An early spring thaw lures prey into recklessness that predators exploit

Evidence

The skunk track enters the woods, and crosses a glade where the rabbits have packed down the snow with their tracks, and mottled it with pinkish urinations. Newly exposed oak seedlings have paid for the thaw with their newly barked stems. Tufts of rabbit-hair bespeak the year’s first battles among the amorous bucks. Further on I find a bloody spot, encircled by a wide-sweeping arc of owl’s wings. To this rabbit the thaw brought freedom from want, but also a reckless abandonment of fear. The owl has reminded him that thoughts of spring are no substitute for caution. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 23

Categorization

• XREF: The thaw’s double-edged release of want while inflating fearlessness echoes the land-ethic theme of each organism’s good colliding with others’ — connective to Leopold’s later ecosystem ethic. — connects to: A thaw destroys the subnivean tunnels that protect meadow mice — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 19; Thaw-driven events date the ecological year’s renewing cycle — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 16; A predator’s mere potential presence shapes the behavior of an entire ecosystem. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 507

Broader Connections

• A predator’s mere potential presence shapes the behavior of an entire ecosystem. #expands (0.78) — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 507