Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–136 of 136 posts

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#131

Post by midoridensha »

refurb wrote: post #111
midoridensha wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beavers don't build ships and move to other continents and then build dams there, wrecking the local ecology.

Are you suggesting wolfs didn’t migrate to different areas and change the ecology with their hunting? That viruses didn’t spread and wipe out populations of animals?

Yes, I am definitely suggesting wolves (not "wolfs") did not build ships or airplanes and migrate around the world in an astonishingly short amount of time. They migrated slowly, on foot, as they were able to by following food sources, and using land bridges since wolves can't cross oceans.

Same goes for viruses (I'll give you a pass on that one, it's more accepted now than "virii"): they don't float across oceans in a week, unless they're carried by birds (which most aren't).

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#132

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

bradfitz wrote: post #31
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01186-6

I think the parent comment was familiar with that and was asking whether we could also do the same for these fish.

Obvious now, not real sure how I misunderstood.

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#134

Post by salawat »

propagandist wrote: post #123
salawat wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look. Tend a garden. You too will soon realize it's all a part of doing what comes naturally. Nature, as it turns out, laughs in the face of anything unwilling to speak the language of death.

Sorry, you have trouble reading. Death is not the issue.

I'm afraid you're the one not getting it. The passion, and the deed go hand in hand. It is hard work to cultivate and maintain something against encroachment by Nature. Anyone that tells you there is no satisfaction gained from securing the safety of their environment from an intrusive force is either lying to you, or deluding themselves.

Death wish, and its management is all a weird part of being alive, and in fact, it's channeling into productive active activity instead of straight up warfare is crucial to peaceful coexistence. It's one of the few things Freud may have actually kind of gotten right, tbqh. Heidigger calls it angst, and it's central to the concept of care, and by extension, to the act of Being.

It takes time to become comfortable with.

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#135

Post by everforward »

bacon_waffle wrote: post #69
mlyle wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The people engaging in this activity are worse than poachers Sausage is yummy, and pigs do ecological damage.

If poisoning pigs were known to be more effective than shooting, would that change the calculus?

I'd be fine with it, if it wasn't going to impact other species, wasn't absurdly more cruel, and they could still be used for meat (and I could probably give up on the meat; it's not that much of a factor).

From what I can recall, it's been tried, but had problems. The USDA has cyanide traps that are meant to kill boars (along with wolves and coyotes). In 2017, one of them killed a dog and injured a boy when the dog went after the trap. They're meant to shoot the cyanide into the animals mouth, but there's an area of effect apparently.

Laying out poisoned food tends to kill near everything in the forest.

The problem with most methods that don't involve humans is the inability to discriminate between problem species and normal species. It's hard to build a device that will kill boars but not deer or squirrels or whatever. Boars are big and hard to kill; most things in the forest are far more fragile.

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#136

Post by sacrosancty »

rdevsrex wrote: post #103
sacrosancty wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should kill pigs regardless of your stance on killing pigs?

I would say yes unless some other solution exists to keep them from destroying the ecosystem.

That's just arrogance though - "Even if you disagree with me for any reason, including reasons I never thought of, but excluding the one possible reason I did think of, I'm still right so disregard your silly opinion and do it my way.".
Post reply on HN