FAQ's ABOUT MY RESEARCH & MYSELF
I get asked a lot of (usually negative) questions that are fairly repetitive. Actually, they're usually put as statements, because people assume a lot of things about me. Here's a list of them, with answers. Feel free to contact me with more. Or go to my Instagram (@pounceconservation).
1. I bet you've never actually seen a gray wolf.
Yes. Yes, I have. And yes, they were alive and wild.
2. You have no field experience.
Yes, I do.
3. You're a tree hugger.
I mean. I have hugged trees. Their bark is worse than their bite.
4. You're a libtard.
For those of you who do not know what this word means, here's a definition courtesy of Urban Dictionary: " an individual, whose thinking processes has been rendered impaired by political correctness and the failure to understand that people are responsible for their actions and the world does not owe lazy or stupid people a living". All right, aside from the grammatical error in that definition, let me break that down for you. 1. I am not a liberal. I am a registered independent. I come across as more liberal because I work with animals and the environment, so I speak the most vocally about these issues. 2. Trust me, I am not always politically correct. 3. Also, I do understand people are responsible for their actions. Like people who toot "shoot, shovel, and shut up" are promoting wolf poaching, which means they're responsible for their actions and the legal consequences that come with those! 4. I study carnivores. It's a harsh world. In my world of carnivores, and lazy and stupid individuals get killed.
5. You're too young to know what you're talking about.
I love this one, mostly because it usually comes after I give someone about five statistical facts, and 9/10 times the person cannot even spell "wolves" correctly.
6. Your claims are based on emotion, and so is your research.
C'mon guys. I think whining about not having enough elk to kill anymore (there are plenty) or the "brutal way" wolves kill their prey is a teensy bit more emotional than my facts and statistics. Just because I'm a young woman with a passion for animals does not mean that my research or my claims are based off emotion. They're not. Do I sometimes get heated? Yes. Passionate? Yes. Doesn't mean that my claims and research are wrong. Stop using this and actually give me an intelligent argument.
7. People like you are destroying the environment.
No, people like you are the people who slaughtered off wolves a century ago so that you could artificially create unhealthy, overpopulated elk and deer herds and destroy the landscape. It's called carnivore conservation.
8. You're anti-hunter.
No, actually I'm not. Ungulate and some fowl management is useful, especially in areas like the East where the white tailed deer population has exploded (due to there not being any predators around, hmmmmm...). Hunting for food is likewise fine by me. Sport hunting, I have much more problems with. I do acknowledge the economic benefits it can have, although this is more powerful in places like Africa than the United States where our government literally has no idea how to manage our taxes. However, the negative effects like evolutionary (example: bighorn sheep are evolving shorter horns due to trophy hunting, which means that the "not as fit" sheep are being selected) population dynamics (lions are a great example of this- trophy hunters get males; when a male dies that opens up a pride for new males. Those males kill the previous male's cubs and delay more breeding for about six months), and the ethics make it difficult for me to accept. If you think about it, the only difference between sport hunting and poaching is a license. Also, trapping is ridiculous. It's a cowardly way of hunting because you can't track the animal well yourself. Luring and using dogs is also BS.
Basically: if you hunt animals for food and do it ethically, by all means shoot. But if you go hunting just for killing, because you hate an animal, or you torture it by purposefully elongating its death (and grin like a maniac in your trophy picture), then beat it.
9. Scientists have no idea what they're talking about. They've been brainwashed.
I'm not even sure how to respond to this one at this point. Maybe compare your high school GPA to one of ours. And in the likelihood you didn't graduate high school, we can go down to middle school. As for the brainwashing... no, scientists are not brainwashed as a whole. Not all of them are crazy liberals. I've met many, many conservative scientists. Brainwashed is more believing the "wolves were illegally brought into the states to discourage hunting in order to take our gun rights away" lie.
10. Hunters are the only real conservationists.
Blegh. Some hunters, many actually, do legitimately care about the environment and want to help conserve it. Some hunting is good (see the above question). Many of it is not. And regardless, there are non-hunters like many scientists (ahem) who do good work for conservation. Do you think hunters brought back the giant panda with their infinite skills in genetics and reproduction? I don't think so.
