Clipsheet

Quoted: Adrian Treves, a predator-prey ecologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who sits on Peer’s board, said no proper studies exist on whether the hunts protect livestock. Rather, more studies have been conducted on how the kills affect populations of caribou, moose, elk and other wildlife, and a 2020 meta analysis of available science found little evidence that they increase populations.

Research shows two much bigger factors in herd health are weather and habitat, Treves said, but hunts are still pushed by state game agencies because “hunter perception is a big part of it, and their attitudes are typically negative toward predators”.

Quoted: Among cats, an increase in vocalization, meaning more crying or howling — an obvious and frequently reported sign. “With cats, there is excessive vocalization and disorientation and changes in interaction with humans or other animals, such as hissing and swatting,” said Starr Cameron, clinical associate professor in small animal neurology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, who studies cat dementia. “Some cats are up all night and vocalizing. They go outside the litter box or can’t find it.”

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison population geneticist Aaron Ragsdale, who wasn’t involved in the research, says the study raises some very intriguing questions about human evolution during a time period from which both genetic and fossil data are relatively scarce. “I am eager to see if their results are replicated using other methods,” Ragsdale says.