Beyond Fear and Loathing: New Perspectives on Apex Predators

Session Submission Type: Complete Panel

Abstract

For several decades now historians have been documenting how European settlers who came to North America viewed apex predators as evil beings that threatened livestock, other wildlife, and their personal safety. Influenced by these deeply held fears, they and their successors began systematic efforts to eradicate wolves, bears, cougars, and (later) coyotes on the land they colonized. Historians have also shown how the United States government launched an ambitious predator control program in the early twentieth century that pushed several species to the brink of extinction, and with the rise of the modern environmental movement, reversed course by pursuing extraordinary efforts to save vanishing predators.

This session offers a fresh look at the history of our complex views of and interactions with apex predators, highlighting species that scholars have generally neglected and providing new perspectives on those that have garnered previous attention. Janet Davis explores how American military personnel experienced sharks during the Second World War and the safety program that federal officials created to develop a shark repellent of dubious effectiveness. Mark Barrow solves the mystery of why Florida, now the third most populous state in the nation, has come to welcome an extensive population of the American alligator, a large, fearsome reptile viewed as a potential man eater. Germán Vergara explores the paradox behind the sprawling captive breeding program designed to rescue the critically endangered Mexican wolf and predicts that preserving wolves and re-wilding nature on the U.S.-Mexican borderlands will require perpetual human intervention. Peter Alagona shares the findings of an interdisciplinary study group that he convened in 2016 to examine the past and potential future of grizzly bears in California. His work challenges numerous long-held assumptions about these important apex predators while raising vital questions about how human misunderstandings shape relations between people and wildlife.

Sub Unit

• ASEH Annual Conference

Individual Presentations

• “In a Wild Mood": Navigating Shark-infested Waters during World War II - Janet Marie Davis, University of Texas at Austin

• The Alligator’s Allure: How Florida Embraced a Giant Man-Eating Predator - Mark V. Barrow, Virginia Tech

• Born to be Captive: A History of the Mexican Wolf Captive Breeding Program - Germán Vergara, Georgia Tech

• Bear in Mind vs. Bear in Reality; or Why So Many People Get So Much Wrong About Big, Toothy Animals - Peter S Alagona, UC Santa Barbara

Chair

• Michaela J Thompson, Harvard/MIT