When we bought this farm property it had not been used as a farm for years. We would see deer routinely. The pastures were filled with field mice. There were ground hogs on the property, but we discouraged them. I saw one coyote, bushy tail and long snout in grey and brown. Once we had things up and running with steers and chickens and our cats and dogs, things changed. I see occasionally deer sign but no deer. I see a hawk and an owl all the time now, the chickens know to go inside in their presence. The field mice are rare, now. But, the rabbit population seems to be unchanged. I don't know, but I think the cows ran the deer off. One other thing, I put up bat houses on the barn and they are doing well. The only other irritant is that the sparrows sneak into the chicken coop to steal the chicken feed, oh well.

My point is that our presence seems to have changed the mix of animals, I think for the better. But maybe this was going to happen anyway; for instance the hawk and owl moving into the neighborhood.

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(By the way, I hate it that so many papers in the areas of planetary science and geology are not easily available to the dreaded "non-subscribers". It is like they are screaming at me: "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH". Good, I feel better now.)

"Quaerendo inventis"