Re: On predation.
H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
27 Oct 1995 18:00:33 -0400
chris brochu <gator@mail.utexas.edu> writes:
>>perhaps hundreds of miles overland to reach.
>I think you underestimate both the distance crocs will travel on land and
>the water cover in eastern Africa.
We're stuck with fuzzy numbers again. Lots of animals
were wiped out from lots of place and if they weren't
wiped out from Africa it may be because many predators
weren't wiped out in Africa either.
in any case, the reinfestation is harder than for land
predators. It's too plain to argue about. Obviously
they can infest waterways that are close to one another or
connected. How the hell would they infest a river or a waterhole
20 miles away. I can't imagine a croc going for a 20 mile
walk and surviving it.
>Care to support your contention that bodies of water in Africa were
>separated by hundreds of miles during the Miocene?
Make it 20. Make it 10. What's the big deal, when I'm
pointing out the difficulty of it all.
Sea warfare is not like land warfare. YOu can't "hold"
the sea like land; you have to search and destroy.
And crocs going over land is like land predators going over
sea lanes. Reverse the picture. Do you deny that it would
be more difficult?
>primates." True enough, crocs are not much of a threat when on land, but
>they will cover surprising amounts of distance on land to reach water.
How much distance?
--
Regards, Mark
http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey
|