11. If you saw how brutally wolves tear into their prey, you wouldn't like them so much.
For one, I have seen wolves tear into their prey. I've also seen hyenas, lions, and African wild dogs tear into their prey. Ever seen African wild dogs kill their food? If you say yes then you're lying, because African wild dogs don't kill their prey before they eat it. They literally tear it apart alive (it's to lower the chance of having their catch taken by other predators). It is not a pretty sight, but that doesn't make me like them or any other carnivore less. That's nature. Deal with it.
12. Wolves kill for fun.
You can see more detailed analysis on this one here, but I'm putting it here because this one is hilarious because 9/10 times, it's a sport hunter telling me this. Wolves don't kill for fun, but humans sure do.
13. How about we give our wolves to you? Let's see how much you'd like them in your area.
I'd love them. Go right ahead, let me have some wolves in my area. Why do you think this is an argument against me?
14. Your research isn't authentic or authorized.
False. All undergraduates get funding for their independent research projects once approved at Wake Forest University through the Eureka Fund. My advisor is Dr. Todd Michael Anderson, PhD. I've worked with four other PhD carnivore biologists, and will be working with more in the next year or so.
15. You don't live around here. You don't have a voice in this.
I hear this all the time. Are y'all seriously not more creative? First of all, the majority (probably 90%) of wolf territory is on federally owned lands. That means I'm paying taxes for their management, so I should have a voice on how they're being run. Second of all, I could live in Timbuktu and still have a right to my voice in the wolf issue, especially since my voice is much smarter than you if you have to use this argument.
16. You're too cocky and arrogant.
That's just another way of telling me I'm right. In all seriousness, I am usually very polite and respectful during discussions about wolves. I acknowledge that there is not a black and white answer to carnivore conservation, and I truly do want to engage all types of communities who feel passionate about this issue. Trust me- it would be MUCH easier for me to not engage with insensitive ranchers or hunters and stick to all the animal lovers. But I don't because I seriously want to have important conversations about this. But when you push me too hard, that's when I stop being as polite, and usually that means I get cocky because you're being rude and stupid.
17. You're an ugly gypsy.
Yes, I have been called this and worse. I'm not ugly, so you must be blind. Also, gypsy is a racial slur. Fun fact though, my paternal grandfather took a DNA test and I am likely part Roma.
18. You spread lies.
No I don't. I spread truth and fact. Just because you don't like the truth doesn't mean I'm lying, or spreading propaganda.
19. Stop using hunting hashtags like #wolfhunting or #biggamehunting.
No. This is a good way at getting the hunting community involved in the dialogue.
20. I'm going to send you pictures of me killing wolves and filling my tags and holding the dead wolf.
I get pictures of dead wolves in my inbox all the time. No matter how much you try this tactic, I'm not going to stop my research.
21. Don't take pictures of yourself in bikinis and expect us to take you seriously.
Firstly, stop stalking a woman who's probably half your age. Second of all, I've posted precisely (2) picture of myself in a bikini on my Instagram in at least a year. Third of all, it shouldn't matter what I wear for you to be polite to me. Fourth of all, don't take pictures of yourself grinning next to a trapped wolf with its eyes rolled back in fear if you expect me to take you seriously.
22. WOLVES/ CARNIVORES DON'T MAINTAIN ECOSYSTEMS.
Go back to fourth grade science.
23. You're getting paid to do this "research" and spread lies. I'm paying taxes for your lies.
I don't get a single dime for the work I do. Trust me, I wish I did.
24. Stop f****** posting about wolves.
No.
1. I bet you've never actually seen a gray wolf.
Yes. Yes, I have. And yes, they were alive and wild.
2. You have no field experience.
Yes, I do.
