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: 3, Insightful) by moondoctor on Monday February 27 2017, @12:49PM (14 children)
Getting a herd stampeding in the winter can make them use up energy reserves necessary to survive until spring. Theses guys seem to be pretty well looked after, but there are ranges where in certain years this could kill. A huge herd of elk running across a ridge in the Rockies is something to behold. You can't help but be moved by their power and grace.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 27 2017, @02:53PM (1 child)
The first time I saw a LARGE herd of elk, they were grazing among a herd of deer. From a long way off, it looked like adults and new offspring, but it was definitely the wrong time of year for that. As I got closer to them, I realized it was two separate species. The thought that came to my mind was, it looked like a bunch of elementary school kids, playing among a bunch of professional football players. Elk are pretty awesome.
(Score: 1) by moondoctor on Monday February 27 2017, @04:03PM
>looked like a bunch of elementary school kids, playing among a bunch of professional football players
Fully... That power and grace bit isn't some poetic license. They know how to move.
One can only imagine what the real buffalo herds looked like (yeah, bison, sorry...) They say that one time Lewis and Clark got to a river crossing in the morning and were forced to wait while a herd of buffalo went first. It was a mile wide and took 8 hours to cross. I love visiting the bison range, but after hearing that, it just made it look kinda empty.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rivenaleem on Monday February 27 2017, @04:39PM (11 children)
I don't know about Elk, however, sheep will terminate a pregnancy (absorb the embryo/fetus) if subjected to sufficient stress during gestation. We would take great pains to ensure that no fox hunts (with or without an actual fox) would pass through our farm during the winter months. People don't realise just how much exertion you need to do to burn calories. The energy loss of a stampede is probably insignificant compared to the other negative effects of putting pregnant animals into stressful situations.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by moondoctor on Monday February 27 2017, @05:27PM (10 children)
>The energy loss of a stampede is probably insignificant
Surprisingly, that's not the case in the western US in the winter. One long run can kill a wild animal. Worse, it will take weeks or months as their insufficient energy stores are depleted. All winter long they paw through to the ground and expose very small amounts of grass and little shrubs growing under the insulation of the snow, but they basically eat nothing in the deep winter. They walk real slow.
When it gets below -20f you find yourself eating constantly, it's bizarre. It's funny, the horses don't mind so much just don't try touch them! Their hair stands on end and makes like a puffy coat that traps warm air next to them. A blanket would kill a horse in Montana in January... They do, however, eat up to 4 times (yup) as much food as in the summer when it's really cold. (-40) Freakiest thing is my brother's huskies come to life at about -10 and get all excited and run around like grinning idiots when it gets to 20 below! But yeah, the cold burns through calories surprisingly (scary) fast.
(p.s. Hunting on the Moors in Devon and Cornwall is among the most fun and amazing things I've ever done)
(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.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @01:36PM (2 children)
It's not hard to get cattle running. Many years ago I crossed the country with a group of young people, in a car with a PA horn on the roof and a mic inside. Passing a herd of cattle, one gal had the brilliant idea to imitate a calf in distress, a "lowing" sound at a higher pitch than adult cows. The cows came trotting from all over the field, right up to the fence, might have been a hundred of them. Luckily they didn't go through the fence!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @03:47PM (1 child)
Did you give her back to her conspecifics?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @07:29PM
> Did you give her back to her conspecifics?
No, she wasn't my property to give away...
(ps. Thanks for a new word of the day!)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @04:53PM (11 children)
Who do you think you are, some sort of free man?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:32PM
Better not fart too loudly around the kings deer. They will charge you with a crime of harassing animals peasant.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Monday February 27 2017, @06:24PM (9 children)
Those are The People's deer.
Please don't fuck with my deer.
Thanks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @08:13PM (8 children)
Who is this "The People"? Where do they get authority to claim ownership over things in the wild? What would stop those same "The People" from claiming authority to collar and assign title to YOU?
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday February 27 2017, @08:46PM (2 children)
Ownership comes with responsibility.
People tend to forget that in a throw-away society.
[suppresses rambling tangential rant]
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Monday February 27 2017, @09:01PM (1 child)
Hear! Hear!
BTW, after my heart attack, my doctor warned me of the dangers of suppressing stuff, and the subsequent life threatening stress build up. :-)
Now, I let it loose, providing entertainment to those around me! (probably a good thing for me that I rarely spend time around armed persons!)
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday February 27 2017, @09:25PM
I think my rant was going to be about how I am too much of a pack-rat, and everything has maintenance intervals. As I said: tangent.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday February 27 2017, @09:26PM (4 children)
Who is this "The People"? Where do they get authority to claim ownership over things in the wild?
The Constitution
What would stop those same "The People" from claiming authority to collar and assign title to YOU?
The Constitution
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 27 2017, @09:50PM
What is this "Constitution" thing that you speak of?
It sounds powerful to do those things.
I'm not sure, but it kind of sounds like something the government should be made aware of.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @03:38AM (1 child)
If the founding documents of democratic government aren't a strong enough binding for you and you profess one of the Big 3 religions, in the very first book of your scriptures there's a commandment. [google.com]
No, "dominion" does NOT mean that you get to destroy anything you want to on a whim.
It also doesn't mean that you *own* anything.
You're just the caretaker and the owner is gonna be really pissed [bible.org] if you don't take the responsibilities you were given VERY seriously.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @06:22AM
Guess you don't own the body you inhabit, then. I'll be starting an open-pit mine to harvest your bones shortly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:21AM
Oh, such confidence! "The Constitution" will stop violations of itself? I must have missed the news reports where the faded document lept out of its nitrogen-filled enclosure and put a stop to the rank violations of the First Amendment [reviewjournal.com], Second [atf.gov], Fourth [papersplease.org], among many others.
Care to try again?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 28 2017, @01:03AM
...leave nothing but hoofprints.