities.

Entitled “Coexisting with Coyotes”, his presentation was both fun and informative. With a great sense of humour, John conveyed a wealth of ecological and management information, kept over 90 people spell-bound with stunning photography, and moderated a lively discussion thereafter.

We learned about the evolution history of coyotes, their ecological role as an apex predator, that they post no real threat to people, and lethal management of coyotes leads to more not less coyotes in the areas being managed. Here is the program description posted for his talk to the Friends.

Coexisting with Coyotes by John Maguranis
Wednesday, February 27,   7 PM
Visitor Center, Assabet River NWR 680 Hudson Road, Sudbury MA 01776

Coyotes are important ecologically and need to be welcomed as a much needed predator. This talk covers natural history, habits, diet, hazing of coyotes, human and pet safety, discusses the unfair press coverage and dispels the myths of the much misunderstood American Song Dog that deserves respect and appreciation. The presentation is filled with great photographs of local coyotes and will answer your questions and concerns about coyotes and will provide information to educate the community about living with coyotes, empowering communities and Animal Control Officers (ACOs) with the tools, information, and resources they need to coexist with coyotes. John’s passion and engaging personality have been instrumental in helping to foster educated coexistence and compassionate conservation throughout New England. His ability to distill information from scientists, researchers and biologists and present it in a way that is meaningful and memorable has earned him recognition throughout the North East.

I highly recommend John to animal protection and environmental organizations, hunting clubs, public agencies, educational institutions, and community libraries. He is great, and you cannot go wrong with his presentations.

I want to draw out three points from the discussion that followed John’s presentation.

The absence of grey wolves (Canis lupus) in the Northeast has opened ecological space for coyotes. Yet the eastern coyote looks to be an emerging species, the outcome of hybridization between the western coyote (Canis latrans) and the eastern Canadian wolf (Canis lycon). Hybridization in the wild is one kind of evolution, and the eastern coyote appears well adapted to the humanized landscapes of New England. If you are a fan of natural history, it really is quite a remarkable and exciting development. One of the people to read on this is Jonathan Way, who has radio-collared and studied coyotes in MA. See his Eastern Coyote Research for a wealth of information.

The ineffectiveness of lethal management is due to the “vacuum effect”. When we kill resident coyotes, we open up their territory to partition by non-resident coyotes. This leads to even more coyotes living in the same area. Killing coyotes is thus counterproductive. This is one of the core insights Project Coyote conveys in its mission to foster coexistence with these canids. In contrast, Wildlife Services kills half a million coyotes annually. MassWildlife allows the unlimited hunting of coyotes for six months a year. Such killing has no ecological purpose, wastes public funds, and represents the worst of public policy.

Coyotes are not pests. They are co-inhabitants. They have an intrinsic moral value of their own, and as much right to inhabit the landscape as we. Indeed, the presence of coyotes in our midst is an ecological, social and ethical good. Though they are not a complete substitute for wolves, coyotes are filling a crucial ecological niche created by the extermination of wolves in New England over a hundred years ago. In doing so, they provide society an opportunity to learn how to live with predators in shared landscapes. Insofar that we do learn, then we fulfill our moral obligations to other animals, as well as inch closer to living a truly sustainable way of life.

Image: A coyote from the town of Belmont, taken by John Maguranis in November of 2011.

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