Are Predators Vicious Or Just Hungry?

I made this post on another page to provoke thought — or stir up shite — depending on how each reader chooses to respond.

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Hunger and survival drive predators to hunt and kill out of necessity.

A coyote and a badger use a culvert as a wildlife crossing to pass under a busy California highway together. Coyotes and badgers are known to hunt together.

🎥Peninsula Open Space Trust pic.twitter.com/oS9BL5JOoK

— Russ McSpadden (@PeccaryNotPig) February 4, 2020

For example, coyotes do not have grocery stores or restaurants they can go to.

Humans conveniently have all the killing done for us before the grocery store or restaurant.

A graphic video of where a hamburger comes from could be as hard to watch as a video of a predator killing to survive.

In fact, the calf in the video being charged by hungry coyotes (where I made this post) was likely destined to be killed by a human later for the same reason the coyote kills… food to survive.

I do acknowledge that ranchers must protect their livestock and may need to use whatever means they can, including killing the predators who would otherwise kill their livestock.

But wouldn't it be interesting to set plentiful food stations around the outermost perimeter of a livestock area so that predators encountered that food source before they got to the livestock?

When their hunger is satisfied, some predators have much less reason to hunt and kill.

Predators go home with full bellies and livestock remains safe for the cost of the perimeter food supply.

Hmmmmmmm….

In fact, because grocery stores and restaurants keep humans satiated is the ONLY reason humans are not out in mass hunting and killing for food.

We have largely hidden that process by allowing a few skilled humans who do it all for us so we don't have to.

If they quit or our system breaks, we will be hungry and probably much more savage than coyotes or other predators in our killing for food to survive.