11-10-2012, 06:57 AM
How short sighted, biased, and fickle we humans are. On the one hand we have hordes of people protesting against the release of Tectococcus Ovatus, the bio-control for strawberry guava that is inexorably choking out the native forest. They scream "Remember the mongoose and the rat!" We all remember that effort at biocontrol from the 1880s, right? A few good ole boy planters decided that what was good for them was good for the rest of us and imported the mongooses to eat the rats. Many reasons why this wasn't for the best but long story short they didn't control the rats and they did "control" many of Hawaii's native birds. It's enough to turn you right off bio-controls until you stop to consider that modern responsible bio-control efforts have been largely successful. Keep in mind that success in a bio-control means you won't notice anything dramatic, so while bio-control failures are often spectacular, successes are not nearly so obvious.
As an aside I have to wonder whether those who hold the 1880s mongoose experiment up as proof of the evil of all bio-control efforts also decline to go to the doctor, since doctors of that era routinely killed as many patients as they saved (didn't know enough to sterilize instruments, etc). Logic would dictate that if the science of bio-controls has not improved in 130 years, neither has medical science, right? Either that or logic is not playing much of a part in today's debate.
Back to the deer. A few good ole boy hunters have decided that what is good for them is good for the rest of us. Well, maybe they just don't give a **** what is good for the rest of us.
I have to be careful not to draw conclusion without evidence but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those screaming "remember the mongoose" are also those with the "save the deer" bumper stickers. They want the guava to feed the feral pigs and to smoke game meat with and of course they want the deer.
As an aside I have to wonder whether those who hold the 1880s mongoose experiment up as proof of the evil of all bio-control efforts also decline to go to the doctor, since doctors of that era routinely killed as many patients as they saved (didn't know enough to sterilize instruments, etc). Logic would dictate that if the science of bio-controls has not improved in 130 years, neither has medical science, right? Either that or logic is not playing much of a part in today's debate.
Back to the deer. A few good ole boy hunters have decided that what is good for them is good for the rest of us. Well, maybe they just don't give a **** what is good for the rest of us.
I have to be careful not to draw conclusion without evidence but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those screaming "remember the mongoose" are also those with the "save the deer" bumper stickers. They want the guava to feed the feral pigs and to smoke game meat with and of course they want the deer.
