Did You know - outdoor edition

[WV Sawmiller]

   This is something everybody needs to know! Did you know you can estimate the size of an elephant from his footprints? A pretty good estimate of the height of an elephant is determined by measuring and then doubling the circumference of his footprint. A 12" diameter footprint (They are slightly oval rather than being round - kind of like many logs) would be a little over 3' in circumference which would mean the elephant would be a little over 6' tall at the shoulder.

   At least this what out guide in Thailand told me on a trip over there in 2011.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know one of the best ways to pick Muscadines (Wild Scuppernongs - Vitis rotundifolia), if you are fortunate enough to live where they grow, is in a boat.  Muscadines are big, sweet, tough skinned wild grapes that grow in much of the southern USA. They are usually black or very dark purple but occasionally you may find bronze versions. They may grow to be over an inch in diameter. When you eat them the skin is usually discarded as it is too tough to eat but when cooked the skins make some of the best preserves you ever ate on a hot biscuit.

   Muscadines usually get ripe in the Late summer and early Fall around September and October. The vines grow hundreds of feet to the very tops of their host trees and can be very hard to reach the fruit but they often grow on trees along the rivers and streams. If you watch carefully you will often find a tall tree along a river with a vine full of ripe muscadines where the current has undercut the roots of the tree causing it to fall in the river. While this usually kills the tree the muscadine vine roots remain firmly rooted in the soil and it survives and thrives for several more years. The tree will often be dead and leafless making the muscadines easy to see and access.

   In such cases you can often run a boat right up beside or even under the vine and pick the muscadines. If you catch them at the right stage the fruit will be so ripe they practically fall off at your touch. In those cases if you can position your boat under the bulk of the fruit you can give the tree a good shake and literally cover the bottom of your boat in ripe muscadines in seconds.

    Warning - check the host tree carefully before you start as there may be a big wasp or hornet nest in the tree or even a fat ill tempered cottonmouth.

[Texas Ranger]

May have told this before, can never remember.  But, I was about 10 maybe a little older, fishing with dad on the Meramec River, Franklyn County, Missouri.  We fished a section below the farm that had an Island that was our circle fishing spot, go up river to the point, back down the northern branch, down to the point and back up to home.  The northern branch had tall limestone bluffs with hanging over trees.  Dad liked to float slow down the bluff under the trees, deepest water and the fish seemed to congregate there.  We are floating under the trees when a cotton mouth drops into the center of the boat.  We had wooden oars which dad applied to the snake, and the bottom of the boat, there by inventing the live well, as well as teaching me ever cuss word in his vocabulary, which I still use to this day. 

[WV Sawmiller]

  Sounds familiar. I don't know how many boat paddles and poles I have broken beating on snakes. (Truth be told many were probably harmless water snakes.) Everybody I used to fish with in N. Fla had a tale of a friend or relative, if not personal experiences of shooting holes in the bottom of a boat or two (some were slow learners). 

   Another truth be told is I'd really prefer the snake in the boat to stirring up a nest of big red wasps. I don't know how many times we'd tie a bushhook on a limber limb for catfish and come back the next day to find a big catfish shaking the life out of the limb only to find it was home to a wasp nest the size of a dinner plate covered with very angry red wasps. I don't know how we put the line out without disturbing them to start with. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that individuals from unlike animal species will hang out together for mutual protection and companionship? In Africa it is common to see small groups of big old bull animals from different species together. You may se an old elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, and giraffe hanging around together. These will be old bulls that are still healthy and virile but not strong enough to maintain a harem of cows so they have been kicked out of the herd. Together they have some mutual protection and companionship.

   Impala very often stay close to baboons because the baboon troop always has designated "watchmen" and are very alert to predators. We saw an old cast out Blue wildebeest bull we nicknamed "Uncle Remus" hanging out with a bunch of impala fawns on Kruger Game park in South Africa.


 Here at my home in WV it is common to see 1-2 big fox squirrels hanging around a bunch of wild turkeys. Evidently the turkeys scratch up and expose walnuts and hickory nuts and such they can't eat but the turkeys do.

