Tag: point reyes national seashore

Badger

American Badger

This is a close-up side view photo of a badger with its tail up.

Where did that gopher go?

This badger was digging at both ends of a gopher tunnel.  While he was digging at one end, the gopher escaped from the other end.  The badger didn’t see it, but somehow sensed it had left and did a little circle around the diggings and picked up the scent and got the gopher.  I was impressed.

It reminded me of a badger in Yellowstone at the picnic area near Yellowstone Bridge that entered a fox den and spent a day or two eating the food cache the fox parents had created.  When the badger entered the den, the fox kits escaped from a back entrance.  After a day or so eating the food cache, the badger left the den.  When it left it began smelling the ground, picked up a scent trail,  and made a bee line to the entrance of a nearby second den where the fox kits had gone.  It entered that second den, which we later learned didn’t have a second entrance/exit.  Unfortunately, the kits were trapped.  The badger spent the next day or two in that den and killed and ate all the kits.  It was a sad tale that unfolded over several days to a lot of photographers and viewers.  When I witness something like this I have to remind myself that this is an example of the balance of nature.  It’s worked very well until we humans came along.  Unfortunately, we’re making a mess of it.

Bobcat

Bobcat, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a bobcat taken at Point Reyes National Seashore.

I was looking for a photo I took about 10 years ago and stumbled upon this one.  I don’t think I ever did anything with it before, but I like it.  It was taken with a Canon 7D body on a 500mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter at 1/40 sec. and ISO 1600.  A trip down memory lane.

Coyote

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

This is a photo of a coyote in the ranching area of Point Reyes National Seashore.

Coyote in the Ranching Area of Point Reyes National Seashore.

This coyote is standing in a ranch pasture at Point Reyes National Seashore.  Between now and July 14, the Park Service is going to decide which of six alternatives to adopt for management of 28,000 acres of land owned by the Park Service/United States at Point Reyes National Seashore and the adjacent Golden Gate NRA and dedicated for decades to private ranching.  The preferred alternative is to expand the ranching, especially for 18 of the 24 ranching families who live on park land with their families and employees – at subsidized rents no less.  Life is going to get a lot more complicated then for the coyotes, bobcats, and the other mammalian and avian predators that live there.

The preferred alternative will provide, among other things, that each of the 18 occupied cattle ranches can also have up to 50 sheep with their lambs or 70 goats with their kids, plus 500 free-roaming chickens which will be in the pastures during the day and in mobile coops at night.  Now, the ranchers can only have beef and dairy cows, which are way too big for any Point Reyes predator to bother.  These small domestic animals will be protected by livestock guardian dogs which are capable of killing coyotes and the other predators.

The leases will provide that ranchers can’t kill or harm predators.  However, the leases also provide that where predation occurs, the rancher can report it to the Park Service and the Park Service will decide what action to take.  If NPS says “no” to killing, what’s a rancher to do?  Well, there’s the old “3S’s” maxim – shoot, shovel and shut up.

And you thought national park units were established for the protection and preservation of nature, including wildlife.   Guess again.  What predominates in the National Park Service thinking is maximizing tourism (especially for concessioners) and emphasizing viewsheds for those tourists.   What is living in those viewsheds has never been on the Park Service’s radar.  Most former Park Service employees will tell you this or, if you don’t know one, read this book by a retired NPS employee, “Preserving Nature in the National Parks” by Richard Sellars.

Tule Elk

Bull Tule Elk; Point Reyes National Seashore

This is a photo of a mature bull tule elk lying in a field of silage plants in January.

Bull Elk Lying in an Early-Growth Silage Field

Some ranchers who lease ranch lands from the National Park Service at Point Reyes National Seashore are allowed to grow non-native plants to feed to their cattle.  The plants are mowed when still green in late April and May.  Aside from the fact that this silage growing involves the annual introduction of non-native plants into the national seashore, some ground-nesting and near-ground nesting birds and their nestlings are chopped up during mowing.   Also, female deer give birth to and hide their fawns in silage fields.  The fawns are also chopped up during mowing.  Why the Park Service supports ranching on NPS-owned lands involving over 5,500 cows, let alone silage growing with its annual killing of wildlife, is beyond me.