SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Add this to the long list of problems caused by buzzing drones: Frightening 1,500 elk into stampeding at a time of year when too much stress can be deadly for the animals.
This winter already is one for the books in western Wyoming. More than twice as much snowfall than usual has fallen in many areas, and more than 3 feet has accumulated at the National Elk Refuge in the scenic valley of Jackson Hole.
Typically the National Elk Refuge provides a winter haven for elk. But on Monday, David A. Smart, 45, of Washington, D.C., got a $280 ticket for allegedly launching a drone from a highway pullout and flying it over hundreds of elk resting there.
The device caused the elk to stampede half a mile through the snow. Smart was trying to film the animals and afterward was apologetic, refuge deputy manager Cris Dippel said Friday.
Nonetheless, wildlife managers take animal harassment seriously. The federal crime of which Smart was accused, disturbing wildlife, is punishable by an up to $5,000 fine.
Source: Popular Mechanics
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:57AM (9 children)
Sounds like just another bunch of bootlicking authoritarianism wrapped up in the fraudulent guise of planet-worship. "One long run" is not significant from a caloric standpoint, not without the animal already being on death's doorstep.
(Score: 1) by moondoctor on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:08AM (3 children)
Sources? You should get out more kid...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:30AM (2 children)
That's rich - YOU asking ME for sources, when it is your claim in question in the first place.
Here's a free starter clue for you: look up the caloric requirements for human exercise, and then extrapolate based on body mass for rough estimates.
(Score: 1) by moondoctor on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:10PM (1 child)
>look up the caloric requirements for human exercise, and then extrapolate based on body mass for rough estimates
That actually made me laugh. Look up Winter wildlife in the Rockies and you'll get a clearer picture. As I said, when you are camping in -20 weather you'd be amazed how much more food you need to just carry on normally.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @02:41AM
Then compare to resting caloric usage and realize your mistake.
(Score: 1) by moondoctor on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:19AM (4 children)
>not without the animal already being on death's doorstep
Your reading comprehension needs work: They eat basically nothing all winter and live off energy reserves that have to last all season. They *are* on deaths door.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @10:28AM (3 children)
Your logic needs work. If such wildlife was "on death's door" as you so claim, then the result of the first threat (real or imagined, "natural" or man-made) to pass by would do the whole herd in. This has obviously not happened, and therefore you are wrong.
How does it feel to go through life on nothing but empty-headed bluster?
(Score: 1) by moondoctor on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:08PM (2 children)
Easy now.
If you don't believe me that's fine. I grew up around these animals and I'm relaying personal experience and knowledge handed down over generations.
Hard winters kill more Elk than mild ones which is a clear indication that yes, they are in fact at deaths door.
In case you're curios about these animals:
http://www.greater-yellowstone.com/animals/elk.html [greater-yellowstone.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 01 2017, @04:37AM (1 child)
You're trying to move the goalposts. The issue here is whether or not the critters are so lacking energy reserves that "one long run" is the difference between living and dying, which you claimed to be the case.
The difference between resting and running caloric burn says you're full of elk poo.
(Score: 1) by moondoctor on Wednesday March 01 2017, @03:09PM
And I believe your interpretation of caloric requirements both resting and active, and in particular for strenuous exertion in extreme cold for big grazers in the winter are off.
No worries, we'll have to disagree on this one.