Maine’s Black Bear

by Thomas K. Remington

Just imagine for a few minutes if you can what it would be like here on earth without you or I or any humans at all. Hard to do? Probably! But think about it for a moment. If it is any easier try to imagine what it would be like if there were more animals than human beings. Let’s say, for example, that there were far more animals than humans and the humans spent the vast majority of their time fighting to stay alive – fighting for much of the same food as the animals eat. We would in fact show what kind of animals we really are.

My intentions in this commentary are not to discuss the fight for food or somehow paint a picture of animals ruling the world and humans taking up the roles of the animals, as we know them today. What I would like to say is that we, the humans, may not be as intelligent as we would like to think we are.

Many would like to think that we have messed up Mother Nature to a point that we are threatening extinction of many kinds of animals and that we need to spend countless billions of dollars to somehow make it right. Often we don’t know when to leave well enough alone.

Let’s travel back in time if we can together – to a time that is controversial. Whether you are a believer of creation, evolution or some other theory of the beginning of time, it doesn’t really matter. At some point in time, man, for the most part, became a dominate species and because of our intelligence (if that is what you would like to call it) began to cramp the style of the animals roaming our planet.

Let’s say that never happened. Let’s suppose for a moment that somehow man erred and destroyed himself leaving only the wild animals to live free from man’s destructive influence. What would have happened? Remember that man is not here any longer – there are no more departments of natural resources or wild life biologists. There would be no registered guides or warden services. In other words, there would not be any groups who think they know how to take care of the animals and the vegetation. All of this would be left strictly up to Mother Nature.

Is Mother Nature any smarter than you or I? Does She make mistakes? Does Mother Nature have a crystal ball into the future? Is She cruel and allows innocent creatures to suffer from disease, starvation or something we know nothing about? No one knows the answers to those questions but we can speculate. Mother Nature becomes the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the Humane Society, the Environmental Protection Agency and the list goes on and on and on. How would She manage the deer herds, the moose population or the rats, spiders, snakes and bats? Maybe a good disease every so often would keep the numbers down or if left to roam about without the dominion of man, one species might prevail and become a superior breed and take over the world. This is beginning to sound like a science fiction movie.

We have seen some small examples of what might happen if we just left things to Mother Nature while at the same time ignoring the fact that we as humans have to co-exist with them. In Texas, a group of residents claimed ownership of a herd of deer trying to protect them from the management of the State’s Wildlife Department. If you’ve never been to Texas to see some of the terrain where the deer live, it is quite barren, brushy and lacking in ample food for the herd. Once the residents of this wonderful housing development planted their lawns and turned on the sprinklers, it was instant food for the deer. They flocked in great numbers from out of the plains to feed at the oases. Left alone, the number of deer multiplied. Humans were running over them with their automobiles but the residents vowed to protect these cute animals. As the population grew, so did the number of diseases that began to reek havoc throughout the herd.

What is the answer? I don’t think we can just stop hunting and trapping. Is the alternative that humane? Who has the right to say who stays and who goes? I believe it would be impossible to get rid of the humans on this planet although some would believe that that may not be that far away and ridding the world of animals would not only be difficult but very unwise as well. We depend on the animal for many things. Can we get along without the things that we have come to be dependent on? Probably, but is it necessary?

The answer is to find a balance. The balance is not just between hunters and those that believe hunting is inhumane and it isn’t between the meat eaters and the vegetarians. No, it goes much deeper than that. It goes into a balance of nature and the survival our own species. Economics also plays an integral role in determining where the balance lies.

Maine will soon be voting on a referendum to determine how if at all, we the humans will be able to kill bears. Is shooting a bear inhumane or trapping it? How about baiting or hunting them with dogs? Some people believe it is while others see it as a way of life.

To just one day stop harvesting bears because some think it is cruel, isn’t the answer. We need to maintain a healthy population of the bear species as well as others. Presently, the use of hunting, trapping, baiting and using dogs to harvest the creature is an integral part of maintaining the herd. To let Mother Nature take over would probably seem even more inhumane than the methods we use today. We have not been witness to what nature would do without humans on this planet and most of us would probably cringe were we to witness that sort of reality. Man is intelligent by most standards and has evolved into an animal that has learned many ways to take care of itself. Animals that roam our forests and fields cannot do that themselves. We don’t want to rid the world of animals. We want to protect them and ensure the best ways we know how that they will be healthy. Why? We share this planet with other animals and having them healthy makes us healthy as well. Programs designed to maintain different species of animals at healthy levels may not be perfect, but they have worked quite well to this point. We all have to have some level of respect for those that have dedicated their lives to professions of wildlife management and biology and all the sciences. I don’t claim to have the answers but I do believe that our scientists are doing the best they can.

I am a firm believer that many people involved in groups opposed to common practices like hunting, trapping, fishing, etc., do it simply because they don’t like what hunters and trappers do. They often are not interested in finding alternative ways of solving problems – only to oppose what someone else does.

A healthy world is important to all of us and the need to co-exist is just as important. Although I may not completely agree with everything Maine’s wildlife professionals do to maintain a healthy population of bears or deer or any other animal, I am staunchly opposed to banning bear hunting as proposed in the upcoming referendum. Striving for a healthy balance between the animals, citizens, hunters, the economy and those opposed to the killing of animals is not an easy task. Let’s not be hasty in trying to satisfy the wants of any one particular group simply because they make the most noise. I believe that our scientists have been and still are studying all aspects of the best ways to preserve the Maine black bear.