Posted 12:16 am Thursday, February 02, 2012
Ranchers Helping Species, But More Is Needed
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By STEVE KNIGHT
Outdoor Editor
It is always surprising when a television show like “60 Minutes” does an episode on hunting and for the most part gets it right.
Not to compare the news program with reality television, but today's menu of alligator hunters and pig killers is about as close to reality as “My Mother The Car.”
But Sunday night “60 Minutes” was pretty spot on.
A segment on the show discussed the Texas wildlife industry and the quarter-million or so exotics living in the state. Some of the 125 different species are the garden variety axis deer and Corsican rams.
Others are threatened and endangered species that no longer or barely exist in their native range such as the scimitar horned oryx, the addax and the dama gazelle, but are thriving in Texas and are the bases of an exotic wildlife hunting industry.
Outdoor Editor
It is always surprising when a television show like “60 Minutes” does an episode on hunting and for the most part gets it right.
Not to compare the news program with reality television, but today's menu of alligator hunters and pig killers is about as close to reality as “My Mother The Car.”
But Sunday night “60 Minutes” was pretty spot on.
A segment on the show discussed the Texas wildlife industry and the quarter-million or so exotics living in the state. Some of the 125 different species are the garden variety axis deer and Corsican rams.
Others are threatened and endangered species that no longer or barely exist in their native range such as the scimitar horned oryx, the addax and the dama gazelle, but are thriving in Texas and are the bases of an exotic wildlife hunting industry.
Speaking for the state's Exotic Wildlife Association, executive director Charly Seale noted that if it weren't for Texas ranchers some of these species wouldn't exist. He also added, quite honestly, that if there wasn't the hunting equation they may not exist in Texas. With some of the more exotic species being sold in hunts that can cost as much as $50,000, hunters are paying a lot of the feed bills and property taxes for landowners.
Seale claimed that exotic breeders are doing more than just providing a high-dollar hunting opportunity. On a higher level than white-tailed deer management they are keeping these species alive. In some cases they are attempting to return them to their native habitat.
For the obligatory opposition view the program interviewed Priscilla Feral, president of Friends for Animals. Not surprisingly she didn't like the hunting aspect of the program. Good money says she is opposed to hunting anything, making her argument too predictable.
Seale claimed that exotic breeders are doing more than just providing a high-dollar hunting opportunity. On a higher level than white-tailed deer management they are keeping these species alive. In some cases they are attempting to return them to their native habitat.
For the obligatory opposition view the program interviewed Priscilla Feral, president of Friends for Animals. Not surprisingly she didn't like the hunting aspect of the program. Good money says she is opposed to hunting anything, making her argument too predictable.
Raising a species and hunting it is called conservation. Raising it and just watching it exist on the landscape is preservation. The reality in this day is that conservation is a more successful management tool. Take away the financial value of the animal and you take away the animals. That is the case everywhere in the world where land is needed for the production of food or development.
But is raising an animal on one continent the same as bringing a species back from extinction, or is it simply maintaining a DNA footprint?
This is a problem zoos have struggled with over the years.
“It is a tough question. From a zoo perspective, the animals we hold and breed here are ambassadors for those in the wild so the public that can go to the foreign places where these animals are from can get involved,” said Hays Caldwell, Caldwell Zoo executive director.
Zoos are about education. They allow their visitors to appreciate the animals and to buy into the need to protect the species.
But is raising an animal on one continent the same as bringing a species back from extinction, or is it simply maintaining a DNA footprint?
This is a problem zoos have struggled with over the years.
“It is a tough question. From a zoo perspective, the animals we hold and breed here are ambassadors for those in the wild so the public that can go to the foreign places where these animals are from can get involved,” said Hays Caldwell, Caldwell Zoo executive director.
Zoos are about education. They allow their visitors to appreciate the animals and to buy into the need to protect the species.
The fact the animals would be available for breeding programs if necessary, Caldwell sees it as stockpiling a species that is in trouble in the wild.
Let's not kid ourselves. The Texas exotic wildlife industry is about making money.
Keeping a species around, even thousands of miles from its home, isn't a bad thing though.
In most cases it is politics that prevents these species from being reestablished, but I am betting the Texas ranchers would provide brood stock if a country was to get serious about reestablishing its wildlife.
It can certainly be done. There are too many examples in this country from the bald eagle to the alligator, black bear, turkey, elk and even white-tailed deer.
However, now some of the species are facing a threat here and it isn't disease. It is paperwork. At the urging of groups like Friends of Animals, hunters will have to get a federal permit before hunting scimitar horned oryx, addax and dama gazelle. The guidelines are restrictive enough some ranches have quickly been getting out of the business in anticipation of the changes.
This doesn't bode well for the species future. It is similar to what happened in Texas several years ago with the red-cockaded woodpecker. After getting protection for the birds, some organizations pushed for a ban on burning in national forests where the birds lived. The problem was without the burning the forests quickly became thick, just the opposite of the habitat needed for the RCWs.
The “60 Minutes” program asked the rhetorical question, hunting animals to save them? To be honest, there may be no other way.
Have a comment or opinion on this story? Contact outdoor writer Steve Knight by email at outdoor@tylerpaper.com.
Follow Steve Knight on Twitter @tyleroutdoor.
Let's not kid ourselves. The Texas exotic wildlife industry is about making money.
Keeping a species around, even thousands of miles from its home, isn't a bad thing though.
In most cases it is politics that prevents these species from being reestablished, but I am betting the Texas ranchers would provide brood stock if a country was to get serious about reestablishing its wildlife.
It can certainly be done. There are too many examples in this country from the bald eagle to the alligator, black bear, turkey, elk and even white-tailed deer.
However, now some of the species are facing a threat here and it isn't disease. It is paperwork. At the urging of groups like Friends of Animals, hunters will have to get a federal permit before hunting scimitar horned oryx, addax and dama gazelle. The guidelines are restrictive enough some ranches have quickly been getting out of the business in anticipation of the changes.
This doesn't bode well for the species future. It is similar to what happened in Texas several years ago with the red-cockaded woodpecker. After getting protection for the birds, some organizations pushed for a ban on burning in national forests where the birds lived. The problem was without the burning the forests quickly became thick, just the opposite of the habitat needed for the RCWs.
The “60 Minutes” program asked the rhetorical question, hunting animals to save them? To be honest, there may be no other way.
Have a comment or opinion on this story? Contact outdoor writer Steve Knight by email at outdoor@tylerpaper.com.
Follow Steve Knight on Twitter @tyleroutdoor.
