Posted on 02/24/2008 8:47:35 AM PST by george76
A jackrabbit found throughout much of the West has disappeared from the Yellowstone area, although the reason why remains a mystery, a new study concludes.
Whatever the cause, the study suggests the white-tailed jackrabbit's disappearance has wrought major changes to Yellowstone's food chain.
Coyotes and wolves, which could have depended on the rabbit as a significant food source, apparently turned their attention instead to larger prey including young elk, pronghorn antelope -- even domestic livestock.
However, because the rabbit's decline went relatively unnoticed until now, quantifying that shift is virtually impossible, said the study's lead author, Joel Berger with the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The white-tailed jackrabbit -- also known as the prairie hare -- was once a common sight in and around Yellowstone National Park...
Berger's study, appearing in the latest issue of the scientific journal Oryx, tells of one inhabitant of the region encountering "jillions" of the animals near Yellowstone as late as the 1930s.
Yet by the middle of the century, sightings within the 23,000 square mile Yellowstone region grew increasingly rare. That area includes portions of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
Only three have been spotted by scientists since 1991 -- all in Grand Teton National Park...
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonholestartrib.com ...
Fair is fair.
LOL! I donno. They’re cute though. :)
-—yep-—but I think post #2 may be on to something—
Yes, but it is just a hair hare!
Uh, Westlander, that’s not a jackrabbit.
That there’s a jackalope.
Quick tell Obama!
My Democrat Neighbor has one of those on his wall.
Wolves, coyotes...?
We need an Elmer picture.
B.O. likes wabbits or the International Tribunal? Which one?
Pretty simple deduction.
The International Tribunal, of course. Maybe the UN can help him out too.
Must be wolves. I saw a program on the NatGeographic channel about Yellowstone. Showed where some of the wolf packs have even started going after bison. Takes a group effort but wolves are very smart.
Lots of well fed Government sponsored wolves. Next the antelope then your sheep
Wolves eat rabbits. Wolves are protected so nothing kills wolves. Wolves eat all the rabbits. Case closed?
We’ve also experienced a disappearance of bunnies in SoCA Coechella Valley/ Palm Springs area, although a few remain.
It’s been said that prior to many a cataclysm, animals naturally move to safer ground. I believe there were reports of native populations in rural coastal Africa and some islands who moved to high ground days before the Malaysian Tsunami in Thailand approached their coast, when there had been no mechanism to communicate the oncoming disaster. There reason for moving had been solely attributed to spiritual inclinations of their leaders.
Considering the recent quakes in Nevada and south of Mexicali located on volcanic domes, this might not portend good things to come for this region.
I developed a taste for rabbit (though not the American jack) while I was growing up in England. My dad and I used to hunt them with air rifles, the most powerful weapons we could have without a godawful bureaucratic rigamarole, even in the 1950s. They were almost the only really edible critters ordinary folk like us could hunt.
This being America, I have a 30-06 Winchester now, though not for shooting rabbits. My ex-wife did shoot a chicken with it once, but that is another story (she was aiming at a coyote).
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