Nature is complex. Take the Red Kite, for instance.
Three years ago, Red Kites were endangered after being almost hunted to extinction for 200 years.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) began a species reintroduction program, which sounds exciting in a Jurassic Park sort of way, but isn’t. They started in the late 1980′s with six Swedish birds. Which sounds like the start of a bawdy joke, but isn’t.
Flash forward to a year ago, when the amazing recovery of Red Kites was celebrated in the UK press. Their recovery was even more remarkable because the birds had to survive a new threat, wind turbines, as well as an old threat, gamekeepers.
All’s well that ends well. Right? Riiiight?
Oh noes, Red Kites attack school children and some folks think it’s time to start hunting them.
And off we go again…
They are having the same problem here in the US. The wise and great government has re-established the wolf out west. The program is so successful that the cattle ranchers are having problems losing cattle to the wolves. Back in the “good old days” the government used to pay a bounty on wolves to protect the cattle farmers.