The killing of a bear

[Platapus]

I am rather sad about this story.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/21/world/...html?hpt=wo_c2

Switzerland's only wild bear is killed as a danger to humans

M13 was the only bear known to have been living wild in Switzerland, according to the Swiss national broadcaster. Despite that status, the young male was shot Tuesday morning in Poschiavo Valley, in the Alps near the Italian border, by authorities who feared he was a threat to people.


The brown bear had become dangerous because he regularly sought out food in inhabited areas -- including a school -- and had started following people during the day, the Swiss Federal Environment Office said.


The creature also showed little fear of humans despite several attempts to get it away from villages, it said. [lesson to be learned, if you don't show fear to humans, they will kill you]



There was so much concern about the bear's behavior, he was fitted with a radio collar so he could be closely monitored. And in November of last year, he was classified as a "problem bear."


When M13 emerged from his winter hibernation recently, that pattern of behavior was repeated, pushing authorities to act, the environment office said in a prepared statement Wednesday.


"The bear M13 had certainly never showed any aggression toward man, but the risk that an accident might happen and that people might be badly injured or killed had become intolerable," it said. [great, preemptive strikes on bears]

If we don't kill the bears over there, we will have to kill them over here.


Nonetheless, news of his death prompted grief and outrage on a Facebook page set up by supporters of M13. Some questioned why he wasn't relocated or placed in a zoo rather than being shot by wildlife officers.
The Swiss branch of the World Wildlife Fund environmental campaign group said it was "extremely disappointed" that the bear was killed.
Joanna Schoenenberger, an expert on bears at the WWF, said it was far too soon to shoot M13.


M13 "was in no way a problem bear," she said, adding that wildlife officers should have continued efforts to make him more frightened of humans.
"His death is the result of a lack of acceptance of bears in Poschiavo, which is a direct consequence of a lack of information among the population," she said.


The risk remains that other bears might follow in M13's paw prints and stray into Switzerland's Grisons area. [I thought he was the only bear?]


According to the Swiss Federal Environment Office, M13 was one of about 40 individuals originating in the Trentino Alto Adige area of Italy, where a reintroduction program is under way.


The bear's name comes from the system of identifying bears from that Italian population, with M standing for males and F for females, said WWF spokesman Philip Gehri. M13 was the 13th male from that group to be born in the wild.


Faced with the migration of these bears, Swiss authorities have the dilemma of whether to try to protect the population as a whole or a few individuals, the environment office said.


"In order to give the bear population a chance to reestablish itself in Switzerland, circumstances sometimes arise when unfortunately an individual must be killed," it said.


Eight bears have entered Switzerland since 2006, the WWF said.
If others follow, they should not be killed "simply because we haven't done our homework," said Schoenenberger.


The WWF advises that people in areas where bears may be present safeguard livestock, put garbage in bear-proof trashcans and protect beehives.


And for the brown bear to survive in the Alps, its human neighbors must accept it, Schoenenberger said.


Switzerland is not the only country to struggle with the question of how to help humans and natural predators coexist without friction. In the United States, lawmakers in Minnesota voted last year to allow limited hunting of wolves, after they were removed from federal protection.


Conservation groups, including the Humane Society, opposed the decision, but the Minnesota-based International Wolf Center argued that wolves are a threat to domestic animals wherever the two coexis

The sooner the failed human species can become extinct, the sooner the earth can start its recovery.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

The sooner the failed human species can become extinct, the sooner the earth can start its recovery.

That's a heckuva thing to say Platapus.

[Onkel Neal]

Unbearable.

[August]

Simply ursine.

[Armistead]

You think they could've moved it, being the "last" bear, which I doubt.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by August

That's a heckuva thing to say Platapus.

Yeah it is, but I calls em as I sees em.

Humans are about 250,000 years old. As we currently operate, is there really any reasonable chance we will survive another 250,000 years? I doubt we will last another 50,000 years before nature wipes us out with diseases (or we simply kill ourselves off).

Of course like some infectious disease or cancer we can always attempt to move to another host (another planet) but that will only reset the clock a little.

Far far in the future, when some alien is writing the history of the earth, I don't think humanity will be listed as one of the more successful species. As a species we accomplished a lot, but it was selfish and in the long run damaging to the ecosystem that we rely on to survive. As we evolve we needed to keep modifying the ecosystems for short term benefits with little concern about unintended consequences or long term benefits.

I believe that is one of the definitions of malignancy.

And yeah, it is depressing. And no, I am not proud to be part of the problem.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Unbearable.

Originally Posted by August

Simply ursine.

Glad they spared us the grizzly details.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

And yeah, it is depressing. And no, I am not proud to be part of the problem.

A species is only as good as it's members. I don't know if seeing ourselves as a cancer is helping the situation.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Yeah it is, but I calls em as I sees em.

Humans are about 250,000 years old. As we currently operate, is there really any reasonable chance we will survive another 250,000 years? I doubt we will last another 50,000 years before nature wipes us out with diseases (or we simply kill ourselves off).

Of course like some infectious disease or cancer we can always attempt to move to another host (another planet) but that will only reset the clock a little.

Far far in the future, when some alien is writing the history of the earth, I don't think humanity will be listed as one of the more successful species. As a species we accomplished a lot, but it was selfish and in the long run damaging to the ecosystem that we rely on to survive. As we evolve we needed to keep modifying the ecosystems for short term benefits with little concern about unintended consequences or long term benefits.

I believe that is one of the definitions of malignancy.

And yeah, it is depressing. And no, I am not proud to be part of the problem.

We humans are selfish creatures, but I imagine we'll be around as long as the earth is here. Sure, they'll eventually be another major world war, possibly economic chaos, maybe another ice age, nature has a way of balancing things out.

[August]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Glad they spared us the grizzly details.

Yeah who knows what it would have bruined up.

[August]

Originally Posted by Armistead

We humans are selfish creatures, but I imagine we'll be around as long as the earth is here. Sure, they'll eventually be another major world war, possibly economic chaos, maybe another ice age, nature has a way of balancing things out.

What creature isn't selfish? A better term would be driven to survive.

[Platapus]

We might have to be careful. Making too many bad bear puns may give Neal claws to ban some members.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Platapus

We might have to be careful. Making too many bad bear puns may give Neal claws to ban some members.

That would be unbearable, but there's always that pawseability. If he were to ban over the puns, oh the "Panda"moneum!

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by August

What creature isn't selfish? A better term would be driven to survive.

No, not a better term, selfishness is what makes the world progress.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by August

What creature isn't selfish? A better term would be driven to survive.

The problem is that other species, while having the will to survive, have limited means to ensure their survival. Humans, either through evolution or some theological action, has the capability of making significant changes to the environment, that affect other species greatly, with out necessarily having the wisdom to make such decisions.

Some would consider this capability an advantage, others a scary liability.