[Walnut Beast]

Great interesting information 👍

[Tacotodd]

Deer, turkeys and squirrels tend to be like that around here, at least to some extent.

[Hilltop366]

Deer, turkeys and squirrels tend to be like that around here, at least to some extent.

Funny... I just had a turducken image pop into my head.

Its a Deer stuffed with a turkey stuffed with a squirrel ....... Deeturkels?

[barbender]

Let's seen how should I do this...my family on one side are Indigenous inhabitants of this continent. My Dad calls himself Indian😊

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know maternal instinct will cause animals, even natural enemies, to do strange things?

  We had an old housecat named Ugly. Ugly was an excellent hunter constantly bringing home mice, chipmunks and rabbits she had caught around our place. Our neighbor had a terrier who would find nests of baby rabbits but would not kill them. The neighbor kids would bring the rabbits to us to raise. We had a tiny Evenflo bottle with a soft rubber nipple we got from our vet and fed the rabbits powdered bitch's milk and they generally thrived on it. In one instance Ugly had just had a litter of kittens that morning when the neighbors brought us a baby rabbit that was probably a week old as it was covered with fur but it's eyes were not yet open. We were wondering and tested our theory and put the rabbit in with the kittens and Ugly immediately accepted it and immediately began to nurse and clean it just like her own. The rabbit opened its eyes the next day. It was a funny sight watching him nurse with his feline siblings who were all 3-4 times bigger than him. All went well for several weeks till Buggs got older and jumped out of the box and another kitten we had in the house spotted him and accidentally killed him with her excessive rough horse play.

 When I was a kid we had an old female Boxer who used to try to steal the puppies of our dachshund. She would also nurse our kittens included two that became large tom cats but would still nurse her even as adults.

 I have read articles of other natural enemies adopting young of natural prey including a lioness who repeatedly adopted various Oryx fawns. She could not nurse them but protected them for weeks at a time from other lions and other predators in the area till it died then the lioness would steal another oryx fawn to raise. I have read of lions adopting leopard kittens and a bald eagle adopting a red-tailed hawk chick it had evidently brought to the nest to feed the baby eagles.

 A couple of years ago I watched 2 whitetail does and 3 spotted fawns just outside my backyard fence and we watched all three fawns nurse from both does. I have heard if a doe is killed the fawn will also be adopted by other does in the area. The same is supposed to be true with elephants which will raise calves from others.

[Edvantage]

A few years back I watched a coyote hanging around with a black bear and 2 cubs.  Acted like best of friends
This went on for several weeks.  Was able to locate the bear den and watch another pair of cubs the following spring. 

[WV Sawmiller]

A few years back I watched a coyote hanging around with a black bear and 2 cubs.  Acted like best of friends
This went on for several weeks.  Was able to locate the bear den and watch another pair of cubs the following spring.

Ed,

  That sounds pretty neat. How big were the cubs? You'd have thought the mother bear would have been very protective of them and killed or chased away the coyote if they were small and would seem like natural prey for a coyote.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that male members of the deer family all have antlers that they shed and replace every year while members of the antelope family have horns that they retain their whole lifetime. The largest member of the deer family is the moose which can grow huge spreading antlers. American Elk (In Norway what they call an elk is actually a moose), caribou, reindeer, whitetail and mule deer all are true deer. The pronghorn antelope is the only antelope I can think of while there are many kinds of antelope in Africa from tiny rabbit sized duiker or dik-diks to Eland which are the largest.

   Antlers grow back with more or less points and bigger or smaller each year depending on diet and health. Generally for a whitetail buck will have his best rack of antlers at about the 4.5 to 5.5 year old mark. After that his antlers will often be smaller. We had antlers from a pen raised buck at Auburn from tiny spikes up though about 12-14 points in his prime. While the size and number of points varied from year to year they all had the same symmetry. This deer had a constant feed supply but the antlers still peaked at 4.5-5.5 years old and were less impressive after that.

