Live data from Hacker News

Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

bbc.com

51–60 of 70 posts

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#51

The label on one of the images in the article says "The elk is one of the largest herbivores in Europe, besides the bison..." The image is definitely a moose, not an elk. Is this just a mistake in the article or is "elk" a more general term in Europe?

in america, moose are elks. in europe, elks are moose.

I'm confused.

In America...

The elk is a really big deer... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk

Moose is a giant deer (bigger than elk) with a bulbous nose... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose

If Europe refers to moose as elk, what do they call elk?

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in america, moose are elks. in europe, elks are moose.

I'm confused. In America... The elk is a really big deer... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk Moose is a giant deer (bigger than elk) with a bulbous nose... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose If Europe refers to moose as elk, what do they call elk?

Based on the comments and the Naming and Etymology section in the Elk wikipedia. I think in Europe the term "elk" refers to both elk and moose.

"European explorers in North America...thought that the larger North American animal resembled a moose, and consequently gave it the name elk, which is the common European name for moose"

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in america, moose are elks. in europe, elks are moose.

I'm confused. In America... The elk is a really big deer... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk Moose is a giant deer (bigger than elk) with a bulbous nose... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose If Europe refers to moose as elk, what do they call elk?

> If Europe refers to moose as elk, what do they call elk?

I believe the answer is they don't have an American Elk equivalent.

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#56
post #5

European (especially British) "rewilding" "politics" is still in pretty early stages of maturity. Some of the language in this article is kind of demonstrative of this. "* This method of conservation aims to let large areas of land return to wilderness – in other words, a state of zero human intervention.*" This is quite clearly hopelessly idealistic. Robust ecosystems that sustain macrofauna are achievable (and nece…

Most people live in cities, which makes them think of wolves as a cute, awesome, protect-at-all-cost animal with no downsides. The farmers are in the minority, which means the problem has to become pretty bad to get the majority of the public on their side.

The farmers can get shepherd dogs - a solution proven by millennia - and thus get the problem solved satisfactory to all the sides.

Though these days i'd bet that the modern farmers (which are mostly corporations and thus arent able to handle real dogs) would be more probable to get cloud wired Boston Dynamics style platform based systems as-a-Service with wolf/cow discriminating AI and armed with something like "Area Denial".

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#57
post #33

If this interests you, I strongly recommend watching Seven Worlds, One Planet episode 5 [0], which features grey wolves hunting in a village in Italy at night [1], filmed with thermal cameras. It is pretty incredible. [0] - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bqjg [1] - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07v21x9

Only works in the UK.

A small taste of what it's like to browse US-only links from the rest of the world, perhaps? The clever reader will not find their defences impenetrable.

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in america, moose are elks. in europe, elks are moose.

I'm confused. In America... The elk is a really big deer... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk Moose is a giant deer (bigger than elk) with a bulbous nose... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose If Europe refers to moose as elk, what do they call elk?

Elk in the UK are referred to as red deer, though recent taxonomy has decided they are a different, albeit closely related, species. I don't know what they're called in other languages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_deer

Re: Bison and wolf populations are reviving in parts of Europe

#60
post #4

If interested in the Earth before humans exploded onto the scene, I recommend The Once and Future Earth by JB MacKinnon. http://www.jbmackinnon.com/books.html I had no idea what we'd lost -- about 90%. North America had more large animals than Africa. Sailing ships in the middle of the Atlantic would grind to a halt from the density of fish. Whales as far as the eye could see all day. Beautifully written.

Sorry, ships would grind to a halt? I find it very difficult to imagine the physics that would make that possible as opposed to the fish simply shifting apart, and I googled for a while and was not able to find any corroboration. Do you have some links on that?

I did a couple video essays on the book that quote that passage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLAvBiols2Y and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4NZdciDozI.

The passage about the fish comes 45 seconds in to the first video in a NY Times quote from it, then the quote in context from the book at 5:15, though I recommend watching both videos and reading the book whole.

Post reply on HN