Hobson's choice

Natural History, March, 2004 by Stephan Reebs

Conservation usually involves compromises, and not always between nature and people. A case in point is Urocyon littoralis, an endangered fox species that lives on the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California. About ten years ago, golden eagles moved in. They fed mostly on feral pigs, but soon started taking many of the unwary, cat-size foxes as well. Now the fox populations are crashing.

But here's the rub: the feral pigs are slated for eradication by the National Park Service. Simulations by Franck Courchamp of the University of Paris-South in Orsay, France, and his colleagues show that the loss of the feral pigs could cause hungry eagles to put even more strain on the few remaining foxes. Hence, to protect an endangered fox species, the golden eagles--a protected, though not endangered, species--are being translocated and, in some cases, killed. ("Removing protected populations to save endangered species," Science 302: 1532, November 28, 2003)