Lophophora post-harvest regrowth study in 2010

[trucha]

Part of why I've been lacking any time for forum conversations:

http://www.cactusconservation.org/CCI/regrowth.html

[gerbil]

really good work, thanks for constantly sharing and updating.

Are those hogs native to the area, if so or even not, are they managed in any manner from population control via food hunting or simple conservation shooting if introduced? Sounds like the numbers may not be monstrous given the lack of sightings, but elusive buggers all the same. Good observations with human and hog damage differentiation

That must have been very rewarding work with the metal detector discoveries.

Those photos are priceless, cheers mate.

[klip247]

The photos are inspiring to say the least, well done on this.. it has definately opened my eyes and imagination as to how hard these cactus have to struggle to survive in the wild.

I was wondering out of so many seeds how many actually sprout (in the wild)? And out of the ones that do sprout.. how many survive? Out of the ones that survive the infancy stage how many reach mature age to set their own seed?

I was thinking of scattering a bunch of seeds in my garden and let them develop without much of my input, but I could only imagine how many seeds I would need in order to have any successful results in the long-term.

Edited April 11, 2010 by klip247

[trucha]

Seeds often come up readily in any flat of Lophos that have some rocks for sheltering the babies when they first start.

At least some hundreds of randomly dropped seeds per long term surviving adult seems like a good estimate in a garden or the wild.

Javelinas are native and cause some problems due to digging but the biggest impact is by feral pigs. People call them 'wild' pigs but they are domestic farm animals that have either escaped or been turned loose and have established themselves.

The scat shown in a photograph at the site is clearly from a feral pig as it is easily twice the size of javelina shit.

Leasing land for pig hunting is common and pig hunting is popular but the pigs' breeding output easily outpaces any harvesting by hunters.

Edited April 11, 2010 by trucha

[mutant]

Incredibly useful and interesting. I also got your trichocerus bible, mr. trout, at least.

Thanks for all the wonderful info!

[gerbil]

Excellent, thanks for the information. It's interesting hearing some basic findings on the dynamics of the javelina and the wild pigs, simple words with quite logical extended learning impacts regarding ecosystem balance.

Sounds similar to here, pig numbers apparently outshine human population, and the ones that can be found or trapped and dealt with is a piss in the ocean compared to the realistic problem. Ours is a great export meat, as well as a pass time for some people so combined with the size of the land, commercial interest, personal recreational time and the subsections of those people who specifically don't want them eradicated, but managed for each and everyones particular ideals, makes it difficult to achieve a goal based on some sort of equilibrium with heavy focus on floral protection.

that scrub looks like a real nightmare for finding pigs, and then getting acceptable control rates, quite a dilemma, but what a job for the hunters, better than shooting foxes for lamb production down south here I'd wear a peyote pig patrol badge with pride

Klip i reckon if you want that hardy semi natural patch in your garden, work on grafting good genetics to supply yourself a good diverse seed bank, have your site pre-prepared for you semi natural patch, i.e. soils, overhead nursery plants etc, then regularly drop good amounts of your fresh seed down, you will have issues with rats/mice/birds/slugs/snails/mites etc, so a well thought out plan would be beneficial, as it'll take quite a while in ideal conditions, and a half plan will fall to bits and get you discouraged a few years down the line, small caged areas would be beneficial IMO, granted not fully natural, but work to your conditions and environmental influences.

Edited April 12, 2010 by gerbil

[Teotzlcoatl]

Do you think it would be legal for me to hunt the peyote-destroying-hogs?

I may seriously consider a hunting/ethnobotanical expedition.

[gerbil]

Leasing land for pig hunting is common and pig hunting is popular but the pigs' breeding output easily outpaces any harvesting by hunters.

Teotz, unless you are a serious professional and a proper holistic program is setup, you'd be a weekender sweeping back the ocean with a broom.

[mutant]

Do you think it would be legal for me to hunt the peyote-destroying-hogs?

I may seriously consider a hunting/ethnobotanical expedition.

lol!!

this girl sure loves peyotes! hey teotz did I tell you I found the white peyote??

[trucha]

A link to a nice pdf on feral pigs was added that might shed some light as to why pigs are now part of the ecosystem and are going to stay that way no matter how many hunters go after them.

There is no hunting season or bag limits for feral pigs (or feral axis deer or other escaped introductions) so people can kill as many as they want as often as they want (or at least as often as they can succeed in finding and shooting one). PIgs will still outpace any hunters.