One of the most common, and most damaging things civilized man has done to the environment is to pre-empt predation.

Predators are a vital part of any environment. They remove the sick from the herd. They keep the genetic line of prey strong. And they keep prey species from overpopulating.

It's natural that we don't want our oldsters or little kids eaten by wolves (which was a major theme of the old fairy tales). So in most of the civilized world we've removed predators from the scene.

Outside the cities and suburbs, of course, we've replaced the predators with hunters . One big difference, however. While animal predators prey on the old, the sick, and the stupid young, hunters (or sportsmen) want big antlers to hang on their walls.

But let's take off our orange vests and get back into town....(I found this guy at NASA. Heh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh.)

Here, on Winter Avenue in Atlanta, we will find an appealing story of how predation can still work.

For years our neighborhood has been bothered by pigeons. They live under a nearby bridge. They shit all over everything. They bother people walking to the MARTA station.

For the pigeons the pickings are incredibly lush. Once, one of our cats somehow got a pigeon inside a neighbor's cat door, and tore it apart. When my daughter arrived on the death scene (she had been hired to feed the neighbor's cat) she found greasy grimy pigeon guts all over the floor, along with what seemed like tons of undigested birdseed. The pigeon had gorged, making him easy pickings.

That's predation, but of a messy and somewhat unnatural kind.

The natural kind was found by my saintly wife just the other day. As we were falling asleep she heard a strange call outside our window. What was it?

It was an owl. (This particular little guy, the Eastern Screech Owl, likes to live in town because it's hunted by the Great Horned Owl, the mascot of my old alma mater. But my wife and I are wise old owls who welcome him into our midst.)

Over the last few years owls have settled on our street, and (not coincidentally) the pigeon population has fallen to a manageable level. Last year a pair of owls even nested in one of my oak trees, raising some ultra-fancy pigeon killers.

The lesson should be clear.

Predation works for everybody. Even the neighbors.