Bears, and guns while camping or hiking (Indio, Paradise: fit in, live)

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by DMenscha

Ahhh the old coordinated attack trick! The skunks usually cover the retreat, maybe it's the difference between the Rockies and the Sierras.

Of course you know the Jays are the recon and intel of the operation.

Ah yes, those @#$ camp robbers I do believe they lead the forest beasts like the honey guide does the badger.

Originally Posted by nullgeo

I believe wildlife act together like this ... at least there is an effect of strategic partnerships, if not actual planning -- though I suspect meetings take place behind bushes with maps and diagrams, stopwatches are set, nightvision employed, etc.

My father loved to tell a particular story of this type, about an event our family experienced camping in the upstate NY Adirondacks when I was a whippersnapper. He could embellish and put the shaggydog storytelling into overdrive -- I'll tell in his honor but try to abridge to the gist:

My family camped for nearly three months straight every summer when I grew up (any guess where I fell in love with my current lifestyle?). On this night in the Adirondacks, Dad was awakened by the sound of nee'r-do-wells at work on the Coleman cooler at the picnic bench: 'coons, after Mother's coveted cinnamon rolls, plus the morning-to-be's eggs and bacon.

Dad left comfort of warm bag to shoo off the brigands.
Alas! within minutes they returned with greater numbers.
Again my stalwart father rose to the defense of his family's welfare!
And minutes later the band of thieves circled the woodland galley once more.
And again to our fortress' braces and abutments Dad charged with his wooden sabre (ok, stick).

Then, as the marauders returned for a fourth assault, my father, Minnesota northwoodsman, lover of wildlife and nature he was, found himself riveted as he rose to the battle, by a sight so wondrous as an albino skunk, traipsing and lollygagging aimlessly, sniffing as she went (so beautiful had to be a she-skunk) in Dad's flashlight beam. As he stared in awe for several minutes, the highwaymen negotiated the Coleman latch and made off with breakfast. By the time he realized the deception it was too late ... and he slumped, defeated, to watch the lovely albino tail disappear into the brush whence the 'coons had made their escape with the goods.

If that wasn't a collaboration, America wasn't founded by the pilgrims.

Sometimes it is best to live to fight another day

Originally Posted by ferretkona

Raccoons are very social and will share to the last bite.

And if you are too close they will share a bite

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by alexxiz

Getting ready to steal my pancakes

The doggy door bandit! We had a baby possum last year kept sneaking in tosnatch crunchers from the local horde. The beast was taken in as their own and on more than one occasion I caught two of them touching noses. I had to keep a pair of gloves handy to extract said baby possum until I figured out how the lil booger was getting in. I now know possums can scale a metal garage door to come in over the top if it's slightly ajar.

Cute lil dude. We have a daily drive by skunk. He hits right at 8 pm while the wife and I are in the hot tub. He doesn't even stop to say hi he just scoots on by.

[alexxiz]

I lived in a place once where a big family of squirrels made a nest inside the walls. One night, they bit through the drywall and made a hole. So, I woke up every hour to a new squirrel jumping around my room in the dark--and I slept on the floor--I'd chase the squirrel out, but as soon as I'd fall asleep the next squirrel would come out of the wall and start jumping around trying to break free, there were a total of 5 squirrels, it was pretty freakish to wake up to something jumping around your room in the dark.
By the way, in the South people eat squirrels...and in some places it's the main thing on the menu. I was told it has to be cooked for 3 hours in a pressure cooker!
I knew someone whose family lived in the woods and only meat they saw was mostly the squirrels... (they got big like rabbits there). They ate everything, though, just like in the jokes about the South... toads, armadillos, raccoons and possums too sometimes, crocks, deers and hogs of course.
This coon in the picture wouldn't last long if it got into the home of those cajuns!

[alexxiz]

Originally Posted by CarawayDJ

Sometimes I wonder if people think wild animals gracefully die in their sleep. They see a cute little animal in the field and think it lives forever, or dies a blissful death. Nearly all wild animal deaths can be considered inhumane. They slowly die of hunger because they are too weak to feed. They are maimed in a fight and slowly die in pain over the next 3 weeks. They are attacked and eaten while still alive (i.e. coyotes and deer). If I were a wild animal and I knew what my ultimate fate was going to be, I would seek out a hunter and suffer a far more humane (and fast) death.