   In our area this is the time of year you are most likely to find any shed antlers as the bucks have recently or are currently shedding the old antlers. These shed antlers will not last long in the wild as mice, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, etc. will chew the antlers to obtain the minerals in them.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the incubation temperature in the nest determines the sex of some reptiles such as turtles, tortoises and, IIRC, alligators and crocodiles. Since the nest temperature in nature is typically pretty consistent throughout all hatchlings from a given nest will either be all male or all female.

   Knowing this fact helps biologists save threatened or endangered species. In the Galapagos Islands eggs of tortoises are collected and incubated at specified temperatures to raise more of whichever sex is needed. For example they may produce more females if they need more future breeding females. The clutch of eggs can be divided and both male and female will be produced - something that would not normally occur in nature.

    In the case of the Galapagos tortoises the biologists hatch the baby tortoises and raise them in captivity until they are about 5 lbs then return them to their home island to increase their survival rates.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know in the skull of an alligator snapping turtle (and I assume on a common snapper) on either side of the brain stem (the bony tube extending from the backbone) is a large pocket of muscle/meat. The next time you butcher a big turtle when you cut the head off be sure to take a thin fillet or boning knife and make a quick circular cut inside the skull freeing these cuts of meat. On a 70+ lb turtle these chunks may be as big a soda can and when you cut them crossways into steaks and flour and fry them they are excellent eating.

    Note - be sure to comply with all your state game and fishing regulations pertaining to harvesting of turtles and other wildlife. When I left Fla as a young man the regulations were restricted to harvesting no more than one alligator snapping turtle per day while when I moved to Albany Ga there were no such restrictions.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Most of us associate a turtle as being a slow creature. Did you know the softshell turtle is a serious exception to this rule? A softshell turtle is relatively flat with a pointed nose, leather like shell and looks like a ground frisbee when he gets off a hook in the boat or on the ground. They race along the ground at a very impressive clip. You are not going to catch an escaped softshell by walking. Trotting or running is going to be necessary.

   A softshell turtle is also much easier to clean than a snapping turtle and is very tasty when fried similar to a chicken.

[KEC]

According to the man who was New York States' DEC wildlife pathologist for many years, big Common Snapping turtles can have a lot of accumulated toxic chemicals in them. I would not eat one taken from an area known to be polluted. New York legislators, in their infinite wisdom, declared them to be New Yorks' official amphibian a few years back. And, whereas they were an unprotected species for many years, they are now protected with a season and bag limits. And you cannot trap them. I doubt that DEC knows how common they are. You find out when doing summer beaver control work with body-gripping traps and start catching turtles. When you take them out of the trap and think they have drowned, a few minutes later they start crawling away. They somehow can store oxygen and go without breathing for some time.

[WV Sawmiller]

@KEC  - fact check please. Did NY really declare a snapping turtle, a reptile, to be the state's official "Amphibian" or was that a misprint? :D

  OK, I just checked on line and it shows the snapping turtle is their state reptile and a wood frog is the state amphibian.

   Good point about eating turtles from polluted areas. Our state Fishing Regs includes quantities of various fish to eat from various waters. I think bream and rainbow trout have no warnings.

[Old Greenhorn]

According to the man who was New York States' DEC wildlife pathologist for many years, big Common Snapping turtles can have a lot of accumulated toxic chemicals in them. I would not eat one taken from an area known to be polluted. New York legislators, in their infinite wisdom, declared them to be New Yorks' official amphibian a few years back. And, whereas they were an unprotected species for many years, they are now protected with a season and bag limits. And you cannot trap them. I doubt that DEC knows how common they are. You find out when doing summer beaver control work with body-gripping traps and start catching turtles. When you take them out of the trap and think they have drowned, a few minutes later they start crawling away. They somehow can store oxygen and go without breathing for some time.

