wolves

Do we need predators to prevent Lyme disease?

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From the New York Times: A Natural Cure for Lyme Disease.

If humans have inadvertently increased the chances of contracting Lyme disease, the good news is that there’s a potential fix: allow large predators, particularly wolves and cougars, to return.

They would help keep down the number of deer, which, although they don’t carry the Lyme-causing bacterium, probably encourage its transmission. [continue]

If you missed it a couple of weeks ago, take a detour over to the how wolves change rivers thing I pointed out. The four-minute video is stunning.

(Link to the NTY article found here at Microfishing.)

Wolves prefer fishing to hunting

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From the Beeb: Wolves prefer fishing to hunting.

Wolves in western Canada prefer to fish for salmon when it is in season rather than hunt deer or other wild game, researchers have found.

Scientists studied the eating habits of wolf packs in British Columbia.

Deer is the staple food of the wolves in the spring and summer but they often injure themselves hunting them.

When Pacific salmon return to the region’s rivers to spawn in the autumn, the wolves prefer the taste of the more nutritious and easier to catch fish.

The researchers studied [continue]

In vaguely related news, my dog loves to catch and eat her own fish. She likes Pacific sand lances for breakfast.