Run little mink, run!!!!

Nanny wrote:
That kind of thing has happened several times here too. Most of the
minks can't survive in the wild anymore and die or become road
kill............. The minks that are caught aren't identifiable, so
young ones can't be returned to their own mothers.

That's a shame....wish they just wouldn't capture or breed them in the first
place. Fur belongs on animals, and wild animals belong in the wild!

Ann

--

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/bewtifulfreak

Absolutely ! They should try to get rid of the fur farms.

--
Nanny

I still miss my ex but my aim has improved.

"bewtifulfreak" schreef in bericht
...
Nanny wrote:
That kind of thing has happened several times here too. Most of the
minks can't survive in the wild anymore and die or become road
kill............. The minks that are caught aren't identifiable, so
young ones can't be returned to their own mothers.

That's a shame....wish they just wouldn't capture or breed them in the
first
place. Fur belongs on animals, and wild animals belong in the wild!

Ann

--

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/bewtifulfreak

Yeah, that's why they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Releasing these animals into the wild pretty much is a death sentence for
them. If they want folks to stop breeding them, they should focus their
efforts on education of the general public.
And no, I don't think ruining somebody's fur coat with paint qualifies as
education. That's assault and shouldn't be encouraged or promoted.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

Victor M. Martinez wrote:
Yeah, that's why they say the road to hell is paved with good
intentions. Releasing these animals into the wild pretty much is a
death sentence for them. If they want folks to stop breeding them,
they should focus their efforts on education of the general public.
And no, I don't think ruining somebody's fur coat with paint
qualifies as education. That's assault and shouldn't be encouraged or
promoted.

I agree. All you do with behavior like that is make yourself look ignorant,
and totally shut people's minds to your message. But I do hope there are
other groups working in a more productive manner to save animals from being
used in this way, it truly is heartbreaking.

Ann

--

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/bewtifulfreak

Yeah, that's why they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Releasing these animals into the wild pretty much is a death sentence for
them. If they want folks to stop breeding them, they should focus their
efforts on education of the general public.
And no, I don't think ruining somebody's fur coat with paint qualifies as
education. That's assault and shouldn't be encouraged or promoted.

I am very much an anti-fur trade activist, to the extent that I can be, but
even I would never do that. Thankfully, fur isn't really "in" like it used to
be. The hardest thing for me is our annual black-tie, formal charity auction.
It's a very hoity-toity affair and is designed to bring out the "big money"
and targeted for that group. But the little old blue-haired (very wealthy)
ladies always wear their fur. It just kills me. Not just mink either; even
lynx, and I didn't even know they made coats out of lynx. I almost chew my
tongue off every year to keep from saying something. I know these little old
ladies have had their furs for twenty years and just *wait* for an occasion to
wear them and don't really know better. But it just screams "oxymoron" to wear
fur to a Humane society event.

Sherry

"Sherry " wrote
Yeah, that's why they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Releasing these animals into the wild pretty much is a death sentence for
them. If they want folks to stop breeding them, they should focus their
efforts on education of the general public.
And no, I don't think ruining somebody's fur coat with paint qualifies as
education. That's assault and shouldn't be encouraged or promoted.

I am very much an anti-fur trade activist, to the extent that I can be,
but
even I would never do that. Thankfully, fur isn't really "in" like it used
to
be. The hardest thing for me is our annual black-tie, formal charity
auction.
It's a very hoity-toity affair and is designed to bring out the "big
money"
and targeted for that group. But the little old blue-haired (very wealthy)
ladies always wear their fur. It just kills me. Not just mink either; even
lynx, and I didn't even know they made coats out of lynx. I almost chew my
tongue off every year to keep from saying something. I know these little
old
ladies have had their furs for twenty years and just *wait* for an
occasion to
wear them and don't really know better. But it just screams "oxymoron" to
wear
fur to a Humane society event.

Argh! I don't think I could hold my tongue. It's illegal to hunt lynx here,
but maybe it's legal over there? I sincerely hope they don't farm lynx for
their fur. shudder

--
Marina

Argh! I don't think I could hold my tongue. It's illegal to hunt lynx here,
but maybe it's legal over there? I sincerely hope they don't farm lynx for
their fur. shudder

--
Marina

It probably is now. I'm guessing these little old ladies have owned these coats
for decades. Just out of curiousity I did a search just now on e-bay, keywords
"lynx coat." Several came up. Looking at them just made me sick, just sick.
They are such magnificent animals. I've always had a real affinity for them and
have been searching recently for lynx artwork.

