Animal instincts.The idea of Pleistocene rewilding in North America is provocative ("Brave Old World; SN: 11/11/06, p. 314), but it need not be treated only in the abstract. The return of beavers (Castor canadensis Castor canadensis (syn. C. fiber) see beaver. ) to almost every region of the continent has shown us that the behavior of these creatures was, in many ways, originally responsible for the contours of the landscape and many rich soil deposits. Left to their own ways, beavers could reintroduce us to a North America that disappeared when they did. JAMES M. BRYANT, RIVERSIDE, CALIF. The article presented an absolutely hairraising scenario of potential ecological disaster. Introduction of plants or animals at a rate faster than can occur naturally causes a wave of parasitic inoculation inoculation, in medicine, introduction of a preparation into the tissues or fluids of the body for the purpose of preventing or curing certain diseases. The preparation is usually a weakened culture of the agent causing the disease, as in vaccination against that can rapidly devastate dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. naive local populations. W. GEISLER, PELHAM Noun 1. Pelham - a bit with a bar mouthpiece that is designed to combine a curb and snaffle bit - piece of metal held in horse's mouth by reins and used to control the horse while riding; "the horse was not accustomed to a bit" MANOR, N.Y. The animals would have to be engineered to be inedible and to have instinctive knowledge of property and trespass law and an innate passion for strict compliance, or they would not survive. I would think that pigs with wings would be less challenging. MCCLELLAN BLAIR, INDIANA, PA. The magazine's cover, with megafauna meg·a·fau·na n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Large or relatively large animals, as of a particular region or period, considered as a group. meg on one side of a fence and a highway on the other, perfectly illustrates a more pressing environmental problem: fragmentation of habitat. PETER WILSON, SIMI VALLEY, CALIF. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion