The World is on the Move
More and more, as I write about wildlife and wilderness, I find myself writing about species expanding into new habitats.
I live in Sedona, Arizona, in the southwestern United States, and in recent decades the region has seen two very different species of large avian move into the area. Black Hawks have moved in from Central America and Mexico. Canada Geese have moved in from the frigid north to this land of burning sunshine.
When the first human beings arrived in what is now Sedona, they were here to hunt mammoths. I would love to sit in my front yard the morning after a winter storm and watch the mammoths march tail to trunk through Uptown while the beautiful red rocks of Sedona glisten with white snow, but no mammoths have been seen around here for thousands of years. Animal habitat shrinking, expanding, and shifting is an important mechanism in the process of evolution.
Black Hawks and Canada Geese have migrated into this region from different directions and in very different styles. Black Hawks live in Mexico and Central America along the coastlines. In some regions, the Black Hawks specialize in eating crabs. That is a tough bird. Somewhere along the way, these ocean-loving birds moved inland and began residing in the riparian zones of the deserts of Northern Mexico. In 50 years, these birds went from not existing in Arizona to being quite common and are now spreading into Utah and California.
Canada Geese have followed a very different strategy. Canada Geese in the north have slowly expanded into the cities until they have become regarded as pests. From there, the geese have gradually moved southward not by spreading through the forest and wilderness but by following the cities and particularly the rural suburbias we like to adorn with little lakes. Almost all of my Canadian Geese sightings in Arizona have been at urban reservoirs. When I wrote an article about Canadian Geese for Wildlife Trekker, Randy Runtsch responded about how the geese had figured out that the local power plant kept the little pond warm all year long. Ten thousand geese took advantage of the situation. These birds are very adaptable to human civilization. They now turn the power plant off from time to time to cool the pond.
Ravens lived in the American southwest but were relatively rare until President Eisenhower built the Interstate highway system in the 1950s. Banquets of roadkill and garbage caused raven populations to skyrocket.
The densest populations of coyotes in the southwest are on the edges of the cities, not the wilderness. Like their human counterparts, the coyotes commute into the city for work. Biologists have been tracking one pack of coyotes who have lived in downtown Phoenix since the 1930s. This means there has been generation after generation of coyotes that have never seen the desert, knowing only an urban existence predating upon pets and trash cans.
In some parts of the southwest, the densest populations of javelina are again found on the edges of cities. The smelly furry pig-looking creatures journey along alleys and arroyos. One year there was a tremendous ruckus behind the house as a mother javelina gave birth to three babies. I could hear the howls and squeals of a tremendous battle as the javelinas battled coyotes far past midnight.
I lived in Sedona’s nearby neighbor Cottonwood, Arizona for a few years and had a house with a porch light. In the summertime, I would leave the porch light on at night and photograph the bugs who would gather. The bugs attracted a family of geckos. I posted a photo on Facebook, and a friend who is a herpetology professor asked if he could use my photo. These were Mediterranean geckos, escaped pets. It was believed the species did not live as far north as the Verde Valley, unable to bear the winters. My photo of a breeding population was proof that they were expanding their range northward, probably a symptom of global warming.
One Arizona species I have yet to photograph is the peach-faced lovebirds of the Phoenix area. An escaped pet, the brightly colored little birds are native to Nigeria. A wicked monsoon destroyed a local private aviary, and 14 birds escaped into the wild. The local population is now believed to number 2,000. Someday soon, I hope to wander amidst the saguaro cactus with my camera in hand, hunting for peach-faced lovebirds. Again.
The advancing glaciers of the Ice Age had frozen North American soils and killed all the earthworms. Earthworms were accidentally reintroduced to North America by European farmers and have thrived ever since. Honeybees were intentionally introduced to North America by these same farmers and used to pollinate European crops.
As environmental movements have flourished, there have been a series of reintroductions in the wild. When Columbus arrived in the New World, the largest population of hooved creatures in North America was elk, not deer, bighorn sheep, antelope, or moose. By 1900 the elk population had shrunk from 10,000,000 to 250,000, almost all of whom lived in the vicinity of Yellowstone. Elk went extinct in Arizona around 1890 and were reintroduced in 1914, and the Arizona herds now number 35,000. Arizona even sends elk to other states as part of reintroduction efforts there.
Otters went extinct in Arizona in 1967. They were reintroduced in the 1980s and can now be found anywhere along the Verde River or its many tributaries. A friend of mine moved to Page, Arizona, on the Utah border and was certain that he saw an otter while fishing Lake Powell. All the locals told him this was not possible. Otters did not live there. My friend asked me to research the subject. I discovered that otters had been reintroduced into the San Juan River hundreds of miles upstream from Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Like the Arizona otters, the reintroduction of the Utah otters has been wildly successful. If the otters can somehow climb the damned dam that drove Ed Abbey into a rage, it is possible that the Utah and Arizona otter populations might someday meet and mix, enhancing genetic diversity.
Few animal reintroductions have been as controversial as bringing back wolves. The original wolf reintroduction program took place in Yellowstone. One of the biggest obstacles to reintroducing wild wolves was poaching and murder. Yet the reintroduction has been wildly successful. The range of the Yellowstone wolves has spread far beyond the boundaries of the national park to Idaho, Washington, Montana, Oregon, California, and more.
When the Mexican Gray Wolf was reintroduced into Arizona, it was just as controversial. I will never forget the news footage of mules carrying tranquilized wolves deep into the heart of the Blue Ridge wilderness for the first release. I have never seen more nervous mules. The Arizona wolf reintroductions have also been wildly successful, and again the biggest problems have been illegal poaching and murder. I still remember camping at Sunflower Draw on the Garland Prairie and hearing wild wolves howl for the first time. Shivers raced up and down my spine.
Jaguars had been listed as extinct in the United States since such lists were kept until 1996 when Warner Glen was mountain lion hunting on the edge of the Arizona/ New Mexico/ Mexico border. His dogs became extremely excited and ran ahead. Warner Glen rode his horse, following the dogs. He rounded the corner and discovered his dogs had treed a jaguar. Glen reached into his saddle holster and pulled out his video camera. The video was conclusive proof of jaguars in the United States. Jaguars had reintroduced themselves without an invitation and without any human intervention.
A debate followed on whether to list jaguars as an Endangered Species. At the heart of the controversy was whether it was wise for us to protect a species that has been known to predate upon human beings. Personally, I believe this is a good idea because I sincerely think that humans might learn a little more respect for the earth if they remembered how to be afraid of the forest again.
