Did You know - outdoor edition

[caveman]

One of the ag departments in my county had some emus.  They, too, can be formidable adversaries.  When they butchered the feathered foes, the process involved a livestock trailer, gloves, loppers, an ag teacher and a few high school students.  If I recall correctly, emu was on the annual banquet menu that year.  (I am not the one who orchestrated this ordeal, but I did hear about it from the one who did)

I don't recall if we ever got into an elephant discussion on this thread, but the retired Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus elephants live about 20 minutes from my house.  I've been out there a few times with students.  Feld Entertainment owns them.  They are the same group that owns or at least the last time I was there, owned the monster truck circuit.  The elephants have 10' high fenced enclosures.  Sometimes they will throw their monster truck tires (toys) over the fences.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I did not know elephants would throw truck tires around but I could see that happening. I used to love to watch them at waterholes in Africa blowing bubbles under water. They would wash out 3' deep holes in the sand doing so. 

   My favorite elephant story is:

M'jobo was a young Masai herder tending his father's cattle in Kenya when he saw a herd of elephants walk past in the distance. An hour later he saw a young bull elephant limping badly on the trail of the other elephants. He was close by so he walked over and spotted the elephant had a large acacia thorn in the pad of his front foot. He knew it was dangerous but he had always loved elephants so he walked closer talking quietly as he did. The elephant stopped but did not seem threatening so M'jobo eased over, slowly lifted the elephant's food and with his belt knife he eased the thorn out of the elephant's foot. The young elephant slowly lowered his foot and took a few tentative steps and turned around and reached out with his trunk and gently smelled and felt of him from head to foot while M'jobo stood motionless. The elephant turned and walked along the trail of the the other elephants with no sign of pain from the sore foot. M'jobo returned to his duties proud of himself for his successful treatment of the elephant.

Several years later M'jobo was offered the chance to go to America and study as an international exchange student. He completed high school and attended college in Chicago where he met, fell in love with and married a beautiful American lady. They stayed in the Chicago area and had 3 wonderful children. 

Approximately 15 years after M'jobo had rescued the elephant he was visiting the Chicago zoo with his children. As they approached the elephant pen the wind shifted and blew from him to the elephants and an adult bull elephant suddenly raised his trunk and smelled the air, tumpeted loudly and ran to the fence next to where M'jobo and his children were standing. M'jobo could not believe it. Could this be the same elephant he had rescued so long ago? It certainly looked like him and the sign said he was newly arrived from central Kenya where he had come from. M'jobo walked over and climbed the fence and walked over to the elephant which gently reached out his trunk and touched his face and arms and smelled him all over. Suddenly the elephant grabbed M'jobo around the waist and picked him up and threw him to the ground and trampled him with his feet and gored him with his long tusks. 

The general consensus is - it probably was not the same elephant.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the cassowary from Indonesia is considered the most dangerous bird to raise by people? They are a large bird nearly as big as an Emu with a bad temper and have been known to kill a number of people who tried to raise and handle them.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know many species of mammals, birds and even fish will establish and guard specific territories? They do this to protect their food source, maintain breeding rights in the area or protect their young. They identify their territory by establishing scent signposts along the perimeter, singing along the perimeter, constantly circling the area and chasing away intruders, or even scratching trees and such to indicate their height/size.

[Ianab]

And some fish can get quite feisty when defending their territory. If you snorkel into a Reef Triggerfish's space, back away.... They aren't a big fish, less than 12" long, but they have very powerful jaws and aren't scared of you. 

Others are rather cute to watch. The local freshwater bullys are only a little 3" long thing. But the male stakes out a likely looking rock and entices a female to lay eggs. The male then cleans and defends the egg patch until they hatch. If he's got a good spot he can have several broods on the go at once. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Ian,

  I remember scuba diving over a Picasso Triggerfish on it's nest in the Red Sea just south of Jeddah and it took a chunk out of my flipper/fin as I swam over. You are right - they are very aggressive and pretty dang fearless.

[WV Sawmiller]

   This reminds me - Did you know when various fish are bedding they will chase other fish and aquatic animals away from their nest? Fish often scoop out a shallow bowl shaped depression, usually in a sandy type bottom, where they will lay their eggs. I watched a 3-4 lb largemouth bass making such a nest in an old gravel borrow pit. She was near the bank in about 16-18 inch deep water and I heard a thrashing and looked over and saw her tail completely out of the water.

Bluegills in that same lake would make beds on sandy points that were typically in 1'-2' deep water. Every full moon from about April through October they would return and lay eggs in the nest.

Often if you can find such a bed and carefully place a bait in it the fish will pick it up and move it even if they would not eat the bait and eventually you would hook them. My friends dad found such a nest in a grassy gravel pit and repeatedly tossed a plastic worm in it. It was at about the max distance he could cast and missing to either side meant it would get fouled in the grass. Many times he hit the target and the bass would pick up the worm by the tail and remove it from the bed and not get hooked when he set the hook. Finally he succeeded in hooking and landing her - an 8 lb bass.

Another time I took my mom and a neighbor lady/friend fishing in the gravel lakes and we located a bluegill bed under a sweetgum limb. The water was dark and we could not see it but there was a dinner plate sized bed under there and that was the only place the fish would bite. Once we hit the target we would always catch a half lb+ bluegill. At times you would see 3 floats within 6" of each other as we all tried to hit that exact spot. We were using cane poles.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know fish can see birds and animals above but near the water and will sometimes jump completely out of the water and catch them? I once saw about a 4 lb bass jump completely out of the water trying to catch a warbler over a foot above the water who had landed on a cypress knee. I have also seen bass and possibly other fish jump up through a thick patch of floating lily pads or bonnets trying to catch/catching red wing blackbirds that often land on and walk around on top of the lily pads and bonnets.

