Re: On predation.

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
26 Oct 1995 14:00:06 -0400

chris brochu <gator@mail.utexas.edu> writes:

>>The problem is that land predators can go anywhere where there is
>>land. Crocs can't travel over vast land distances and infect every
>>water hole or lake or river or estuary.

>YAAFI. They can indeed.

Geeez. more yaafi.

With rivers and lakes drying up and restarting up many times
over millions of years, they'd have to be reinfested everytime.

If a river dried up and disappeared and a new one appeared there
or nearby later or a lake reappeared later some miles away, it
could only be reinfested by crocs from some other place which did not
dry up. If it wasn't near it, the crocs would have to travel
perhaps hundreds of miles overland to reach.

Such a ridiculous scenario points out the difficulties which
are always cavalierly and glibly overlooked while the simple
fact that no such problems bedevil the land based predators
is simply ignored. It must take a special kind of lack of
common sense to obdurately push for a not-so-well-thought
out scenario while ridiculing something maybe even better.

-- 

Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey