Originally Posted by LGF
Originally Posted by keith
I've read there is a correlation between coyote populations, and ticks and Lyme disease. There is no question they carry fleas, ticks, and other parasites. Another good reason to shoot every coyote you see.

All mammals have ticks and fleas and all animals have parasites. The connection is via deer mice, which are an essential host of the tick which carries Lyme, and which are a major prey for foxes and other small carnivores. Coyotes kill foxes, reducing their population and leading to more deer mice. Wolves kill coyotes, leading to more foxes and fewer deer mice, hence less Lyme. So the obvious answer is to reintroduce wolves wherever there is Lyme, right?

So let's think about this errant and silly line of reasoning...

When hawks, owls, and other mouse-eating raptors were scarce and unprotected, we didn't even know about Lyme disease, even though some researchers say it has existed since at least the Middle Ages.

But now, hawks, owls, and other raptors are protected species, and they seem much more prevalent than foxes. So with an explosion in numbers of these avian mouse predators, we should have a large reduction in Lyme disease, rather than an expansion of it.

Obviously, the environmentalists here are simply theorizing, regurgitating nonsense, or just making shit up (often with some Latin based binomial nomenclature to try to impress the masses). And to take it a step further, game bird numbers have dropped in my state since the introduction of the eastern coyote... in stark contrast to what our environmentalist wackos and biologists have been telling us should happen. It is abundantly apparent coyotes aren't beneficial to game bird populations at all.

I wish they knew even one tenth of what they think they know. But when in doubt... blame it on Climate Change!

Voting for anti-gun Democrats is dumber than giving treats to a dog that shits on a Persian Rug