Unthreaded
@AK, Aug 26, 2016 at 9:37 AM
I lost my "townie" image of nature about 25years ago when I took a safari holiday to Tanzania to see the wildebeest migration. Travelling through herds and seeing literally thousands of them, mile after mile it suddenly occurred to me that every single animal I was seeing was going to face a horrendous death. They were either going to be eaten alive by lions, other big cats or crocodiles, or they were going to starve, slowly and painfully. A few lucky (?) ones might drown when crossing the river. I doubt if any die of diseases, when they weaken they are eaten. Then I understood that something similar would affect most wildlife, and that the animals we humanely slaughter for meat actually are saved from much worse.
Agree with your statement, except:
"Eaten alive by lions" - nope. Lions - like most top predators - kill their prey. Scavengers will eat a dieing animal as they are not powerful enough to kill it.
Lions killing Wildebeest (or some other cow-like animal): a lion has insufficient jaw power to penetrate the neck hide to rip throat. Instead, once animal is brought down by weight of multiple lions on it, the lead lion clamps its mouth over prey's nose and mouth to suffocate it.
However, the Jaguar, which hunts alone, has the most powerful jaws of all big cats and its bite can penetrate their prey's skull to kill it.
Pcar
Green Sand
E10 is the only 95 RON petrol available at many outlets here. It's an abomination, although sold at a discount against non-E10 95 it is still more expensive per mile as in my car it requires 5-10% more per mile. I've had so much trouble with one of my chainsaws and a strimmer I've started using 98 RON for all two strokes and alternating E10 and 98 RON in the car. The local two stroke garden equipment bush mechanic reports more business in sorting fuel issues. Seems that some systems are sensitive to the alcohol clogging the works if left even for a few days. There's a Briggs and Stratton additive to stop problems in mower four strokes but it seems as efficacious as Redex.
I advise you to avoid it as long as possible, a government petition might be worthwhile.
SandyS
@AK, Aug 26, 2016 at 12:12 PM
Removal of other top predators I think causes many animals to die long and painful deaths. For this reason I'm all for culling the weak and infirm, and sometimes (when there is excess) some of the young. We need to act as the top predators that we are. I cannot abide some tree-hugging ecologists who ignore the implications of human interactions and oppose culling.
+1
In British Isles we have removed the top predators of large animals, we must take their place.
"When there is excess some of the young" - Yes, as starvation is a slow and painful death too.
Pcar
@TinyCO2, Aug 26, 2016 at 10:54 AM
ACK, there is a theory that animal domestication was a survival feature. You see it happening in wild moose that have started calving in towns or near roads. Early humans might have taken older or sick animals but they didn't eat the babies. A lot of the time they just took milk. It was a step up in the world to be protected by a single predator.
There was a media article in the past year regarding a fox in Russia. It had managed to trap its head in a glass jar and hid in bushes beside a road. When it heard people talking as the walked past it came out and rattled the jar on road asking for help.
Related to this "domestication" are Robins in British Isles where they use humans to help them find food. iirc in Europe they avoid humans.
Pcar
Solar activity has a direct impact on Earth’s cloud cover. h/t GWPF
http://www.dtu.dk/english/News/Nyhed?id=b759b038-66d3-4328-bbdc-0b0a82371446
This links nicely to the work of Jasper Kirkby. More evidence of the effects of solar emissions on both weather and climate.
Ross Lea
SandyS - quite!
As our oh-so PC politicos are scared of their own shadow this study will also be ignored as illustrated by the concluding paragraph:-
" Transport ministers also said it was “very likely” Britain would introduce a new kind of petrol called E10, which is made up of a higher proportion of biofuels than current fuel, in order to meet a target requiring 10 per cent of transport energy to be renewable."
The damage is mounting.
Green Sand
Green Sand
Another we told you so moment for sceptics.
SandyS
TinyCO2 /ACK
Urban foxes? It won't be long before there are many domesticated foxes in UK cities and available on the internet as pets, probably a few decades before one is Best In Show at Crufts though.
ACK
The long painful death is probably a long decline into a shorter painful death. Your Road to Damascus moment got it about right, it is a great shame that fewer and fewer people seem to undergo such revelations.
SandyS
Green Sand
PCar I have watched lionesses tear away flesh from a young zebra while it was still shuddering from shock just prior to its death throws. On the TV I have also seen cheetah cubs being killed and eaten by lion. Crocks tear off limbs while the wildebeest are still alive.
I doubt that an adult wildebeest cares very much when a group of lionesses sink their teeth into its flesh that its not going to be eaten until its fully dead.