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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 10:29:16 GMT -6
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Post by paulette on Oct 1, 2014 10:46:42 GMT -6
Thanks for the post. Sad.
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Post by skywalker on Oct 1, 2014 12:25:11 GMT -6
Why do y'all think this is a sign of something bad? There are tens of thousands of miles of coastline that walruses could land on. They don't all have to go to the same spot unless they choose to do so. Maybe they just want to be together with other walruses. Animals have a tendency to gather together with others of their own kind...humans do it, as do seals, whales, fish, wildebeests, cows, etc... Fossil evidence shows that even some dinosaurs would sometimes gather together in massive herds. As long as the animals are healthy (which they appear to be from the photos) I don't see anything bad about it. In fact, it's possible you could even go the other direction and say that this is a good sign. If the area is able to maintain a population of that many walruses then things must be going pretty well. Whether it's good or bad will ultimately be determined by what happens to the animals.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 19:38:19 GMT -6
?
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Post by paulette on Oct 1, 2014 21:18:22 GMT -6
Walruses usually haul out on the ice floes - they have their babies there and they are spread out so that disease or predation can't take out huge numbers at one time. They also put less pressure on their food sources that way - they eat shellfish among other things - so many in one place would quickly make for thin pickings.
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Post by skywalker on Oct 1, 2014 23:17:59 GMT -6
I'm not arguing with y'all, I'm just wondering why everybody would assume it would be bad when there hasn't yet been any evidence of any bad things happening. I've seen mass gatherings of animals before. I was climbing a mountain out in Big Bend and saw millions of ladybugs clustered at the top of the peak. Other times I saw a huge number of butterflies flying around in a canyon or gazillions of birds all roosting in one area. There are migrations of crabs down in some countries where the roads are covered with the animals. Every now and then giant squid are known to congregate off the coast of Iceland. It just happens sometimes. It's a natural cycle of nature. Every once in a while for reasons unknown to science a large number of animals will congregate in a certain area for some reason or another...it doesn't mean it's the end of life as they know it. The article mentioned that large groups of walruses were gathering on the coast of Russia in 2007, 2009 and 2011...but they weren't there in 2008, 2010 or 2012. Why did they not show up every year? And if gathering together in large herds like that is bad why did they do it those three years? And how did they survive it? I'm just wondering why everybody is assuming it is a bad thing. Walruses aren't stupid. If the food gets scarce they will go someplace else and find food. They managed to survive long enough to get as big as they are now...It seems like they know what they are doing. I'm just curious why people are all assuming this is a bad thing? I dunno...maybe I just have too much faith in nature. I'm so pessimistic about people and government that I have to be optimistic about something.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 16:58:50 GMT -6
At this point..I should just shut up but sometimes I don't learn my lessons so well. Mankind has already decimated the habitats of animals to the point some are driven to extinction. It's not that some walrus won't survive..it's the changing climates because of our meddling with the planet that causes the habitat to change. No ice..less space. Mountain lion...bear...and other wild animals are driven to higher and higher ground..when their water and feed are exhausted they come closer to humanity and most are not relocated (as claims say) they are destroyed. A mountain lion just the other day for clawing a child who was in it's habitat..the kid was ok..the lion died. People are important animals are not. I'm doubting the article was just about Walrus..but about the ice, planet warming and changing landscapes. There IS no where else for the animals to go when we breed like rabbits and need more and more of the planet for ourselves. We still haven't had so much luck with stopping Japan from whaling and evidently they could care less if the oceans suffer for their greed. Such is my very biased opinion.
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Post by skywalker on Oct 2, 2014 17:13:22 GMT -6
There's nothing wrong with expressing your opinion, Jo. Like I said I wasn't disagreeing with you. In fact, I agree with most of what you just said. I was just curious because I've seen that article about the walruses on several different places on the net and everybody is assuming it's a bad sign. I was just wondering why they reached that conclusion.
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Post by skywalker on Oct 3, 2014 6:29:40 GMT -6
Another question that people might think about asking is why did the walruses choose that particular spot? Out of the thousands of miles of coastline they could have crawled up on why did they all decide to hang out there? Is there a huge amount of food in the area or was it just a random selection where one walrus went there then another saw that one and then another and another...? 35,000 walruses is a lot of walruses.
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Post by paulette on Oct 3, 2014 12:18:04 GMT -6
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Post by paulette on Oct 13, 2014 10:22:39 GMT -6
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