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PREDATORS CREATE ECOLOGICAL HOT SPOTStinyurl.com/3cjzhd5hThe team uncovered many examples where they could trace ecosystem hot spots to predators, usually by either leaving behind carcasses, concentrating nutrients from prey or killing ecosystem engineers like beavers.Cougar (Puma concolor) kills, for instance, impact beetle communities, which in turn impacts nutrient cycling. Arctic foxes bring back kills back to their young. What the kits don’t consume becomes plant food. So do the salmon carcasses left scattered by grizzlies (Ursus arctos horribilis).“It’s like adding fertilizer to a garden,” Johnson-Bice said. The areas become “islands of vegetation that are totally different from the surrounding area.”Predators may not always play a big role in reducing prey or changing their behaviors, he said, but they can help benefit the ecosystem in ways that are often overlooked.“If we want to have functioning ecosystems—and ones that function well—predation is an integral part of that,” Gable said. ... See MoreSee Less

Resurgence of wolves in Germany sparks debate on cullingtinyurl.com/5bv4tr3aWolf management regulations flow from the European Union to its member states, and earlier this week the European Commission announced that a new study would review wolves' protected status.In Germany, state governments are responsible for implementing wolf management and livestock protection. That is partly a reflection of local needs, which vary between urban and agricultural areas.It also means it is up to states to provide resources and financial support for livestock protection, such as electric fences.Conservationists and farmers are not always as far apart as it may seem on the surface. Both agree that existing protections already allow shooting wolves as a last resort and "exception," Marie Neuwald, wolf specialist at conservationist group NABU, told DW. Doing so, however, neither deters wolves from going after grazing animals nor can bring dead ones back to life."You will only teach a wolf to stay away from herds with measures like an electric fence," she said.The Green ministers' statements, she added, were simply meant to make the rules of engagement clearer — in limited cases where protection measures fail. They did not, she insisted, mean it was open season on wolves. ... See MoreSee Less

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