You need more urban foxes to prevent the spread of rodents and wolves to prevent the spread of deer. Both of those predators can curb or slow the spread of ticks and tick-borne diseases. A lot of rodents serve as tick highways to spread into new areas, which is how the lone star ticks are starting to really make their way into new regions.
CWD, a prion disease, is spreading through deer and elk out here in the west, but wolves are immune to it and other diseases.
The articles I catch about tick diseases cite global warming changing ticks’ active season and breeding patterns, not overabundance of host animals.
Not that I’m disagreeing, necessarily. I see lots of deer and rabbits, anecdotaly, more than would normally roam together if active predators were around. The urban hawks and foxes do at least seem to be taking advantage of the rabbit buffet in my neighborhood (I see them regularly, which is amazing), but yeah, no wolves roaming my suburbs.
What’s your theory as to why under-predation isn’t getting cited? Families just wouldn’t be ok with living in proximity with wild wolves so it’s just not a solution that can be presented by media?
You need more urban foxes to prevent the spread of rodents and wolves to prevent the spread of deer. Both of those predators can curb or slow the spread of ticks and tick-borne diseases. A lot of rodents serve as tick highways to spread into new areas, which is how the lone star ticks are starting to really make their way into new regions.
CWD, a prion disease, is spreading through deer and elk out here in the west, but wolves are immune to it and other diseases.
The articles I catch about tick diseases cite global warming changing ticks’ active season and breeding patterns, not overabundance of host animals. Not that I’m disagreeing, necessarily. I see lots of deer and rabbits, anecdotaly, more than would normally roam together if active predators were around. The urban hawks and foxes do at least seem to be taking advantage of the rabbit buffet in my neighborhood (I see them regularly, which is amazing), but yeah, no wolves roaming my suburbs. What’s your theory as to why under-predation isn’t getting cited? Families just wouldn’t be ok with living in proximity with wild wolves so it’s just not a solution that can be presented by media?
And opossums to eat the ticks that do make it there.
False opossums the ugly fucks, so ugly that its cute. don’t actively feed on ticks. Just what ever ones they find on themselves at the time.