[Ianab]

Bird vs Fish | Blue Planet II - YouTube

Those trevally are 100+ pounds and have learnt to take large seabirds on the wing!!!

[WV Sawmiller]

Ian,

   Great video. I loved seeing the loose feathers floating in the water after a successful attack. I loved watching the bulge in the water getting bigger and closer to the low flying bird.

    I have heard of people talking about fish eating ducks and bears and such tasting "fishy". I wonder if these fish taste "birdy"? :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that a Florida panther and a mountain lion from out west are the same species? In some circles the Fla panther is listed as a subspecies but they can readily interbreed. In fact some years back in the 1980s the state of Fla brought in 8 female mountain lions from Texas to breed with the Fla panthers to provide more genetic diversity. The number of Fla panthers had gotten so low they were interbreeding and the new outside genes helped the species improve and survive.

[KEC]

A major mortality factor for the cougars in Florida is road kill. New York once considered re-introducing cougars into the Adirondacks and the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) did a feasability study on it. Knowing of the high road kill for cougars in Florida, they looked at the number of miles of highway per square mile  in the Florida cougar area and the number of miles of highway per square mile in the Adirondacks. The Adirondacks has more miles of highways; they concluded that the cougars would not be able to sustain all the loses on the road and maintain  a viable population.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I have not seen reports yet but I fear the pythons may be the final straw for the extinction of the Fla panther. Not because of threats to the adult panthers but for the cubs. I hope I am wrong.

[Ianab]

I fear the pythons may be the final straw for the extinction of the Fla panther

That's the reason NZ has such strict border controls and restrictions on exotic pets. NO snakes are allowed to be imported for ANY reason, not even as zoo animals. The pests that did get in, by accident or deliberately are bad enough for the local wildlife. 

[WV Sawmiller]

    The bad thing about the pythons and such are that they mostly started from people releasing snakes they had as pets that had gotten too big to maintain or had gotten to the point they could be dangerous to other pets or small children.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know there is no such species as a black panther? What people see and call a black panther is actually a melanistic (Black) phase of an Asian or African Leopard or in South America a black Jaguar. As I read there are no reported black mountain lions or Fla panthers although you would think there would be one born once in a while. 

   I have seen black panthers in the zoos and if you look closely you will see the darker spots just like their yellow skinned relatives have.

[Magicman]

But we have "Wolfalards" on my property and I have a skull hanging over the shop door at the Cabin.  I believe that they are somehow related to the Chupacabra.  They mostly live and stay under and around the back bridge and are the most ferocious at night so none of the Grandchildren would ever go back there after sundown without a light. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn, 

  Don't Wolfalards primarily prey on Jackelopes? We used to have them here but they were wiped out by the elusive Nauga cats which denned in the dense laurel/Rhododenron thickets along the mountain streams. Since the Nauga cats have been largely wiped out by the furniture companies for their hydes the State of WV is thinking about reintroducing them to the state.

[TroyC]

 


The Jackelope is a very elusive species. They are vicious, and will go for the kneecaps. I took this one in Montana. I was lucky to survive and tell about it. When I go back to Montana now, I'm known as the Fearless Jackelope Slayer.

[Old Greenhorn]

My Brother in CO bought me a Jackalope hunting permit for Christmas one year around the early 70's. I went out there but could not get a tag to hunt the area I wanted. So I took what I could get, but never saw one with a big enough spread. 
 It's takes a certain amount of mental lubrication before you can see those guys clearly, or so I was told.

[Magicman]

We have no Jackalopes so the principal food source for Wolfalards are Orges and Chimeras.  The kill site will be a bloody mess but no remains are ever found.  No hides, bones, or anything.  It's a total mystery.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

 I don't want to burst your bubble but I think that is a rare horned doe Jackalope - like a doe deer with horns which happens occasionally. I do not see the distinct 3" protruding canines from the upper lip or the 6" curved lower tusks from the bottom jaw for which they are so famous for slashing packs of dogs like I would expect to see from a mature male Jackalope.

[WV Sawmiller]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clouded_leopard

  Did you know there is a small leopard in parts of Asia called a clouded leopard? It seems to be about the size of our North American bobcat with females weighing from 25-35 lbs and a big male weighing maybe 50 lbs. They hunt small mammals and birds in their native habitat.

  I just learned about these leopards last week reading about how someone cut a hole in the enclosure in the Dallas Zoo where 2 female leopards were kept. One escaped but never left the grounds while the other stayed in her enclosure. The zoo was shut down when they found her gone and they found and safely recaptured her later that same day.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the first cattle, other than possibly milk cows and a few oxen, were actually introduced to the America in Fla by Ponce de Leon and other Spanish explorers? Also the term cowboy was used more for herders out west riding horses and using lassos while in Fla and Ga and such they were called Cow Hunters and largely used whips and herding dogs to gather the wild cattle from the thick brush where roping them was much more difficult.

   There are a number of interesting books out there called Cracker Westerns which are particularly good reading for those interested in life in the early southern USA, mostly Fla. They are fiction but but contain some good historical facts about the period.

[Texas Ranger]

I believe bull whips still used in Texas brush/mesquite country. Went to school with a guy from south Texas that could whip a fly off the wall, said the whip was the only way for them, drag it alongside the horse as they chased cows.  Rope was a mess.  Of course, that was years before chaining and herbicides.