@
hebe the fundamental difference in what we are saying is I was speaking in the most basic generalities and you used nuance! Perhaps a better way of looking at it is a modern affluent culture might see 'pest' animals destroying an ecosystem and be prepared to expend the time and effort into attempting to eradicate the damaging species to preserve the whole. By contrast others (for example people in desperate poverty trying to keep their family alive by hunting meat) have a huge vested interest in harvesting this meat in a long term sustainable way, or even letting the game numbers build up to provide plenty for the future. In many respects these two approaches are incompatible, which I think is why this whole discussion will always be difficult to resolve.
As an example I hand sowed 100,000 nikau seeds in a bush remnant gully about 15 or 20 years ago and had masses of palms up to about 1m high, now they are almost all gone due to the deer. Preserving long term access to venison in this gully is a very low priority for me. But at the same time a bloke on a lifestyle block down the road has allegedly been actively releasing fallow deer so he can hunt them, and has zero interest in preserving natural biodiversity. Can't keep everyone happy.
@hebe the fundamental difference in what we are saying is I was speaking in the most basic generalities and you used nuance! Perhaps a better way of looking at it is a modern affluent culture might see 'pest' animals destroying an ecosystem and be prepared to expend the time and effort into attempting to eradicate the damaging species to preserve the whole. By contrast others (for example people in desperate poverty trying to keep their family alive by hunting meat) have a huge vested interest in harvesting this meat in a long term sustainable way, or even letting the game numbers build up to provide plenty for the future. In many respects these two approaches are incompatible, which I think is why this whole discussion will always be difficult to resolve.