looduskalender.ee

For this season (2009/2010) Estonia has set a limit for wolf hunting that means that half or more of Estonia's wolves can be shot: 140 out of 270 (latest count).
There are petitions to raise the number.
A difference between Estonia and Sweden is that wolves may move in to Estonia from Russia. There is a very low probability of wolves from outside filling out any gaps in Sweden.
Damage caused by wolves and other predators in Estonia was calculated at 1,2 mill. EEK last year.
No sums are given for possible tourist and other revenues from for instance predator hunting and nature safaris.
One - rather lonely - comment has been that the fact that many domestic animals in places are killed by wolves may as well be a sign that some more care than we are used to nowadays should be taken with pets and cattle (better fencing, keeping nearer home at times etc.) as proof that more wolves should be shot.

Seems like a high proportion ;-(

A discussion now goes on in Sweden about 1) if reducing the number of wolves was necessary 2) if it should have been done with a general mass hunt (10000++ registered hunters).
It is important to remember that few, if any, wolves come to Sweden from outside, to replace killed individuals. One other aspect of this is a risk of inbreeding.
An important argument for the hunt was that inbred wolves with "bad genes" should be shot, and were shot. To pick out less good genetic individuals during a mass hunt is - well, extremely difficult. The wolves autopsied so far have all been reasonably healthy. There is probably as great a risk that first-class animals are killed, as more attractive trophies.
On the funnier side is a "discovery" that there is a shooting range somewhere in the below-ground spaces of the parliament houses, with shooting training for members sponsored by - yes, right, hunters' associations -, and did that influence the wolf hunting decision?

Sara Palin wanted to give a fee for killing wolves from a plane -- I figured it was to help her pay for her plane upkeep. It is sort of funny -- but not sooo funny.

Another kind of hunt:
Do you remember the fantastic photo of the leaping Iberian wolf that took the overall award at the Veolia photo contest?
It seems now that the wolf may have been a trained wolf, on hire for films etc, and the award has been cancelled (CNN news).
In the Swedish debate the Iberian wolf is said to be smaller and less aggressive than the ones here.

I do remember it. I have just seen it and the calico cat and the fox recently. I liked the fox and the cat better (I do not want to hear anything bad about that)


I had forgotten the yellow hammers were winners in that same competition, of course I remembered the Springtail (except for its name).

It is marvellous, isn't it. As if the springtail were in its very fragile world, on the brink of an unknown future. There seems to be more aspects to it each time I see it. Awesome.
The yellowhammers are beautiful, have a touch of Chinese painting, somehow.
(We are a bit off "real" hunting, but on bloodless hunt. )

Odd deer hunting news from the US
I just heard that there are places on the east coast of the US where deer are given birth control because there are so many, which as you can guess is expensive. It seems odd to me. They are having a fierce debate about hunting. I think the deer have been moving more and more into populated places. I have heard that coyotes have a better survival rate in the city than in the country -- so maybe cars and fences are less of a problem than hunting for the deer, as well.
I guess in some cases they are talking about allowing hunting within city parks and forests. For obvious reasons this makes parents nervous. Other places have hired sharp shooters because of the concern about shot happy hunters in populated areas. I am not at all keen on the idea of hunting -- I do not personally want to see it -- but the idea of paying to provide deer with birth control to avoid hunting them seems really wrong to me.

An example of the debate
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Conten ... d%3A408476
all though they are not considering birth control.

Hello everybody
I am totally new in this forum, and I would like to ask who is driving the feeding of the pigs and deer ?
Is it hunters ??

Hello, jocseat. Welcome to the forum

If you go to viewforum.php?f=4, then click on About webcams, food supplies, etc, you can read the history there.
Yes, hunters are doing the work at Pig Cam 1..

I am not sure about driving. Forest Cam 1 is near a hunting lodge and the hunters are involved in the and food for feeding the eagles (NOT hunting for them) with remains and road kill. And the hunters do not hunt the pigs near the feeding grounds. As to the driving I think farmers are part of the picture -- to keep very hungry pigs fed without rampaging in their fields. In our urban rural environment balancing wild animals and people is a tricky business.

To say the least ....

Bear hunting season in Estonia started last Sunday. 60 bears can be shot, out of some 600-700.
A bear seems much less desirable to meet in the forest than a wolf. But wolves have a much worse reputation, and release much more hate.