The way I look at it, you see, animals have no expectation of future--so they don't live in fear or stress in the wild--and don't expect or anticipate bad things that will eventually happen to many of them. Unlike humans. Humans have to live with constant and early knowledge of these things, and know they're going to die one day--animals don't even know that. So, it's not that bad for them at all. I think human can suffer way more through their life than wild animal, because their mind has to carry that knowledge and worry of what might happen. As to animals eventually suffering when they're injured, hungry or predators eating them. A lot of animals I believe experience shock in that situation that minimizes their suffering. So, no I don't think that hunting is a "humane action" to save animals from worse fate--in most cases. Yeah, hunting to eat is very different from hunting for sport or trophy.

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by alexxiz

The way I look at it, you see, animals have no expectation of future--so they don't live in fear or stress in the wild--and don't expect or anticipate bad things that will eventually happen to many of them. Unlike humans. Humans have to live with constant and early knowledge of these things, and know they're going to die one day--animals don't even know that. So, it's not that bad for them at all. I think human can suffer way more through their life than wild animal, because their mind has to carry that knowledge and worry of what might happen. As to animals eventually suffering when they're injured, hungry or predators eating them. A lot of animals I believe experience shock in that situation that minimizes their suffering. So, no I don't think that hunting is a "humane action" to save animals from worse fate--in most cases. Yeah, hunting to eat is very different from hunting for sport or trophy.

And all this knowledge is based on what?

[alexxiz]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

And all this knowledge is based on what?

Perusing your posts on city-data, of course, where else my knowledge of life can come from..

Wild animal is busy with daily survival tasks or play, not analyzing the future while posting on city data.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by alexxiz

I lived in a place once where a big family of squirrels made a nest inside the walls. One night, they bit through the drywall and made a hole. So, I woke up every hour to a new squirrel jumping around my room in the dark--and I slept on the floor--I'd chase the squirrel out, but as soon as I'd fall asleep the next squirrel would come out of the wall and start jumping around trying to break free, there were a total of 5 squirrels, it was pretty freakish to wake up to something jumping around your room in the dark.
By the way, in the South people eat squirrels...and in some places it's the main thing on the menu. I was told it has to be cooked for 3 hours in a pressure cooker!
I knew someone whose family lived in the woods and only meat they saw was mostly the squirrels... (they got big like rabbits there). They ate everything, though, just like in the jokes about the South... toads, armadillos, raccoons and possums too sometimes, crocks, deers and hogs of course.
This coon in the picture wouldn't last long if it got into the home of those cajuns!

You just reminded me that I've got to fix the floor in the shed. The local diggers went through the floor to get to the stored bird seed. I put the seed in a tub so the knuckleheads ate into a bag of fertilizer Evidently fertilizer is edible

The local horde do enjoy waiting for the squirrels to pop up. They almost got a tree rat when I let them out this am but them rats are pretty dang smart. Lizards? Not so much.

[alexxiz]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

You just reminded me that I've got to fix the floor in the shed. The local diggers went through the floor to get to the stored bird seed. I put the seed in a tub so the knuckleheads ate into a bag of fertilizer Evidently fertilizer is edible

The local horde do enjoy waiting for the squirrels to pop up. They almost got a tree rat when I let them out this am but them rats are pretty dang smart. Lizards? Not so much.

"Tree rat"... there're also "river rats", or "nutrias"--nutra-rats.... I ate them before.
In California, unfortunately, all nutra-rats were eaten by 1978 and there're no more.

Well set up a trap in the shed, and you'll have a free cajun dinner...

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by alexxiz

Perusing your posts on city-data, of course, where else my knowledge of life can come from..

Wild animal is busy with daily survival tasks or play, not analyzing the future while posting on city data.

Wow incredible insight as usual. Care to answer again?

Where does all this knowledge of yours about wild animal behavior and thought processes come from?

I was asking a straight forward question to your post about your understanding and knowledge that you claim to have relative to wild animal behavior?

[alexxiz]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

Wow incredible insight as usual. Care to answer again?

Where does all this knowledge of yours about wild animal behavior and thought processes come from?

I was asking a straight forward question to your post about your understanding and knowledge that you claim to have relative to wild animal behavior?

What do you expect--a copy of brain scan?
I stating what I believe is true, because I infer this from observations of wild animals (doesn't apply to pets exactly). I spent time working with big cats, for example (which were semi-wild), and observing animals in nature.
We have a saying in my home country: "Bird doesn't know worry, they're too busy building a nest and catching food".
Animals never ate off the tree of knowledge, so to speak. They don't think "Who'll bring me a glass of water when I'm old", "will I get this or that disease"
If human is reduced to basic survival they start being this way too, but they still have their intelligence left to fill them with fears and projections of future.
If you think they are different, you're free to think that. I'm stating what I believe is true.
If you meant your question to be about shock and pain--I experienced that, someone in shock doesn't experience pain or fear much, that's the whole point of it, it's a protective mechanism.