Sherry

"Sherry " wrote

It probably is now. I'm guessing these little old ladies have owned these
coats
for decades. Just out of curiousity I did a search just now on e-bay,
keywords
"lynx coat." Several came up. Looking at them just made me sick, just
sick.
They are such magnificent animals. I've always had a real affinity for
them and
have been searching recently for lynx artwork.

Yes, I love them too. Lynx are the only wild cat we have here in
Scandinavia. I would love to see anything you find.

--
Marina

Sherry wrote:
They are such magnificent animals. I've always had a real affinity for them and
have been searching recently for lynx artwork.


Some artwork coming up:
http://www.duncanmcfarlane.ns.ca/animals.html
http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/PD--...tm?RFID=633434

There also used to be a lady posting pics of her own artwork (drawings)
on abpa, but I haven't seen her around there for some time now. I think
her name was Diane Lee. She also had a website, but I can't find it now.
Her work was really awesome!

--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Christine in Vantaa, Finland (Europe)
Email: christal63(at)yahoo(dot)com
Photos: http://photos.yahoo.com/christal63

I love all wild animals... in particular wild cats. In North America we
have three indigenous species of wild cats... the Cougar, the Lynx, and the
Bobcat. Here is some info on the North American Lynx that you might find
interesting reading...

Description and Behavior
The Canada lynx has a flared facial ruff, black ear tufts, and long hind
legs which lend a slightly stooped posture. The pelage is reddish-brown to
grey; the hairs are tipped with white which gives the fur a frosted
appearance. There is a rare pallid color phase which suggests partial
albinism, known as the blue lynx in the fur trade (Quinn and Parker 1987).
The Canada lynx's large spreading feet act like snowshoes, and are twice as
effective at supporting its weight on snow as those of the bobcat (Parker et
al. 1983).

The lynxes show remarkable similarity of appearance compared to other
related groups of cats, and the Canada lynx is often treated as conspecific
with the Eurasian lynx (Kurtén and Rausch 1959, Tumlison 1987). However, the
Canada lynx is only half the size of the Eurasian lynx: average adult weight
of Canada lynx males is 10.7 kg (n=201) and females 8.9 kg (n=183) (U.
Breitenmoser and C. Breitenmoser-W&uumal;rsten in prep.). While the Canada
lynx is probably a descendant of a Eurasian lynx ancestor which migrated
into North America during one of the last two major glacial periods
(Werdelin 1981, 1983b), the Breitenmosers (in prep.) argue convincingly that
the two should be considered separate species, as they now show marked
adaptive differences for prey capture. Whereas the larger Eurasian lynx
preys mainly on ungulates, the Canada lynx relies almost exclusively on
snowshoe hares, and is uniquely adapted, both behaviorally and
physiologically, to exploit a cyclic prey base.

Among felid predator-prey relationships, there are none as closely tied as
that between the hare and the Canada lynx (Van Zyll de Jong 1966, Nellis et
al. 1972, Brand and Keith 1979, Parker et al. 1983, Ward and Krebs 1985).
The lynx-hare cycle was first discovered from harvest records of the Hudson'
s Bay Company dating back to the 1800s (Elton and Nicholson 1942: Figure 6).
Numbers of snowshoe hares peak approximately every ten years, and lynx
numbers follow the same pattern with a short lag, typically one to two years
(Keith 1963, Bulmer 1974). While the populations of many prey and predator
species are cyclic and roughly synchronous in the northern latitudes, the
snowshoe hare and lynx correlation is particularly close (Keith 1963,
Mallory 1987: Figure 7). The amplitude of the lynx population cycle is
greater than that of any other predator (Bulmer 1974), and lynx density
during cyclic highs and lows can differ by up to 15-fold (Breitenmoser et
al. 1993b). As hares decline, fewer lynx breed, producing smaller litters
with few, if any, surviving kits. As hares increase, so do lynx reproduction
and recruitment rates (Nellis et al. 1972, Brand and Keith 1979, Parker et
al. 1983, O'Connor 1984, Slough and Ward 1990, Breitenmoser et al. 1993b,
Mowat 1993). In captivity, female lynx do not show such an early onset of
sexual maturity or such high litter sizes as during hare peaks in the wild
(Breitenmoser et al. 1993b). While lynx will switch prey during periods when
hares are scarce (Brand et al. 1976), turning to small rodents, ground birds
and, exceptionally, ungulates such as white-tailed deer, caribou, and Dall
sheep (Saunders 1963, Bergerud 1983, Stephenson et al. 1991), lynx
populations only reach high densities when supported by snowshoe hares
(Brand and Keith 1979, Mech 1980, Ward and Krebs 1985).