Pretty bambis and funny piggies are certainly pests nowadays for those who are not hunters and live in a "good hunting district". One boar is perfectly capable of wrecking a garden totally for that season in less than a night. You can hope, but never rely on feeding keeping them away from your garden, lawn and fields. A part of the problem is that for such things there is usually no compensation at all, as there is for cattle that is slain by predators. Seldom even, I think, a steak or two from your hunting neighbours ...

I think we might do some bear hunting but it does not make much news.


Yesterday I heard that Wolves have been put back on the endangered species list in at least several more states -- so there will be less wolf hunting this year. I wish there was more news about how wolves help to limit population growth of cougars, which are a menace to people on occasion.

http://medibas.posterous.com/

Cобирём мысли и идеи по поводу охоты.
we are collect thoughts and ideas about to hunting.

As you can tell we do not talk too much about hunting here. I have heard there are some hunting forums that follow the pig cams but I know nothing about them.

Today I heard a story on Boars in France -- in Alsace.

http://www.theworld.org/2011/01/21/wild ... de-europe/
(the video only has dead boars)

As macdoum mentioned elsewhere, apparently few young French people hunt so the population of boars is skyrocketing apparently.

"10 years ago the government says there were five hundred thousand. Today there are a million. And they’re causing all kinds of damage."

In Estonia wild boars managed to dig up, very thoroughly, the lawn of a high-up official in one of the environmental administrations ...

The Swedish wolf-hunt is over, but EU considers taking it up in court. And two first-class animals with GPS transmitters were shot, one a young high-quality alfa male.

Some more "game animal" news:
20-40 Estonian lynxes will be caught alive (well, attempts will be made ...) and sent to Poland, to revive the lynx populaiton there. Lynxes are, it is said, very difficult indeed to catch, so it is a target number ...
The mange (scabies) is spreading from foxes and raccoon dogs to lynxes and wolves in Estonia. In a wolf pack particularly young wolves catch it; among lynxes who live solitarily it spreads more slowly

(Language question - is a wild animal that is regularly hunted but (usually) not eaten game? )

The news about mange is terrible. As the populations become smaller and restricted to smaller areas with human feeding I wonder if some attempt will be made to prevent the spread of the disease -- which will almost surely mean more hunting. But it might help keep the lynxes safe.


As to game -- I think game is eaten, vermin or varmints are killed. Since wolf hunting was certainly a chasing/hunting sport when the term entered the English language I am not sure when that change happened.

Some varmint creatures are allowed to be killed all the time anytime -- animals like wolves were in that category and in fact that is one of the problems here with delisting wolves (removing them from the endangered species list), once they are off the list they can be killed at any time, if individual states allow it and some do. Funny but I do not think cougars are in that category but I do not know why.

I heard about the Swedish wolf hunt (not sure if that was from an NPR - National Public Radio program or the BBC), but not about the lead wolves with transmitters being killed. I gather the EUs argument is that although there may be "enough" wolves in Sweden there is not enough genetic diversity.

And there was some discussion of hunters not liking to participate in the wolf hunt because of their dogs being endangered.

Hello, Alice
Genetic diversity: one reason why the killing of that alfa male was - hm, regrettable

Peep Männil, the scientist who was cited about the mange, said that lynxes fare a little better, or rather, the spread is slower because they mostly lead quite solitary lives. He also said that lynxes don't loose their fur so easily, but it balls together like matted hair on long-haired cats. The result is still that it doesn't protect against cold and wet weather any longer. Plus the other unpleasant symtoms of mange.

Vermin - oops, a word that I associated with rats, possibly even fleas and lice. A wolf a vermin? Must get a verbal association retraining session!

Vermin -- I think my first contact with that word -- other than rats and lice and fleas was pole cats -- and I thought WAIT what is so terrible about Pole cats and what are Pole Cats (since we do not have them here). Given that Pole cats probably eat mostly rats, voles and the like I am not sure why the game warden hated them so much, maybe for eating the eggs of game birds. (We were rather cross when the Martin made off with one of Klaara's eggs -- but after the fact I was kind of glad it got one, of course especially as it was only one, I kept thinking how hard it was to feed 4 little owlets and how much tougher it would have been with 5).