Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. Or Who Put That Barbed Wire Fence There!?

[duckydoty]

so chief, are you saying you weren't aware that a colony of ants, bees, wasps, hornets are made up of all females except during swarming times when males are produced?

and if your own logic doesn't hold up in the real world, then why do you keep trying to push it?

Huh? It was my understanding that all the worker bees were males and the queen was the female??? Have I been missled this whole time?

[duckydoty]

Wow! That goes to show how much I know about bees. I did some reading on the subject and it does appear that most of the bees are female. I feel like I have just found out the truth about Santa Claus.....

[Wayne SW/MO]

I guess I wasn't paying attention, what is the link btween lions and bees?

[Tim Smith]

I guess I wasn't paying attention, what is the link btween lions and bees?

You were paying plenty of attention.

Bee and mountain lion sex ratios are not related.

It's a tangent.

[Chief Grey Bear]

so chief, are you saying you weren't aware that a colony of ants, bees, wasps, hornets are made up of all females except during swarming times when males are produced?

and if your own logic doesn't hold up in the real world, then why do you keep trying to push it?

So insects is what you want to switch to???

And it wasn't my logic. It is a fact. It is you that is adamant there more female Mt. Lions in the state. And they are breeding. But you have no proof. I notice you continually skip over the spot on info Tim provides.

[Stoneroller]

that's because the data that tim provided was not on BIRTH ratios. it's on survival and mortality rates of adults. If you actually read the article you'd know that. i'm not able to cofirm a million to one female to male ratio on social insects. looks like the reality is something closer to 3:1 because the colony doesn't really live that long and almost all males are produced when the colony begins to fail and start to swarm. my brain hurts from skimming these research papers, nobody just comes right out and lays out the ratios in black and white, hence why i'm not a geneticist or population biologist.

clearly it's me and only me who sees some anamolies in the way MDC falls all over themselves to assure everyone that not only are there no confirmed breeding populations but if any did show up, it wasn't MDC who put them there. Maybe it's whomever puts out these press releases or whomever is responsible for the wording of the information just not getting the wording right, but it does seem odd. that's all i'm saying.

hell back in oct? when someone posted "mt lion" tracks on the meremac, I was the one who pointed out that it was highly doubtful that the tracks were a mt lion's and further highly doubted there were many, if any mt lions in that area of the meremac river. a few months later one is caught on a game camera on the outskirts of the st louis population area. <Slaps forehead with hand>

every day is a learning experience.

on the bees/wasps/hornets/ants being females some trivia for you... the stinger of a bee/ant/wasp/etc is actually the modified egg depositor of a female. called the ovipositor on a breeding insect. you can sex grasshoppers and crickets this way. the ones with the long "tails" are females. they stick that tail in the ground and lay eggs through it. bees sting you with theirs instead. bugs are weird.

[Tim Smith]

SR, birth ratios don't have much to do with the adult and sub-adults showing up in Missouri. The observed sex ratio (scant as they are) does not fit a stable population of mountain lions.

You are right to be watching for changes in lion populations. Predator sightings are increasing everywhere. The odds seem to be in your favor in the long run. But at the moment there's no conclusive proof of a stable population.

Science demands proof. MDC's position fits the available data.

Maybe we'll learn something tomorrow that changes that but for today there's no reason to see a conspiracy here.

[Wayne SW/MO]

There is no way you can compare a stable population of any creature with a very small population that is in transit. They are in transit because there isn't a female population to hold them. Any females that move will most likely do so because of the age old reason of lack of sufficient food in their home area. The males on the other hand leave because they aren't allowed to hunt in another dominate males territory, generally the father of the kitten.

[jdmidwest]

I guess I wasn't paying attention, what is the link btween lions and bees?

When the wandering Bears dig the Bees out of the tree to get the honey, a wandering Mountain Lion may get stung. I think that was how it got on to the subject.

[Flysmallie]

I did some reading on the subject and it does appear that most of the bees are female.

Well that makes me feel better. At least I learned something from this topic.