Culling

The Times Online caught my attention today with this grizzly headline: "Killer whales face cull after finding taste for rare otters" The article talks about a possible culling of Orcas because a few of them have taken to eating endangered sea lions and sea otters. While there's no information about exactly how close biologists or wildlife leaders might be to agreeing to such a cull, it does say that the idea is being 'discussed.' Well, if there's a debate, here's my side of it. Of course sea lions and sea otters are important. Steller's sea lions have been dying out in the Aleutian Islands…

OK, I know I've done joeys before, but can you blame me? Look at these guys! source These adorable little tykes are rescues, saved after the recent bushfires. Here's a sobering fact I didn't know before: In some areas in Australia, joeys like these are killed en masse. Kangaroos, as it turns out, are becoming a pest in some areas of Australia because we've killed off a lot of their predators, leading to unchecked population growth. The adults are hunted to save them from starving or prevent damage done by hungry kangaroos entering populated areas where they can be dangerous to people. Any…