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 ...
Of course the wolves ate them, why is that such a mystery to these idiots?
Maybe they will now repopulate Yellowstone with jackrabbits they catch in west Texas. Always going to be a job for these folks.
You’re right. They had an hour-long TV program on Nat. Geo.channel last week about the wolves they put back in the park. Obviously “Mr. Scientist” missed that show.
I was assigned to an Army installation in New York in the late 1980s and encountered "jillions" (probably hundreds of thousands in reality) of deer because the deer had no natural predators left.
I've said for years that wolves should be surreptitiously reintroduced to New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Massachusetts (since the left-wing idiots in those states are so bent on protecting the wolves in Alaska). Maybe we could find some of the white-tailed jackrabbits elsewhere and reintroduce them into those states as well...
Crouching Tiger, Springing Hare.
One I spoke with outside Yuba City last year said his family had come from there but that they were evacuating the area because “the super eruption is coming”. Not sure what he meant by that.
Hey. Animals left before the tsunami...why not a super-volcano too?
Thanks for the Elmer picture.
Maybe they’re gone from Yellowstone, but they’re in the neighboring park, Grand Tetons. Hubby and I saw one in Grand Tetons while hiking around Jenny Lake a couple of years ago.
whoops beat me to it. It was a good show. Maybe I need to send a blu-ray of the show to “Mr. Scientist”
I sure hope the caldera isn’t going to blow. Cataclysmic to say the least!
“Time for another government program ?”
There ya go. Probably what caused the jack rabbit decline in the first place. Remember the big intro of wolves into that area? And coyotes, I’m sure they won’t let anyone shoot those varmints. I’ve got several dozen jack rabbits roaming around my place they can have.
I can’t ever remember shooting one that wasn’t covered in mites or fleas. Half of them had stomach worms. The meat is lousy, stringy and almost tasteless. Without hot sauce I don’t think I could have eaten them. But they make good mitten liners when skinned and turned inside out.
Thanks.
More likely that the wolves cleaned them out.
OK, jacka-whatever. It was still no match for a .22-6mm Ackley. Saved a lot of meat from damage. By the way, they snort heavily when charging.
Sorry but them ears are too short.
This is a Southern (Canada) Coyote. I have one in my yard presently, a neat pet. He howls instead of barks.
My guess is there is another herbivore inhabiting virtually the same niche, and has out-competed the jackrabbit.
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