Of sports
and endangered species
Wolverine range in the
U.S. has declined substantially.
The ill-tempered beasts
can only be found in the mountains of the Northern Rockies and the Cascades
range, and a hundred-yard long patch of grass in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The University of
Michigan Wolverines ranked fourth in licensed merchandise sales this year.
This
includes not just the football Wolverines, but 28 other men's and women's
varsity sports, but it does not include presumably much larger income in ad and
broadcast revenue, alumni contributions, ticket sales, and much more.
Overall, the college
sports merchandise biz totals $4.6 billion. The
Wolverines' sales trail two other vanishing animals and an ethnic stereotype,
the Texas Longhorns, the Alabama Crimson Tide (who deploy an elephant as their
symbol, go figure), and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
This cashflow is even
more impressive when two more facts are tossed in: 1) Wolverines – the
four-legged ones – are actually the feistiest members of the weasel family; and
2) There hasn't been a four-legged wolverine spotted in the state of Michigan
since the 19th century.
The wolverines of the
Northwest keep no such data but it's widely believed that public interest and
expenditures are considerably less.
Sidenote: Maybe the New
England Cottontails would be a better name than the New England Patriots. The little
critters could use some help especially since Trump has put the brakes on
federal wildlife refuges. He and his Interior Department flunky Ryan Zinke are openly hostile to expanding federal protected lands such as the proposed Great Thicket NWR
that would have included Charlestown.
But some Interior Department staff are still working on breeding the bunnies and then placing them in uninhabited areas to expand the population. Click HERE for more. Imagine what they could do with the support of New England's sports franchises. Next, the Boston Redtail Hawks. – W. Collette
But some Interior Department staff are still working on breeding the bunnies and then placing them in uninhabited areas to expand the population. Click HERE for more. Imagine what they could do with the support of New England's sports franchises. Next, the Boston Redtail Hawks. – W. Collette
There are several
endangered dolphin species. Bighorn sheep ("Rams") have declined from
an estimated 1.5 to 2 million in the 19th century to 70,000
today, and timber wolves are clawing their way back from endangered status.
An estimated 73 million sharks are killed annually for
their fins to make shark fin soup, and another 50 million die as bycatch in
fishing operations. All have lent their names to pro sports teams. Ironically,
the most influential voice in calling for an end to China's shark fin
consumption has been basketball legend Yao Ming.
None are as cruelly
ironic as the Taiyo Whales of Japan's pro baseball team. The team has since
changed its name, but you'll never guess how the parent company, Taiyo Fisheries, made its living.
But there's no better
example of the sports/species conundrum than the Florida panther (Puma
concolor couguar) and the Florida Panthers (National Hockey League).
The latter has a $79.5 million payroll for its 23-man active roster.
The former had a
subspecies roster as low as the twenties a few decades ago,
but they've rebounded to as many as 230, which means they're better rebounders
than any team in the NHL. Branch Bank & Trust pays millions a year for
naming rights to the BB&T Center, where
the hockey Panthers play. The Florida panther does not receive a dime for
naming rights from the Florida Panthers, but the hockey team's charitable arm has contributed to its
namesake's recovery.
What's the moral of this
story?
Who said there was a
moral?
But it would be nice if
species capture the imaginations of as many of us as sports teams do.
All is not lost. Until
banned by Congress in 1972, the pesticide DDT imperiled many bird species.
Two
years ago, the Falcons made it to the Super Bowl, and last February, the Eagles
won it all.