Yeah, snappers are pretty fearsome creatures. I don't know a lot of guys that fish or trap them, its rare these days. There are lots of them for sure, nasty buggers. I ran over one with the fire engine once (I had no choice, code 3 to a working fire and I could either run him over or flip the truck, he lost the coin toss) made quite the spot when the dual tires hit him. 
 For a long time (since Mario anyway) the NYS DEC has been run by politics, not science. I was part of a campaign to fight some new regulations about 15 years ago and we had them on the ropes bigtime because we kept going to public hearings and asking simple polite questions based on science and the data. We knew the science, and they had NO data. We had them on the ropes and I was interviewed by several papers and on the radio news. Newspapers were given written copies of my statements and questions which many printed verbatim. The DEC was stymied by a simple minded guy with no college degree armed only with google and hundreds of hours to read, research, and study. They finally called me and asked for a private meeting WHERE THEY ASKED WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR ME TO STOP GIVING INTERVIEWS AND GOING TO THE HEARINGS.  They admitted the science was clearly in our favor but they had been instructed by the Governors office to push the new regs through. I told them right is right and wrong is wrong, neither I nor the others would let it go. They finally bagged the whole plan. BUT, they waited 5 years and passed the regs anyway with only one barely advertised public hearing that we never found out about. The NYS DEC is nothing but another political branch. Its too bad, because they have a lot of good people, just bad managers. Hopefully the wildlife and the land survives this section of our history.

[WV Sawmiller]

   One of our regs that ticks me off every time I see it is the prohibition on having a gun and a bow in the woods at the same time. In rifle season you can take a bow but no gun. In muzzleloader season you can substitute a crossbow for a ML but not a compound or recurve bow. Since I hunt mostly out of permanent shooting houses I'd love to take a bow along during rifle season. If the deer was 20 yards away I'd grab my bow. if he was at 50 yards I'd grab my rifle. I have never understood that restriction. 

[Andries]

. . .  a simple minded guy with no college degree armed only with google and hundreds of hours to read, research, and study. . . 

Not so simple minded.
. .  and a university degree shows the world what?
The ability to sort out facts from political fiction is key to keeping a sense of balance and perspective in times as weird as these.
Good on you buddy!

[Chuck White]

I can understand your frustration, Howard!

That makes absolutely no sense!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know there are many different kinds of bananas? Here in the USA we typically only get one type. Sometimes you may see a store also selling "finger" bananas that are only a few inches long. In Africa we had bananas like we see here, the little finger bananas (which I find to be sweeter than the bigger ones), another relatively short (4-5 inches) large diameter "white" banana (which is also tasty and seems to keep better than most others), and there is even a red banana which I found comparatively bland compared to the others listed. Then there is the plantain which is kind of like a banana on steroids.

  All the above bananas were pretty readily available in Cameroon and Guinea in west Africa when I worked there. I had never eaten plantains till then. Many of the locals liked green plantains sliced and fried but I prefer them dead ripe and they are best fried in local artery clogging palm oil but are also very good when cut crossways into 1/4" - 1/2" rounds and nuked for about 5 minutes. The best plantains I found usually had skins that were already about half black. I have tried them here in the USA but they are never as good as the tree ripened ones I got in Cameroon.

   BTW - did you know a banana plant only bears one stalk of bananas? I think the plant would grow to full height in about 9 months and put on a fruit stalk. Commercially when the stalk is about half mature they put a plastic bag similar to a dry cleaner bag over the fruit which makes the fruit grow down instead of outward. Once mature the stalk will never bear again so it is cut off and the plant is cut down at the base and a shoot from it will form a new plant.

[Walnut Beast]

Good stuff Howard 👍

[Walnut Beast]

  One of our regs that ticks me off every time I see it is the prohibition on having a gun and a bow in the woods at the same time. In rifle season you can take a bow but no gun. In muzzleloader season you can substitute a crossbow for a ML but not a compound or recurve bow. Since I hunt mostly out of permanent shooting houses I'd love to take a bow along during rifle season. If the deer was 20 yards away I'd grab my bow. if he was at 50 yards I'd grab my rifle. I have never understood that restriction.

They passed several years ago you can bow hunt during rifle season. So you could have a gun to but you have to wear orange if bow hunting