- Assisted with a camera trap/population survey of white-tailed deer in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, including building vegetative traps
- Took behavioral assays of cheetahs, lions, leopards, tigers, lynx, Geoffrey's cats, wolves, and New Guinea Singing dogs
- Analyzed and categorized thousands of camera trap images from 20 locations within the Serengeti, Tanzania
- Began a coyote tracking project outside Winston Salem, North Carolina
- Helped sort and categorize over 100 samples of animal dung from a Serengeti population density study
- Worked with the Tarangire Lion Project to track a lion pride in Manyara Ranch using radio technology, and met with their anti-poaching unit
- Also worked with the Tarangire Lion Project to build predator-proof bomas for a family afflicted by hyena predations, in order to mitigate carnivore conflict
- Took part in days-long carnivores survey projects in Manyara Ranch, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti National Park
- Surveyed families of Maasai in the village of Esiliei, northern Tanzania, on predator-livestock conflict and discussed solutions
- Spend hours of many days tracking animals in the woods... please don't tell me this is not field experience.
- Slept beside hyenas during the Ngorongoro and Serengeti expeditions- literally, they came by my tent night every night and whooped until dawn. If that's not field experience, I don't know what else is.
- May not be the field *technically*, but the hours and hours and hours combing through wolf management, conservation, educational, USDA, livestock loss, Fish and Wildlife (federal and 8 states), BLM allotment, wolf pack, and DNR reports for my current wolf research counts for something, considering combing through means intensely studying and remembering. My record for one day of work without stop is over 12 hours.
3. You're a tree hugger.
I mean. I have hugged trees. Their bark is worse than their bite.
4. You're a libtard.
For those of you who do not know what this word means, here's a definition courtesy of Urban Dictionary: " an individual, whose thinking processes has been rendered impaired by political correctness and the failure to understand that people are responsible for their actions and the world does not owe lazy or stupid people a living". All right, aside from the grammatical error in that definition, let me break that down for you. 1. I am not a liberal. I am a registered independent. I come across as more liberal because I work with animals and the environment, so I speak the most vocally about these issues. 2. Trust me, I am not always politically correct. 3. Also, I do understand people are responsible for their actions. Like people who toot "shoot, shovel, and shut up" are promoting wolf poaching, which means they're responsible for their actions and the legal consequences that come with those! 4. I study carnivores. It's a harsh world. In my world of carnivores, and lazy and stupid individuals get killed.
5. You're too young to know what you're talking about.
I love this one, mostly because it usually comes after I give someone about five statistical facts, and 9/10 times the person cannot even spell "wolves" correctly.
6. Your claims are based on emotion, and so is your research.
C'mon guys. I think whining about not having enough elk to kill anymore (there are plenty) or the "brutal way" wolves kill their prey is a teensy bit more emotional than my facts and statistics. Just because I'm a young woman with a passion for animals does not mean that my research or my claims are based off emotion. They're not. Do I sometimes get heated? Yes. Passionate? Yes. Doesn't mean that my claims and research are wrong. Stop using this and actually give me an intelligent argument.
7. People like you are destroying the environment.
No, people like you are the people who slaughtered off wolves a century ago so that you could artificially create unhealthy, overpopulated elk and deer herds and destroy the landscape. It's called carnivore conservation.
8. You're anti-hunter.
No, actually I'm not. Ungulate and some fowl management is useful, especially in areas like the East where the white tailed deer population has exploded (due to there not being any predators around, hmmmmm...). Hunting for food is likewise fine by me. Sport hunting, I have much more problems with. I do acknowledge the economic benefits it can have, although this is more powerful in places like Africa than the United States where our government literally has no idea how to manage our taxes. However, the negative effects like evolutionary (example: bighorn sheep are evolving shorter horns due to trophy hunting, which means that the "not as fit" sheep are being selected) population dynamics (lions are a great example of this- trophy hunters get males; when a male dies that opens up a pride for new males. Those males kill the previous male's cubs and delay more breeding for about six months), and the ethics make it difficult for me to accept. If you think about it, the only difference between sport hunting and poaching is a license. Also, trapping is ridiculous. It's a cowardly way of hunting because you can't track the animal well yourself. Luring and using dogs is also BS.
Basically: if you hunt animals for food and do it ethically, by all means shoot. But if you go hunting just for killing, because you hate an animal, or you torture it by purposefully elongating its death (and grin like a maniac in your trophy picture), then beat it.
9. Scientists have no idea what they're talking about. They've been brainwashed.
I'm not even sure how to respond to this one at this point. Maybe compare your high school GPA to one of ours. And in the likelihood you didn't graduate high school, we can go down to middle school. As for the brainwashing... no, scientists are not brainwashed as a whole. Not all of them are crazy liberals. I've met many, many conservative scientists. Brainwashed is more believing the "wolves were illegally brought into the states to discourage hunting in order to take our gun rights away" lie.
