Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Spider, the Large Predator, and Coexistence

As a wildlife lover, I can sometimes find it hard to really identify with anti-wildlife forces. To be fair to those forces, I've lived most of my life in suburban settings where I was never close enough to wildlife to come into conflict with it. I dream of a future where people can coexist with wildlife, including predators like wolves and mountain lions, but if I'm going to be honest-I'm not sure I've fully come to terms with the sacrifices implicit in that dream. To help me get into a more appropriate mindset, I find it useful to compare predators to spiders. Perhaps this analogy will help others of you as well.

Since I was little, I've disliked spiders. They're scary and they seem to come out of nowhere! And for many illogical reasons, I really don't want one on me or near me. I've often been called a hypocrite for my irrational fear. How can I claim to want to conserve wildlife and still be so anti-spider? I always reply that, "I want spiders to live! I just don't want them to live near me." I think this is a stance that many people can agree with when it comes to all kinds of wildlife, including spiders and larger predators. I get it; even though I know how unfortunate that is. Spiders and large predators have to live somewhere. And if ecosystems are going to be as healthy as I'd like them to be, they have to live lots of somewheres-including somewheres near humans.

Knowing that my dislike of spiders was not in the spirit of the loving, wildlife enthusiast I'd like to think of myself as, I've slowly gotten better about spiders with time. I've become more tolerant of them. I see many spiders and let them be. I no longer feel the need to yell and run when one is within reaching distance. I'm confident now that the spiders I'll find day to day can't kill me, and that if I was forced into a dreadful battle with one, my size advantage could ensure my victory. But that doesn't mean I've become spider-neutral. I still kill the ones I find in my room. Millions of people around the world will agree, that is just too close for comfort! How can I be expected to sleep when I know there's an 8-legged creature capable of crawling on me, biting me, or even running into my mouth at any moment?! My fear or paranoia is real. Still, it might be much less real than the fear others have of more dangerous predators.

Larger predators bring fears of lost pets and lost livelihoods-fates much more serious than spider bites! For some, irrational fears similar to my irrational fear of spiders are an unfortunate addition. All of these fears are natural, perhaps even evolutionarily beneficial. The people who have them are not evil and do not necessarily wish all predators were dead. It is possible they would be happy knowing predators existed, as long as they did not exist near them. It is even possible they would be willing to help predators to live successfully, as long as they did so far enough away. We all know an animal, even a person, we would never want dead, but that we wish would just exist so that they never interfered with our personal lives.

I kill spiders in my room. Some ranchers kill wolves that come near their property. Lovers of wildlife everywhere cry inside. If only there was a way for spiders in my room to live hidden somewhere...in such a way that they never came out and I never knew they were there. In such a way that they could fill their ecological role without disturbing me. This is an idea quite similar to the reasoning behind well-developed wildlife corridors that funnel wildlife through urban areas and non-lethal deterrents that keep wildlife at bay. Instead of demonizing the people who want to kill the wildlife we value, we need to invite them to our team so that we can use the clever brains we were blessed with to come up with innovative solutions that benefit all stakeholders. (I know I'd pay my share to keep spiders out of my room.) If we can use whatever analogy is helpful to us in order to begin to put ourselves in the shoes of those who have opposing views, I know we'll realize that our 'opposition' really isn't that different from us and that coexistence is possible.

No comments:

Post a Comment