Stories of Predation
Description
Sixty years ago, Dick Dekker immigrated from one of the smallest countries in Europe to the second-largest country in the world- Canada.
Dreaming of Canada's wilderness, he risked his life to find wolves and spent half a century watching eagles and falcons for which his native Holland had become too small to support.
The ancient maxim that nature is red in tooth and claw, attributed to Shakespeare, is still true today. But rather than just concentrating on the predators, Dekker's focus is also on the prey species, how deer, ducks, and sandpipers manage to cope with their peril. Hiking and camping in Jasper National Park, he was first to describe that the return of wolves had led to the restoration of the ecological balance between vegetation, grazing elk, and wolves, with beneficial side effects for the intertwined lives of beavers and other wildlife.
His insights became the inspiration for what has since become known as a trophic cascade in Yellowstone. Dekker's detailed studies of the hunting tactics of Peregrine Falcons on ocean coasts and inland lakes are unprecedented.
He has recorded more prey captures by wild falcons than anyone else in the published literature. His discoveries and unique observations are narrated in simple yet evocative prose the reader can identify with.
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Content
Introduction: The Fear Factor...........................................................8
Chapter 1: High Hopes......................................................................16
Chapter 2: Falls, Failures, and Beginner's Luck...............................22
Chapter 3: Canoeing the Wilds........................................................34
Chapter 4: Backcountry Camping...................................................40
Chapter 5: The Aspen-Elk-Wolves Equation...................................50
Chapter 6: How Grey is the Gray Wolf?..........................................60
Chapter 7: Mule Deer versus White-tailed Deer............................66
Chapter 8: Wolves and Caribou.......................................................74
Chapter 9: Hit or Myth?..................................................................84
Chapter 10: Fast but Vulnerable......................................................90
Chapter 11: Peregrines Caught in the Act........................................99
Chapter 12: The Peregrine's Paradox..............................................108
Chapter 13: Falcons Great and Small...............................................113
Chapter 14: Bald Eagle Lore............................................................124
Chapter 15: Saga of the Riverside Eagles.........................................130
Chapter 16: Shorebird Seasons........................................................137
Chapter 17: Aerial Contests..............................................................145
Chapter 18: Wetland Fluctuations.................................................150
Chapter 19: Conservation Controversies........................................155
Chapter 20: To Graze or Not to Graze the Grass...........................165
Chapter 21: Bachelor Birds at Cooking Lake..................................176
Chapter 22: The Not-So-Natural History of Jasper.......................188
Chapter 23: Perspectives.................................................................197
Chapter 24: Companions and Credits...........................................204
Epilogue: Sixty Years of Change.....................................................210
Publications.....................................................................................220
Index................................................................................................233
