Still absent logic-hunting tactics

[Lightwaves@aol.com]

Here we go again.  It has been a couple months since I've posted on the list,
but I think it's high time some logic return to the thought going on
concerning scavanger-hunter discussion.

Harris hawks, of the SW US, are social hunters that cooperate in hunting, and
is documented. Flock predation, period. Watch the Discovery  channel for ads
on a show they are putting on about their hunting tactics.

Lions, wolves, killer whales, and hyenas all  hunt  cooperatively, just name
a few.
 
As I have stated before, I have personally seen buzzards cooperatively hunt
and kill cotton-tailed rabbits in NW Arkansas. I don't find it impossible
"farmer tales" to believe they colud kill a lamb.

I think some people need to get out from in front of their monitors long
enough to take a look at the world surrounding us now, and apply some of
those observations to the VP field . Sure, direct correlation is impossible,
but the requirements to sustain life have not changed since the inception of
life. Everything must eat, and if there are no conventional food supplies
alternatives will be found, if the species are to survive.

Before white-man ruined the north american ecosystem buzzards had a ready
food supply in the constant turnover in the vast herds of herbivores. There
now may be occasions in which little, if any, carrion is available and the
alternative to starvation is predation. Like it or not it happens. Believe it
or not I've seen it.

 One reason California Condors may well be in trouble now because they are
incapable of adapting to the role of hunter, and if you've been east of the
Rockies you'll know there is no shortage of buzzards. If one looks closely at
the equipment a buzzard carries it will surprise you even less that this
species can kill. (fantastic vision, sharp talons,  a razor sharp beak, and
powerful yet graceful flight characteristics.)

Now, concerning the classification of paleontologist. I may be a class 3, if
that is an amateur not interested in collecting for personal use or profit.
But there has to be a way to allow us to go out on our own and do the neck
killing work of looking at the dirt  with the understanding that a government
official won't  arrest us if we pick up a fingernail size fossil of a
vertebrate. Besides, how many BLM officers could tell if what was in your
pocket was actually part of a dino? A false arrest, even in good faith, could
ruin someones life and remove a contributor to this science. Is a
disarticulate fragment a good trade-off against a self financed amateur more
than willing to report a good find? There has to be a way to liscense us
(class 3's) for the assistant role we are willing to serve in.

In closing let me say that I am willing to risk arrest, ridicule, or any
hardship to further  my own knowledge and sense of acomplishment. This
attitude extends far beyond VP into every phase of my life, and I challenge
those of you reading this to say the same. I feel we have become a nation of
conformist that  believes all the propaganda our self serving government  is
spewing  like the sewage it is, because to do otherwise is unprofitable.
Liberty without rights is no liberty at all.