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Biological Sense
Posted by bushrat on Dec 07 2005
I'd like to address the "biological sense" issue:
"'What makes more sense; to remove the meat from the field and convert it to human waste in the sewage system in New York, or to leave it in the environment from whence it came?'" This really made me think. Really, would any of us dare to suggest that leaving the meat behind makes more sense from an environmental perspective?"
I have a notion (and I'm not alone) that wolves and bears and foxes and ravens and eagles and other predators and scavengers are becoming (may have always been for all I know) habituated to the "leftovers" that humans leave behind. Consider the numbers of moose taken every year by hunters. Consider the logistical problems that some astutely bring up, inre: getting all the meat back to the nearest village or town or your home. Even with the wanton waste laws, the "legal" amount of meat/hide/bone allowed to be left behind adds up to be an incredible amount of food for various animals. This doesn't even account for the technically non-legal amount of "waste" that goes on every year and that is left in the field by "accident" or "acts of God" or non-compliance with the law.
These "leftovers" are certainly great for the predators and scavengers, and even for the soil (probably) that is enriched with blood. A full-grown bull moose will go 1300-1600lbs on the hoof. (Antler weight can go as high as 75lbs on the biggest bulls.) What's legally required to salvage in meat is LESS THAN HALF that by weight.("A moose weighs from 750 to 1650 lbs. When butchered...250-650 lbs. is edible meat." ADFG DATA) Some take the hide, some don't. Some take heart, liver, kidneys, tongue, head (for head soup), some don't. Some take the fat and sinew, some don't. Most all take the unedible antlers. All within the law.
The five-year annual average harvest numbers (from 1999-2004) for moose for the entire state of Alaska is 6,998.8 animals (ADFG data). That's the average number of moose taken each year over the last five years. (1)
Part of that number includes cows and calves and spike-horn bulls that are legally hunted in some units. And bulls of any size. So I can't even begin to put a reliable average of the weight of all moose, because each moose varies in weight by gender and age. Let's just choose a conservative number, say 750lbs for the average weight of all moose killed annually by hunters in Alaska. Remember, half (and more) of that weight can be legally left behind. So that makes 375lbs of meat harvested legally, and 375lbs of meat, bone, hide, and viscera left behind, legally. Multiply the 375 left behind by 6,999 (I rounded off)...and we get 2,624,625 lbs of meat, bone, hide and viscera left in the field by human hunters annually. That's TWO MILLION, SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE POUNDS left for the predators and scavengers each year. And that's just moose; I haven't even figured in the caribou numbers, but the average statewide harvest of caribou over the last five years is 30,000 animals.
Here comes the irony part, which many will find as a "not again about the predator control" thing: We continually kill predators like wolves and bears that compete with us humans so there will be more available prey for us. Yet we continually feed these same predators by harvesting their prey and leaving some (a lot!) behind.
Bottom line: I agree totally with the fed biologist who implied that leaving meat/bone/hide/viscera (or the whole moose!)behind was better for the environment! Because the "environment" that absorbs or takes in those nutrients includes wolves and bears that live in that environment. And others as well.
So shoot a moose, and support a wolf! Shoot a moose, and support a bear! Harvest, harvest, harvest, because that 2million-plus pounds of leftovers out there annually from moose alone goes to good use!
Mark
(1): ADFG data: http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/hunt_trap/hunting/harvest_summary.pdf
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