California Wild Fall 2005 - Letters to the Editor

The Magazine of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Letters to the Editor

Almond Aromas

“Chocolate Empires” by Dave Brian Butvill (Summer 2005) was very interesting. Toward the end of the article he mentions that Motecuhzoma “...offered visiting nobility and priests chocolate of the highest grade, spiced with exceptional flavors—a hint of rose, or the bouquet of almonds.” Almonds are native to the Mediterranean. How did they get to Mesoamerica at this time?

Janice Hawn
Fairfax, VA

The author responds: The Mesoamericans were not using almonds to flavor their chocolate drinks. What gave their drinks a “bouquet of almonds” were the seeds of a mango- sized fruit native to the area called sapote (Pouteria sapota). Its sweet, salmon-pink flesh, which has the consistency of an avocado, surrounds one to four large and shiny brown seeds. These seeds are not only almond-like in shape, but taste like particularly bitter almonds after roasting and grinding. Living in Costa Rica, I always have sapote in my fruit basket. It’s not to be missed.

Tree ID

Susan McCarthy (“Living on Bristlecone Time,” Spring 2005) is mistaken about the bristlecone species of “Prometheus.” It’s not a Rocky mountain bristlecone, but a Great Basin bristlecone. And it was cut down not by Donald Currey but by a crew from Nevada’s Humboldt National forest responding to Currey’s pleas for assistance. Nor could Currey have known it was the oldest tree yet found, since no age determination had been made before felling. He did, however, believe it to be “super, super old” (personal communication).

Finally, the tree was not “dated… at 4,862 years old” because the height of the stump prevented some early rings from being seen. More accurately, it was determined to be at least 4,862 years old, with the exact age indeterminate. All of these facts have been previously published.

Ronald Lanner
Placerville, California

Wild Horse Follies

I am a life-long environmentalist, equestrian, and history buff. As such, I strongly object to the one-sided story by Deborah Knight concerning Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (Spring 2005).

The Coyote Canyon band of wild horses was the last remaining herd of wild horses in California open to public view, and now they are gone. The claim that “the desert was, at best, a marginal habitat for horses” is pretty stupid when one considers the 3,000-year desert-bred background of Arabian horses, arguably the finest breed of horses in the world. “Bones protruding”? The pictures certainly don’t bear that out!

Furthermore, the helicopter roundup of the horses was done illegally and against existing regulations requiring prior notice. Since then, the mountain lions have been feasting on the sacred bighorn sheep rather than culling old horses. Can we say, “balance of nature”?

Jorgensen acted more as a self-serving cowboy than as an employee of the public. He disregarded and worked in opposition to a pending agreement between the Bureau of Land Management and local horse clubs for proper oversight of the horse herd. What a pity that Knight didn’t do a better job of providing all sides to this story. But...the wild horses are gone—for now. And our children are the poorer for the loss.

Connie Berto
San Anselmo, CA

The author responds: Mark Jorgensen is himself an equestrian who owns horses and has been observing the horses in Coyote Canyon for 30 years.

Before making the decision to remove the horses, he brought in a team of four equine experts, all of whom concluded the horses were in fair to poor condition (their report is on the University of California, Davis Wildlife Health Center website). Dr. Joe Cannon, equine veterinarian, San Luis Equine Hospital, wrote: “In summary, these horses are in poor condition and are struggling to survive in a harsh, unnatural environment.” Dr. Gregory Ferraro, equine veterinarian and director of the Center for Equine Health at UC Davis, wrote: “To leave these horses to survive, as they currently exist, would be inhumane.”

According to Jorgensen, no prior notice of the emergency removal was required. Had it been illegal, why were there no legal ramifications?

Ms. Berto cites “the 3,000-year desert-bred background of Arabian horses.” The Coyote Canyon horses were probably descendents of horses let loose by their owners in the 1930s. Dr. Joe Cannon, in the report cited above, wrote: “The similarity in color, markings and conformation indicate a very small gene pool of ranch type horses that have become feral.”

Mountain lions in the area prey primarily on deer.Mountain lion predation on bighorn sheep has been significant, but has actually declined in recent years, and the bighorn population has increased significantly.

Ms. Berto claims mountain lions preyed on the horses, but, according to Jorgensen, the only evidence ever found of a lion preying on a horse came from apparent horse hair in a single lion scat—and this could have come from a lion eating a carcass.

The removal of non-native horses, cattle and plants, and the exclusion of ORVs from sensitive areas, has led to improved conditions for the native animals and plants of Anza Borrego. It is to be hoped that our children will be the richer for having such a place to visit.