What wild animals do you have in your area that supposedly don’t live there.

[digitS']

 

[ninnymary]

i'm sure some of the rabbits get eaten by coyotes, but more likely they eat the rabbits from the road after a car has run them over. the rabbits here are mostly hunted by me and then once in a while i'll see one taken by the semi-feral or feral kitties that use our property for hunting.

i'm glad to say that the putting up of some fences has reduced how many rabbits i have to hunt each year and i now have a chance of seeing some crocuses in the spring in areas outside the fences.

Do you eat the rabbits you hunt? I remember as a child a friend would bring us rabbits that he hunted. They were always already cleaned. We were poor and I'm sure he knew we could use them.

Mary

 

[flowerbug]

Do you eat the rabbits you hunt? I remember as a child a friend would bring us rabbits that he hunted. They were always already cleaned. We were poor and I'm sure he knew we could use them.

Mary

sadly, no, they don't appear healthy to me (parasites or lumps on them) and they are usually small ones, i say i'm sorry and bury them in a garden. over the longer term i hope to finish the fencing i have up to keep them (and other critters out). aside from the damage they do i really don't want ticks around, but i can't completely exclude them yet.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

We also have the black panther myth around here. Especially with a lot of the older hunters and farmers.

 

[hullsteel]

Baymule mentioning cougars made me think about this. Supposedly we haven’t had a confirmed cougar siting in the state since the 1960s. However, there are many unconfirmed sitings. Tennessee has had several over the past few years that were confirmed.

The fish and wildlife department claimed for years that we didn’t have a bear population in the northern half of the state. Well that was until we had like three sitings in a year. In fact I think someone may have hit one in the 5 lane outside Walmart. Turns out we have a decent size and rapidly growing population that was finally confirmed a few years ago.

I’m just wondering if anyone has any stories like these?

We even have a few black bears that wander into Everett or nearby Mukilteo WA. We have cougars but they are super rare to catch a glimpse of. Saw an white Egret about 30 years ago and that is pretty rare here

 

[ducks4you]

We supposedly have cougars SSE of us, though I have never seen one. When I gave riding lessons, (1990's), one student told me that she hit a wolf, stopped, then drove on, THEN drove back, but it had disappeared. No recent reports.
We have coy-wolves. Yes, Virginia they ARE REAL. They originated when a wolf pack with few members, crossbred with coyotes in the Toronto area, and they have spread. I HAVE seen one. They are tall, like a wolf, and lank. I saw one just outside of my front porch. It saw me, then took off west and I think left the property.
We hear them, sometimes at night, more often in the winter.
They WILL kill your dog, which is why I keep 2 dogs. If your dog doesn't have another dog to play with, coywolves, that run in packs, will lure your dog out to "play" then kill it. Recently somebody's dog 7 miles NNE of us, had they Lab torn up that way.
My dogs don't leave to investigate at night. Pyg is 14yo, and had one front leg amputated from cancer, so 3 legged, so she doesn't get to go out at night. Eva will stick close to me at night, bc I have insisted upon it and it is now habit.
Btw, when we went to Alaska, one rehab center was Thrilled to be rehabbing a Bald Eagle. They are pretty common in our state.

 

[heirloomgal]

We supposedly have cougars SSE of us, though I have never seen one. When I gave riding lessons, (1990's), one student told me that she hit a wolf, stopped, then drove on, THEN drove back, but it had disappeared. No recent reports.
We have coy-wolves. Yes, Virginia they ARE REAL. They originated when a wolf pack with few members, crossbred with coyotes in the Toronto area, and they have spread. I HAVE seen one. They are tall, like a wolf, and lank. I saw one just outside of my front porch. It saw me, then took off west and I think left the property.
We hear them, sometimes at night, more often in the winter.
They WILL kill your dog, which is why I keep 2 dogs. If your dog doesn't have another dog to play with, coywolves, that run in packs, will lure your dog out to "play" then kill it. Recently somebody's dog 7 miles NNE of us, had they Lab torn up that way.
My dogs don't leave to investigate at night. Pyg is 14yo, and had one front leg amputated from cancer, so 3 legged, so she doesn't get to go out at night. Eva will stick close to me at night, bc I have insisted upon it and it is now habit.
Btw, when we went to Alaska, one rehab center was Thrilled to be rehabbing a Bald Eagle. They are pretty common in our state.

A couple years ago DH and I took the kids to spend some time at Killarney Park, about 1 1/2 hours from here. The drive back is mostly on a long, winding extremely forested roadway. People drive pretty fast along it. At one point DH and I could swear we saw a wolf's face amid the ferns as we sped along; he immediately pulled over so we could look back. I know there are wolves around of course, but they are extremely shy and cautious, you never see them. I think for all the time I've spent both here and WAY up north I've seen 2. I couldn't believe my eyes when out from the bushes emerged an actual timber wolf, the largest kind of wolf, and not only did he turn to look at us he immediately broke into a full speed run - toward us. I actually felt scared for a split second since it was so surreal. Not only did he run toward us, he approached within about 2 feet of the car, to the back window where DS was. I climbed back there too and could stare right into his eyes. Without even thinking I grabbed a peanut butter cookie and threw it to him. He gobbled it up and stared some more. It was quite the sight. Eventually we drove off, but he followed the car for a small distance as we drove away. DH and I were both mystified.

Some time later we heard on the news abut the 'wolf of KIllarney'.. Turned out he was well known, and this timber wolf had developed the habit of actually begging from cars. He was literally waiting for someone when we saw his face among the ferns.

https://www.thesudburystar.com/2017/07/17/killarney-timber-wolf-creates-buzz

Sad to say, he's dead now. He was hit by a car.