Sign the petition against Rattle Snake Roundups in New Mexico.

[blindpig]

The Rattle Snake roundup in Otero Co. has depleted the population to the point where hunters must travel counties away in order to have animals for their "event". Obviously unsustainable. I'm sure the rodents are happy. Sign here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/roundups/petition.html

This has absoutely nothing to do with my avatar.:P

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. O Whacking Day, O Whacking Day... n/t

[displacedtexan]

2. No. Those snakes might get on a plane!

See the DU lounge thread, "Snakes On A Plane."

[MuseRider]

3. I hate those damned things.

They do them here too and I always end up signing a million things about them. I will sign and I hope it helps but the urge to kill them is very strong, hell it is strong enough to bring them into states that don't have them just to kill them.

[shance]

4. Thanks. Rattlesnakes eat the rats and vermin that spread disease

and other unsanitary conditions.

Texas did these Neanderthal round ups and have wiped out the Rattlesnake population tremendously.

Hope those boys are enjoying all the surplus of rodents and rat caca.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. Being from Texas

and having seen plenty of them (and copperheads), the one thing I can say "the only good snake is a dead snake".

[InvisibleTouch]

7. And has any one of them ever sought you out...

...to threaten you? Unlike, for instance, all the humans that go out of their way to threaten snakes, no matter the species. Think about it before you say something so ignorant.

[blindpig]

8. Being from South Carolina

and having seen plenty of them(and copperheads and cottonmouths)the one thing I can say is "why?". Is being from Texas an excuse for ignorance? I don't think so. While I'll admit that it is unwise to have venomous snakes about the house why kill snakes on sight? These animals bear us no ill will and only seek to defend themselves. With a modicum of field craft, a little attention paid to one's surroundings, they are no more danger than a precipice. A precipice is only a danger to children, drunks and fools. It is common practice to keep children away from cliffs, there's no helping drunks and fools. If one wishes to go about in blissful ignorance of one's surroundings should stay out of the wild. Or do you wish for a world totally under the dominion of humankind? To me that would be sad and frankly intolerable.

The practical lessons of ecology appear to have eluded you. Or perhaps you're a member of the Rodent Liberation Front. And apparently the concept of a trophic cascade means nothing to you.

Excuse me if I'm being a little harsh but I've been fighting attitudes such as yours my whole life and I'm about sick of it. To see such displayed in an enlightened place such as this is saddening to me.

[InvisibleTouch]

6. Signed and forwarded to others. n/t

[hatrack]

9. And who'll yelp for Federal help during the next hantavirus outbreak?

Why, the rugged macho rattler-killers who've helped the rodent population spread its virus-laden urine through their homes by killing off those rodents' predators.

[iconoclastNYC]

10. Something I saw on TV

That since the snakes killed are the ones with the nosiest rattles the rattlesnakes are getting more dangerous because natural selection is boosting the population of silent rattlesnakes.

[blindpig]

11. Could be something to that.

Though I suspect that the time frame is too short for such a trait to become dominant in a population. Most don't breed that fast or prolifically.

[iconoclastNYC]

12. If you kill off all the ones that make noise

All that is left is the ones that don't make noise. It's not a mutation that happened. The mutation already exisits. It's just that when you kill all the ones that didn't have the mutation and all that's left to breed is the one that does have the mutation, the mutation spreads that much quicker.

[blindpig]

13. That's my point.

Being killed when their presences is revealed by rattling is only one means of mortality. Predators, hwy mortality, habitat destruction, bad weather all take their toll. As the majority population(rattling) is getting whacked with shovels and 22's the minority(nonrattling) is still taking normal attrition. If the population gets too thin it becomes difficult for animals to find mates. Couple this with the fact that some species require 6-7 years for the females to mature and rarity will result. If a species does not have a prediliction for being rare(high survivorship of the young, for example) then rarity leads to extinction. The passenger pigeon is an extreme example of this, they were adapted to existing in the millions. When they were reduced to thousands hunting stopped as it became uneconomical but they could no longer function as a species and faded away.

[Dogmudgeon]

16. It wouldn't be reproductive fitness, though

Killing the loud ones because they are easy to find would naturally select for the silent ones, thought overall reproductive fitness would not be greatly affected in any given generation.

Over time, it would have evolutionary effects, but if Humanity's ecological impact is gone or greatly reduced, that pressure will be off.

--p!

[Pooka Fey]

14. Done.

[Kolesar]

15. Edward Abbey wrote up a stupid scene of Westerners "dealing" w/ a rattler

The men gathered around and dispatched the thing like it was the biggest threat to the whole community. Ignorant anglos existing in the desert.