Going crackers

Why did the population plummet?  Hunting or destroyed habitat or something else?

Good questions.  I always thought that the predator/prey relationship waxed and waned; more prey means more predators until there is so little prey that the number of predators drops off, at which point the prey increase and the cycle repeats.

But if neither foxes not hares have been in abundance since the 90s other factors must be in play.  Other predators, perhaps?  I was thinking of owls and wolves, but since hares breed like, uh, rabbits I think there should still be plenty of prey for the indigenous predators to feed upon.  Destroyed habitat seems unlikely unless there has been industrial and residential development I'm not aware of.  Have there been similar dropoffs in the number of deer, raccoon, skunk, birds, and other wildlife?  I hope there isn't a long term effect of years of pesticide usage or other man-made pollutants.

Since Mr. Beagles lives in or near the swampy areas I was wondering if there is now, or has ever been, a noticeable moose population.  Have the friends of Rocky been nibbling on your garden greens?

-----

Never having given much thought to the differences between rabbits and hares I had to consult the good folks at Wikipedia.  A big difference, I was surprised to learn, but I suppose they are equally good eating; never et either myself.  Because of the long ears and legs I was thinking that maybe Bugs Bunny is really a hare, but since he lives in a burrow he must be a rabbit.

-----

Just watched the live press conference on YouTube with Trump and Merkel.  What can I say?  One of the participants gave lengthy and thoughtful answers; can you guess which one?  No matter, I eagerly await the pundits' analysis but I wonder why the Dumpster veered off into Obamacare.  I guess they have reporters for fake news outlets in Germany, too.  I thought I heard Trump proclaim a couple of times "I'm a traitor," but no, he said trader.  I think that's what he meant.

-----

As I was recently enjoying some liver sausage and cheese on crackers I noticed that Ritz crackers are no longer round; they have a slightly oblong shape.  When did this happen?  Were they always oblong and I never noticed?  The lack of radial symmetry is disturbing.  I bet the bean counters changed the method of production to save a few thousandths of a cent on each cracker.

Damn!  That's it!  Even though the package still says Nabisco the company itself is owned by Mondelez and the crackers are now made in Mexico.  Think about that one for a minute, we're importing Ritz crackers, an American classic, from Mexico.  Damn NAFTA.  What's going on, do we now ship wheat and other ingredients to Mexico so they can bake and package some lousy crackers to be imported to the US?  The system is rigged.