© Mike JohnstonSome partially good news: The Vancouver Aquarium has decided to phase out its beluga program. It’s not that great of a news story, though, since it is allowing 12 years to do it.[teaserbreak]
And, in the meantime, the aquarium is still undergoing a massive $100 million renovation project and will bring back belugas; up to five belugas are expected to be on display by the spring of 2019. (There are none there now—not after the last two on site both died within days of each other. And, despite spending $100,000 to investigate, no one knows what caused the deaths of Aurora and her daughter, Qila, last November.)
But, I do have actual good news: Two towns in the Kootenay Mountains of southern British Columbia, Canada that had applied for permits to lethally cull mule deer have decided not to.
One such community, Kimberley, I’m very familiar with. My colleagues and I spent time there last year, monitoring an experimental effort to catch and relocate mule deer. The other community, Elkford, had already made the decision on Valentine’s Day.
The good part of the news is that deer in these two communities won’t die needlessly. I say “needlessly” because the research on the results of killing off the deer has shown that it does not work; it costs money, it divides the community, and it kills deer. Yet, the problem—complaints about deer and the number of deer—returns.
Cranbrook started culls in 2011. It killed 25 deer that year; 24 in 2013; four in 2015; and 20 in 2015/16. But, the number of mule deer grew from 96 in 2010 to 116 in 2015.
In the long run, reducing deer populations by culling or moving does not work. What is desperately needed is information on the biology of the urban deer, what attracts them, and how to better cohabit with them (remembering that nothing short of complete extermination will eliminate them altogether). It is not, and will never be, a perfect world, or one where everyone is equally happy with whatever conditions prevail.
However, these are good steps in the right direction.
I’ll end with what Elkford says of itself on its website: “Elkford remains a place where nature prevails and humanity borrows a bit of space. The thrusted and vaulted limestone peaks of the Elk mountain range harbour wild places that engender profound human emotion… ‘Wilderness’ remains core to what the community is and wants to be.”
And, that is good news, indeed.
Keep wildlife in the wild,
Barry