Thursday, December 06, 2007
Of acorns, cardinals, puppies' advocates
Bill Cochran
Recent mail
BILL: Very enlightening report from Dave Steffen on turkeys/acorns (in last week’s Cochran Mail Bag.)
Let me start by saying that I am not an acorn expert, but I do have 30 years' experience running and summarizing annual acorn surveys that we ran every year in northeast Georgia starting in 1976. Here are some observations.
White oak acorns not eaten in the fall tend to rot or germinate quite readily if there is enough rainfall and warm weather. This tends to make them less palatable or not palatable at all. In a dry fall (as most of us are in right now), they will lay and remain sound much longer but still usually germinate or rot before spring.
Red oak acorns are totally different, never germinating in the fall and sometimes not even in the following spring. I suspect it has to do with more tannic acid in red oak acorns and is also related to spring weather.
For both groups there is a lot of weevil damage, both adult and larvae, which also contributes to accelerated rot and low palatability. I have yet to figure out how turkeys determine that an acorn is sound or rotten!
Droughts stimulate reproduction in oaks and other hard mast producers such as pecans. By the way, Georgia broke its all-time pecan production record this year. The stress of droughts causes the trees to channel more energy to reproduction and this occurred this past year where acorns made it through the freeze. This is opposite of what most hunters and many biologists believe, but we have a strong correlation in our survey data.
KENT KAMMERMEYER
BILL: In your recent column on foxhound training center you mentioned that raids in Alabama had netted 33 cardinals. Virginia officials said they didn’t know why the birds were among the foxes, coyotes and bobcats that had been confiscated, and that you would have to ask Alabama officials about that. I hope you did. My curiosity is up.
P.A.
P.A.: Alabama law enforcement chief Allan Andress told me the cardinals were found in the freezer of a trapper who provides animals for foxhound training facilities.
“It appears they were for use as bait for coyotes and foxes,” Andress said.
BILL
BILL: I'm not only astonished at the utter ignorance of your article, (The other side of the Humane Society, Nov. 8), I’m completely shocked at its mean-spirited message!
(You said,) “The Humane Society of the United States has little to do with the dedicated, overworked and underpaid people who operate local animal shelters.” Unless you are one of the “dedicated, overworked and underpaid people who operate local animal shelters” you have no right to speak for us. I'm one of them and I'm telling you to SHUT UP! You have no right to criticize our biggest and best champion, the HSUS.
You mention “so-called puppy mills in Virginia.” Did you visit that place? Did you go there? Did you rescue any of the dogs? Do you have any photos that refute the allegation that it was a hell hole? If not, then SHUT UP!
Unless you have a second job you didn't mention in your article, spending your evenings and weekends mucking out cages for rescued, sick animals, bottle feeding kittens who have been tossed into a dumpster or cleaning the matted fur of a rescued puppy mill breeder dog who has never heard a kind word in her life, just eat your “breakfast of bacon and eggs,” pump up your cholesterol levels, work on your hard-hearted coronary and SHUT UP ABOUT IT!
You are just part of the problem I deal with every day!
ELLEN LAKORA
Houston, Texas
