Wildlife
I grabbed a bus way the hell north and east from here to a huge mostly wildish park on Lake Washington. Saw people playing cricket. Walked through big meadows full of long grass to the lake, and promptly turned back to the meadows because the area along the lake was full of people with picnics and so on. No problem, I can visit the lake in the cooler months and/or on rainy days. Crossed the road that traverses the park and went a few yards into a meadow and encountered
…a coyote.
Just the one, fortunately. It gazed at me calmly and then turned and trotted away.
I’ve encountered coyotes quite a few times lately – generally just running or walking down or across a street in the neighborhood. Single coyotes. Encountering one in a huge grassy meadow with no humans in sight or nearby is a tad different. What if one day it’s not one but five or eight or ten?
I hope I don’t find out.
I did once encounter a pack, when out for a walk with a dog friend long after dark. That was extremely unnerving. They…let’s say…accompanied us as we headed home.
Sounds like a lovely walk. And yeah, I know what you mean. Encountering animals alone in the wild is very different than encountering them in the city. Toronto is crisscrossed by deep ravines, and when I go walking down in the wilderness, practically any animal larger than a bunny or a chipmunk scares the hell out of me. Even grazing deer on the side of the trail will petrify me. As if one might have a sudden violent spurt and ram me into the river. (Gentle deer! I’m scared of deer. I’d be hell on a safari.)
Meanwhile, upstairs on my asphalt turf, I delight at the sight of coyotes, opossums, or foxes like they’re stray cats: “Awww, so cute!”
There is one animal that scares me equally down in the ravines and up in the streets: the dreaded skunk.
Well there was asphalt quite nearby, so it was more meeting a coyote in the city than in the wild. And the coyote was very mellow about it.
Anyway since then I’ve looked it up and been reminded that they go for small prey, not big gangly humans. Coyote-human mishaps are very rare.
Interesting that Toronto is crisscrossed by deep ravines because so is Seattle. I keep discovering new ones.
Coyotes are mostly harmless individually. My property, however, is rather overflowing with them. They’re bold enough to come up to the fence around my “back yard”, though, even with my dogs there. That’s a bit worrisome, as my dogs are lovers not fighters. If things went south, I’d be very put out.
Ouch, yes. Most of the cats around here have disappeared since coyotes became so numerous and at home. Do be careful of your dogs.
Five years ago, my wife and I took a trip to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories for their Snowking Winter Festival. One day we took a walk around a local lake called Frame Lake. We encountered a man out walking his dog. He said he was always careful to keep his dog on a leash, because he said sometimes lone wolves would cross the frozen lake to entice dogs running off-leash to come “play” with them. Once the wolf had led the dog back to the rest of his or her pack, the wolves would eat the dog. (Just to try to confirm this, I googled “yellowknife frame lake wolves eat dogs” and came up with this: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/pack-wolves-vee-lake-yellowknife-1.3400859 )
Well, that makes me respect wolves even more than I did. Though I still feel sorry for the dogs.
On our not-so-long-ago once in a lifetime trip to Alaska, my wife and I and a guide were walking along a trail on the side of a gully, and came across a family of Alaskan black bears, who were busy dining on the fruit of some bush or other. They eyed us with curiosity, and then continued eating. They are not considered dangerous, unlike the other Alaskan bear species; brown, grizzly, and polar.
According to a wildlife expert and hunter I encountered some time ago, the world’s most dangerous animal is not the lion, nor tiger, nor any bear. It is the African wild boar. If you are armed, you have about three seconds to get your shot away, between when he breaks cover and when he has got you, with tusks that will rip you open as if you were a wet paper bag. If you are unarmed, you have three seconds of life remaining, and to enjoy as best you can.
Well now you give me the chance to boast that the day before yesterday I was in Iceland, on a dormant volcano, and there was an Arctic fox cub, drinking water out of a bowl. S/he lives under the mountain hut. Small, and brown, and very cute.
Nothing so serious as coyotes, wolves, bears or African wild boars (would those be warthogs?), but here in Japan I have a convocation of bats who inhabit the box for the amado (storm shutter) just outside my study window, which, since we live on the side of a hill, has a splendid view. There are seven in all – I have counted them flying out carefully. I feel like Coiunt Dracula in his tower! Many years ago, you would see flocks of thousands of bats flying out at dusk over the various rivers and streams that lie below us. It was a wonderful sight. All those little lives… But now, doubtless because of all the building of countless new houses that has been going on, and the destruction of roosting places, there is no longer that great spectacle.
KBP you were WHAT?? How exciting! Tell us more if you feel like it.
Bats. I see them around here at twilight sometimes – but not many of them.
Nothing much to tell. I was on some hiking tours in Iceland, which is very spectacular. It doesn’t have much mammal wildlife as it is so barren, but there are loads of birds (puffins, eider and other ducks). Some of the people in the group saw Arctic foxes, one with a ptarmigan in its jaws, the other eating an egg, but I missed those. So I was fairly thrilled to see the wee cub. We were warned not to accidentally squash it when shutting a door.
The dormant volcano is Thríhnúkagígur – Three Peaks Crater. It erupted 4000 years ago, and the magma drained away (no-one knows how or where) instead of filling the chamber, so you can descend into the chamber in a cage and walk about a cavern of coloured rock. It really is an amazing place.
Re bats – there was a path by the river here when you would see them swooping and hear them squeaking but they removed a load of vegetation for flood protection and I haven’t seen/heard any for ages.
If you call that nothing much to tell……….I beg to differ.
The growing danger is the crossbreeding of wolf and coyote as the coyote has expanded its territory all over eastern North America. Traditionally, wolves kept coyote rather confined in territory and terrain, but as we displaced wolves coyotes exploded – there is now a population on Newfoundland! Something has also shifted between the species, resulting in hybrid populations. Pure wolves are much more reticent towards humans, whereas coyotes are comfortable living in close quarters with humans, even if we aren’t. Adding wolf DNA to coyotes has produced larger coyotes and wolves that are more direct competitors for space with humans.
I do see coyotes in the city parks in Calgary every so often. I have also had a few bear encounters in the mountain parks west of here.
Should be get worried when the coyotes start acquiring equipment from Acme Industries?