Unintended Consequences

It's not exactly a burning issue, but I've begun to notice something interesting while following the news, in that there are more and more reports of "exotic" animals running around in places that never had them before, or attacks by predators that haven't been seen in many areas for decades.

For instance, the Canadian authorities are finally investigating whether a college student was killed by wolves two years ago, the first such documented incident in North America. That one appears pretty straight forward, in that the wolves had been frequenting a local garbage dump and this kid walked into the area alone and without a weapon. Yet, the bureaucrats seem very nervous about declaring it as a wolf attack, despite the wolf tracks found surrounding the body and eyewitnesses reporting seeing the animals stalking them as they recovered the remains. Like in the USA, environmentalists use predator attacks as an excuse to cry foul upon humans, saying the animals should not be trapped and relocated but that the people should be removed instead. Granting that an open garbage dump is an attraction for bears and wolves, a little common sense would probably do more than extreme measures from either side, but the politics keep getting in the way.

Aside from that, one can't avoid the fact that we're seeing more of this type of incident, and with more out-of-place species. Mountain lion and coyote are being regularly seen in areas that never had them before, or haven't had them in over a century. African and Asian animals are being bred or imported at an increasing rate in North America, and are now escaping into the wild. A pair of African lions, capable of breeding, is on the loose in West Virginia, as one example.

I can't help thinking that, were world society to collapse (which I am convinced will happen shortly), we've introduced a number of species to this continent that haven't been here at all, or at least not since the Ice Age ended, that will re-propagate and survive here in ways that were never anticipated. Imagine some biologists investigating the fauna of the next Ice Age, and finding elephant and giraffe, impala and kudu and other non-native animals roaming the landscape with grizzly and bison, moose and wolves. That kind of variety hasn't existed for more than 10,000 years, and I sorely envy the people who will live in that era. It will be quite a show.
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"For I have drawn Judah taut and applied [My hand] to Ephraim as to a bow." Zech. 9:13
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Mjollnir · Grand Master Bowman

That is the most beautiful thing though, Nature survives. Oh we like to think we can control it, and that we play an inflated part in it, but no matter what we do short of putting the entire earth into a nuclear winter for hundreds of years, Nature will continue in one way or another long after we are gone. Even if we do turn the world in a dead rock, I am sure there will be enough life left, say at the bottom of the ocean to repopulate the planet in say a million years time with some other life forms. which will drill for our bio-mass as oil

As to the short term relocation of animals, we have had the same thing over here for years. There are more foxes in cities than in the "wild". we have rumours of large cats being on the loose in our wild.

It keeps life interesting is what I say

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My shoes are too tight, but it doesn’t matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.

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