10. Hunters are the only real conservationists.
Blegh. Some hunters, many actually, do legitimately care about the environment and want to help conserve it. Some hunting is good (see the above question). Many of it is not. And regardless, there are non-hunters like many scientists (ahem) who do good work for conservation. Do you think hunters brought back the giant panda with their infinite skills in genetics and reproduction? I don't think so.
11. If you saw how brutally wolves tear into their prey, you wouldn't like them so much.
For one, I have seen wolves tear into their prey. I've also seen hyenas, lions, and African wild dogs tear into their prey. Ever seen African wild dogs kill their food? If you say yes then you're lying, because African wild dogs don't kill their prey before they eat it. They literally tear it apart alive (it's to lower the chance of having their catch taken by other predators). It is not a pretty sight, but that doesn't make me like them or any other carnivore less. That's nature. Deal with it.
12. Wolves kill for fun.
You can see more detailed analysis on this one here, but I'm putting it here because this one is hilarious because 9/10 times, it's a sport hunter telling me this. Wolves don't kill for fun, but humans sure do.
13. How about we give our wolves to you? Let's see how much you'd like them in your area.
I'd love them. Go right ahead, let me have some wolves in my area. Why do you think this is an argument against me?
14. Your research isn't authentic or authorized.
False. All undergraduates get funding for their independent research projects once approved at Wake Forest University through the Eureka Fund. My advisor is Dr. Todd Michael Anderson, PhD. I've worked with four other PhD carnivore biologists, and will be working with more in the next year or so.
15. You don't live around here. You don't have a voice in this.
I hear this all the time. Are y'all seriously not more creative? First of all, the majority (probably 90%) of wolf territory is on federally owned lands. That means I'm paying taxes for their management, so I should have a voice on how they're being run. Second of all, I could live in Timbuktu and still have a right to my voice in the wolf issue, especially since my voice is much smarter than you if you have to use this argument.
16. You're too cocky and arrogant.
That's just another way of telling me I'm right. In all seriousness, I am usually very polite and respectful during discussions about wolves. I acknowledge that there is not a black and white answer to carnivore conservation, and I truly do want to engage all types of communities who feel passionate about this issue. Trust me- it would be MUCH easier for me to not engage with insensitive ranchers or hunters and stick to all the animal lovers. But I don't because I seriously want to have important conversations about this. But when you push me too hard, that's when I stop being as polite, and usually that means I get cocky because you're being rude and stupid.
17. You're an ugly gypsy.
Yes, I have been called this and worse. I'm not ugly, so you must be blind. Also, gypsy is a racial slur. Fun fact though, my paternal grandfather took a DNA test and I am likely part Roma.
18. You spread lies.
No I don't. I spread truth and fact. Just because you don't like the truth doesn't mean I'm lying, or spreading propaganda.
19. Stop using hunting hashtags like #wolfhunting or #biggamehunting.
No. This is a good way at getting the hunting community involved in the dialogue.
20. I'm going to send you pictures of me killing wolves and filling my tags and holding the dead wolf.
I get pictures of dead wolves in my inbox all the time. No matter how much you try this tactic, I'm not going to stop my research.
21. Don't take pictures of yourself in bikinis and expect us to take you seriously.
Firstly, stop stalking a woman who's probably half your age. Second of all, I've posted precisely (2) picture of myself in a bikini on my Instagram in at least a year. Third of all, it shouldn't matter what I wear for you to be polite to me. Fourth of all, don't take pictures of yourself grinning next to a trapped wolf with its eyes rolled back in fear if you expect me to take you seriously.
22. WOLVES/ CARNIVORES DON'T MAINTAIN ECOSYSTEMS.
Go back to fourth grade science.
23. You're getting paid to do this "research" and spread lies. I'm paying taxes for your lies.
I don't get a single dime for the work I do. Trust me, I wish I did.
24. Stop f****** posting about wolves.
No.
Header photo: Credit to Steve MacIntyre (@cdn_rebel on Instagram)