Ohio's Extirpated Species

River Otter Track

If you're like me, one of the most exciting experiences you can have when hiking in the woods is coming face to face with a fellow animal, whether it's a common animal like a deer, or something relatively rare, like a bear, coyote, a fox, or a turkey. In that moment of first contact all the layers of civilization's conditioning of the human mind are stripped away.

Unfortunately, at least here in Northeast Ohio, a fairly common follow up experience is learning that the species you're meeting is actually managed, that is brought back into the state by the ODNR. Two examples I know off the top of my head are the river otter and the wild turkey. Both animals were extirpated (hunted, trapped, or killed until none were left) from the state in the early 1900's. That initial thrill turns into a sort of troubling disappointment.

The European people who settled in Northeast Ohio were programmed to turn it into a version of New England, but perhaps really were acting out some old genetic program to reform the landscape into the Eurasian Steppe. The early settler's recorded how they did this. They settled, cut down trees, then shot everything on four legs. In only about 100 years they extinguished 10 animal species from the state, including the river otter.

The otter is a fur bearing animal that was probably trapped or hunted for its pelt, which is really a way of saying the animals went to satisfy the appetite of remote clothing or glove markets. The trappers of the day just consumed all the available animals completely carelessly and thoughtlessly. Clearly, nature can't fill a bottomless pit of want.

Now, of course, there's top-down management. Various government agencies regulate hunting and fishing to attempt to balance people's wants with the ability of nature to provide. When that didn't exist, people just killed everything that they could to eat or sell or just for "sport".

It really is a very interesting question why the native Americans didn't do that. (Although maybe they did.)