Our Mountain Lions made the news

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Maybe a snap on the nose with a rolled up newspaper would do the trick? Or a spritz of water?

Or it might just make them maaad...........

"Right! It's the slipper for you!" Sybil Ramekin, Guards! Guards! by Pratchett.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by acprinter

I had to stop and think of the wildlife that has been in our backyard over the past year. Fox, Bobcat, Coyote, Mountain Lion, Wild Turkeys, Turkey Vultures, Merlins, Jack Rabbits, Skunks, Deer, Rattlesnake, Tarantulas, and oh yes squirrels.

Our neighbor calls this area an entomologists dream.

We've got:
-Deer (including a piebald one and a three legged one)
-Bunnies
-Squirrels
-Wild Turkeys
-Nasty vultures
-All kinds of hawks
-Foxes
-Rats (We live up in the mountains!! They're supposed to be in cities! Found one in our pool, barf)
-Woodpeckers
-Wolf spiders (waaaaaaa)
-Skunks
-Nasty opossums

In general eastern PA we're supposed to have coyotes, bears, etc. Never heard of them around me though

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

We've got:
-Deer (including a piebald one and a three legged one)
-Bunnies
-Squirrels
-Wild Turkeys
-Nasty vultures
-All kinds of hawks
-Foxes
-Rats (We live up in the mountains!! They're supposed to be in cities! Found one in our pool, barf)
-Woodpeckers
-Wolf spiders (waaaaaaa)
-Skunks
-Nasty opossums

In general eastern PA we're supposed to have coyotes, bears, etc. Never heard of them around me though

la la la, how i love life in the city...

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

la la la, how i love life in the city...

I hate the wilderness

[acprinter]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

ooooh, MOUNT Nittany ! i was going to reply and say "what's a nittany ???"

where exactly do you live (so i can stay the hell away from there) ???

(and also : you've got wizards ("merlins") running around your yard ? any other mythical creatures ? )

I live in the California Sierra Foothills at an elevation of 1500 feet, just below the snow. Over our back fence is wide open space for maybe 20 or 30 miles to the next town of a population of only a few hundred. To the other side of us is Sacramento, CA 50 miles away and unfortuneately the wildlife find the politicians poor eating and don't go there.

A Merlin is a Hawk.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by acprinter

I live in the California Sierra Foothills at an elevation of 1500 feet, just below the snow. Over our back fence is wide open space for maybe 20 or 30 miles to the next town of a population of only a few hundred. To the other side of us is Sacramento, CA 50 miles away and unfortuneately the wildlife find the politicians poor eating and don't go there.

(note to self : stay the hell away from the california sierra foothills, and wherever lilac lives as well)

A Merlin is a Hawk.

mm hm. or so you say. i'm sure that's what you'd *like* us to believe.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by acprinter

A Merlin is a Hawk.

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

mm hm. or so you say. i'm sure that's what you'd *like* us to believe.

Bet they don't call him a hawk to his face though


(Actually, I believe they were used in falconry certainly in the UK, and possibly mainland Europe too...)

[Wetdogeared]

We often have reports of mountain lion sitings and every year there are a few people attacked by them, some even killed. They come down from the foothills/mountains looking for food.

A few years back, one was caught in the underground parkade of the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria.

Black bears are more of a problem here though. They wake up hungry, go looking in garbage and fruit trees in the back yards. The animal services people try to capture them then truck them up to some far off place and release them (if they can).

I'm glad the grizzlies are a few hundred miles north or further inland from where we are on the coast. I'm sure everyone has seen the videos of them catching salmon when they return to spawn. There are protected areas for the Grizzlies, but I think the government may still issue a few
licenses each year to those trophy hunters.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

We often have reports of mountain lion sitings and every year there are a few people attacked by them, some even killed. They come down from the foothills/mountains looking for food.

A few years back, one was caught in the underground parkade of the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria.

Black bears are more of a problem here though. They wake up hungry, go looking in garbage and fruit trees in the back yards. The animal services people try to capture them then truck them up to some far off place and release them (if they can).

I'm glad the grizzlies are a few hundred miles north or further inland from where we are on the coast. I'm sure everyone has seen the videos of them catching salmon when they return to spawn. There are protected areas for the Grizzlies, but I think the government may still issue a few
licenses each year to those trophy hunters.

I think I saw that on NAtGeos show "Hunter & Hunted." Some island where a whole bunch of people got eaten by mountian lions.

Would not like to go out that way...

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by acprinter

I live in the California Sierra Foothills at an elevation of 1500 feet, just below the snow. Over our back fence is wide open space for maybe 20 or 30 miles to the next town of a population of only a few hundred. To the other side of us is Sacramento, CA 50 miles away and unfortuneately the wildlife find the politicians poor eating and don't go there.

A Merlin is a Hawk.

I lived in the Sierras (at about 8,000 feet) for about two years working in the local hospital and doing search and rescue.

A bear got into the hospital kitchen one time and really trashed the place. There was a big window into the kitchen from one of the inner hallways, and we just all stood there transfixed watching the destruction.

Luckily, it was on one of those days when we didn't have many patients, so it was no big deal to have most of the staff standing in one place just watching the show.

Now that I think of it, however, I have seen a lot more wildlife living in the Hill Country of Texas than I typically saw in the Sierras. Although, the population where I lived was a little more concentrated than it is here. I think, even baseline, there were more people living in that town year round than in all of Llano County.

[Laine]

We have an ibis problem. They moved from out west to Sydney's suburbs a few years ago because of the drought.
They're big and ugly and where they roost it turns white with evil smelling poop which kills vegetation.
In my suburb we have a colony of grey headed flying foxes and ibis have moved in and are destoying their habitat, causing temperatures to rise and flying foxes to die from heat stress.
We have an egg reduction program at the bat colony. The eggs are sprayed with canola oil which prevents them hatching.

When I was teaching and on excursion at the zoo an ibis swooped down and snatched the sandwich from a 5 year old's hand. Pretty scary cos they're big birds.

Laine