There are several competing hypotheses to explain the hare cycle. The most
widely accepted explanation is that winter food shortage (Keith 1974)
depresses hare reproduction (Carey and Keith 1979) at the population peak
and starts the cyclic downturn, and hare numbers are subsequently further
reduced due to predation (Keith et al. 1984, Boutin et al. 1986). Gilpin
(1973) and Schaffer (1984) modelled harvest data mathematically, and
concluded that the cycle is more complex than a simple predator-prey
interaction, involving at least a third additional factor. Another suggested
influence involves changes in the nutritional quality of vegetation in
response to hare browsing (Bryant 1981, Sinclair and Smith 1984, Bryant et
al. 1985). Nevertheless, in some areas, hares have declined even when food
resources appear sufficient (Keith et al. 1984, Krebs et al. 1986).
Preliminary results achieved from long-term field experiments (Krebs et al.
1992) now favor the hypothesis that predation alone, by a variety of
specialist and generalist carnivores, is the driving force behind the cycle,
as has been suggested for microtine rodents (Hanski et al. 1991).


Population Status
Global: Category 4
Regional: Category 3
IUCN: Not Listed

The status of the lynx is generally satisfactory (Quinn and Parker 1987,
Govt. of Canada 1988). In Canada, it is considered endangered only in New
Brunswick, and has been extirpated from Prince Edward Island and mainland
Nova Scotia. The largest populations are found in southern Quebec, northern
Alberta, northern British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and
Alaska (Govt. of Canada 1988; K. Poole, B. Slough in litt. 1993), although
there is some concern that trapping pressure during the 1970s-1980s has
reduced population levels (see Part II Chapter 4).

The main US lynx population is found in Alaska. Elsewhere, they are more
sparsely distributed, occurring in low numbers in the states of Washington,
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York
(reintroduced), Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, with the largest
populations in the Rocky Mountains. Washington state recently listed the
lynx as Threatened, and will take more active measures to aid population
recovery (Anon. 1994b). Much of the lynx's American range consists of
National Forest lands (Koehler 1990b).

Lynx density fluctuates dramatically with the hare cycle (Breitenmoser et
al. 1993b). An ongoing long-term study of an unexploited population in good
quality habitat in the Yukon found densities of 2.8 individuals (including
kittens) per 100 km2 during the hare low, and 37.2 per 100 km2 during the
peak (G. Mowat and B. Slough, unpubl. data). Poole (1994) obtained very
similar figures for his study area in the North-West Terrritories: 30 lynx
per 100 km2 at the peak, and around 3/100 km2 the winter following the hare
crash. In the south of their range, where snowshoe hare populations appear
to be non-cyclic and stable at low densities, Koehler (1990a) reported lynx
density at 2.6 individuals per 100 km2 (north-central Washington). The study
was conducted in mature coniferous forest where fires had been suppressed,
and the early successional growth preferred by snowshoe hares was limited to
isolated pockets.

Home range sizes for lynx range from 4-25 km2 for females, and 4-70 km2 for
males (G. Mowat and B. Slough, unpubl. data). On the Kenai peninsula,
Alaska, Kesterson (1988) found larger home ranges - 107 km2 for females and
225 km2 for males -- but seasonal ranges were smaller, with females only 9.4
km2 in summer. Male ranges usually encompass those of females (Saunders
1963, Berrie 1973, Parker et al. 1983, Ward and Krebs 1985, Kesterson 1988,
Slough and Ward 1990), but same-sex overlap has also been found (Berrie
1973, Mech 1980, Carbyn and Patriquin 1983, Noiseux and Doucet 1987; G.
Mowat, B. Slough and K. Poole unpubl. data). Breitenmoser et al. (1993b)
suggest that same-sex overlap reflects a high degree of tolerance of
independent offspring by resident lynx, another unusual adaptation of the
Canada lynx to a predictably cyclic prey base.Protection Status
Protection Status: CITES Appendix II

National legislation:
Managed for exploitation over most of its range

In Canada, trapping is regulated through closed seasons, quotas, limited
entry and long-term trapping concessions. (See Part II Chapter 4 for a more
detailed discussion of harvest management.) In the United States, trapping
is permitted only in Alaska, Idaho, and Montana (Koehler 1990b)

Diane )