Comments on: Spring and Wildlife Comeback Follow Up

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:40:55 +0000

Good story Mrs. Davis, thanks. I can’t wait until my copy of “The Beast in the Garden” arrives to read more on this subject.

By: Mrs. Davis

Mrs. Davis — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:54:00 +0000

Palo Alto's experience with cats. The one shot was in a neighborhood of 7,500 sq ft lots with houses built 50-60 years ago.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:40:34 +0000

Update on the Wisconsin cougar sightings: an article in the paper yesterday says that it is indeed wild from DNA testing on hair, and that it (them?) probably walked here from SOUTH DAKOTA. Amazing.

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:12:27 +0000

I knew they’d been getting closer but haven’t yet seen any within about an hour’s drive to the south of here. Can’t say I’m surprised. Milder winters may be part of the cause.

By: ElamBend

ElamBend — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:48:01 +0000

It’s strange that places where many of us walked around in the wild unarmed (even included just a staff) are now areas where we have to at least consider it.

As for my story of animal encroachment, I was in Kansas City last weekend and was telling my mom about armadillos in southern California and she let me know that people have been running them over lately in Kansas City…armadillos.

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:15:27 +0000

Get Fluffy a spiked collar.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:47:01 +0000

Hopefully the hawk will chow the moles – I saw one just outside of my place of business yesterday, in the middle of an industrial park. Hope he will keep the rodents down as well. There are zillions of rabbits in this industrial park for some reason, I assume that may be why the hawk has moved in.

By: Knucklehead

Knucklehead — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:10:34 +0000

Wow! When I lived in Colorado Springs (actually Fountain) back in ‘79-80 coyotes were common but there were no mountain lions I ever heard of. You had to get WAY back into the hills for that.

BTW, this AM there was red-tailed hawk perched on the railing of my front porch. I live in a standard subdivision in a pretty darned crowded section of coastal NJ.

Yesterday I mentioned a bunch of animals that have increased. I’d like to add a couple more: moles and voles. They’re everywhere anymore.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:57:25 +0000

Nice kitty.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:30:06 +0000

Strangely, I think animal encroachment may have a maturing effect on environmentalism. People who live and work in close proximity to nature are less likely to be radical environmentalist than someone city bred who lives in a skyscraper.

Overboard environmentalism relies on an overly romantic view of nature made possible only by isolation from it. On well edited TV wild animals appear nobel, amusing, harmless and odorless. Up close wild animals are gluttonous, annoying, destructive and smelly.

The more contact people have with wild animals the less romantic their image of them and the less willing they are to support extreme measures that produce only marginal benefit.