Last week I wrote about my cat’s apparent near death experience at the hands jaws of the coyotes rumored to be inhabiting Seward Park.
Well, it’s no longer a rumor. Friday afternoon my daughter and I were walking our dog along the trails atop the park, taunting Feisty that the scent she was furiously sniffing was of the coyotes that had invaded her territory, when what should cross the path about 50 feet ahead of us, but a coyote. It stopped in the middle of the path, looked at us for a moment then scurried off into the woods.
I never doubted that there really were coyotes in the park, but I sure didn’t expect to see one, and right on cue, just a few minutes into our hike. It was about 50 pounds or so, maybe a little bigger than our dog, and damn beautiful.
But… but… I thought you Lefties LIKED coyotes??!! After all, they bring more “voters” into this country. You Dems figured out your own brand of ransom: “vote this ballot straight D’s and we’ll let you stay in this sanctuary.”
They are pretty. Where I live they are common…..unfortunetley for the house cat population Today we had turkey vultures feasting on a dead cow.
Try walking out your front door and come face to face with a black bear. That happened to me two weeks ago. Big one too.
I discovered that black bears must be evil like vampires and are afraid of religious things. You see when out or surprise I yelled “Jesus Fucking Christ”, it ran away.
i’ve scared off a couple of those myself. there’s a dozen or so coyotes living across the street. i listened to them raising hell last 2 night a.m. one of them (the big alpha) doesn’t
seem overly afraid of me. :)
re1: *yawn*
So Goldy saw a Coyote………big Friggin deal.
Now go get something that has eluded you all your life…gainfull employment.
I suspect, as usual, there is more to the story. For example:
I’ll bet Goldy shit his britches..
Then pushed his daughter toward the coyote and ran like a bastard.
I think I saw one of these walking the trails around Paradise at Mt. Rainier. He was blocking the way, stopping frequently to sniff around and listen. It was getting on the day and we were eager to get by, but wanted to give him a wide berth. Like the rest of the animals that hang out near the trails, he was used to humans, and didn’t pay us much mind. But he heard a bunch of his colleagues howling and yelping in the distance and at one point let out a deep growly howl. It was very primordial.
It’s always a surprise when you see wildlife like that. It’s a little like seeing the face of God. Growing up in AZ, I saw a lot of that sort of thing and it never ceases to amaze me.
There is onloy one obvioous answer …
you need a MAD … Major Animal Deterant
An ocelot or bobcat would be a good repacement for your house cat and I have friends who sell Kita dogs from Japan that can toal a coyote in a few minutes.
dailycoyote.blogspot.com/
I’m probably being way pedantic, but the ‘yotes were probably around before the park was. Really cool to see though, huh.
We’ve got a few raccoons around my place that seem to have developed a taste for fresh strawberries. I went out to pick some berries the other day and there were lots of paw prints around and not a single ripe berry left on the plants.
8D
Saw a Coyote last summer, just trotting across a fairly major street early in the morning. He didn’t even turn to look at me.
Which brings me to my favorite bear story….
As a Boy Scout while growing up in Tennessee, we made frequent hikes along the Smoky Mountain portion of the Appalachian Trail. Even then, there were quite a few hikers on the trail. We would spend our nights in a three-sided “shelter” built by the CCC in the 1930’s, occuring every five miles or so (as the crow flys), which had “bear wire” across the front to keep the bears out. Most of the shelters also had an out-house.
Anyway, lots of black bears, and they learned that the hikers had lots of good food on them, so they tended to stick around the shelter areas, hoping they could scare someone into dropping their backpack and running away, so the bears could dig through the pack at their leisure for edible treats.
Well, one evening we had cooked dinner, and just as we finished we saw a black bear biding his time at the perimeter of the campsite. A ranger happened to be hiking that portion of the trail and had joined us for dinner, so he took his big walking stick, yelled and beat the bushes, until the bear withdrew. My scoutmaster thought it was a good idea to make sure we got rid of the scrapings in the pot a good distance from the campsite, so he sent one of the scouts, Eric, to scrape it out into the outhouse. Okay, maybe we could have thought that one through better.
Anyway, here we are by the campfire as the sun sets and in the shadows under the trees we vaguely become aware that across the ditch Eric is noisily scrapping the pot into the hole at the houshouse, and behind him, with his nose in the door – is the bear. We all freeze. The bear is blocking the only way out of the outhouse. Do we yell, to warn Eric or to scare away the bear? Or does that make matters worse for Eric?
We only had a second to think about it, for in that brief second Eric flew out of the outhouse – OVER the bear – and comes running down the hill and taking the ditch in a single bound, shouting the whole way “THERE’S A BEAR IN THE OUTHOUSE!!!!! THERE’S A BEAR IN THE OUTHOUSE!!!!!, his face as white as a ghost.
I guess we should have been more sympathetic to his plight – I certainly wouldn’t want to turn around in an outhouse to see a big black bear with his nose about six inches away, blocking the only exit. But we were too busy rolling on the ground laughing – the vision of Eric FLYING over the bear and running down the hill shouting was just too funny. It took us several minutes to recover, and by the time we did, the bear was gone. So was the cooking pot.
12. Good one! For a second I thought it was going to contain “does the bear shit in the woods or in the damn outhouse?”
Wanna see bears? Book yourself into Brooks Camp on the Brooks River in Alaska. 2nd highest concentration of grizzly bears in the world. Right after McNeil River up there.
My brother and I camped up there 2 times and I still have a rod holder with these 4 nice holes in it, miraculously spaced exactly like the incisor teeth of a grizz.
s/
Jim, still never having attempted to operate a bagpipe assembly.
rhp6033-
Good Story-
Was it mating season??
Hard to know if the Bear would have eaten old Erik…or humped him!
Shoot the fucker! Don’t ask questions, just shoot it! They eat rabbits, you know. You do have a concealed carry permit, don’t you? Liberals must arm! Rabbits must arm! The damn thing probably voted for Bush. We all know those crooked Republicans register animals to vote.
We are hiking early this spring in the snow in SW Montana and heard 2 wolves howling back & forth.
I spotted the closest one about 1/4 mile away pacing nervously on top of a ridge.
My guess is the other was his mate…likely in a den another mile or so away about to give birth.
He was a big bastard…and very aggitated.
We retreated.
Solo coyotes aren’t much of a threat.
This wolf could have been if protecting his mate and young-un.
They have delisted the wolves in several states.
They have decimated elk herds in Central MT & Wyoming…hunting in dangerous packs.
They have also reeked havoc on livestock….and Bison.
A buddy of mine saw 4 of them gnawing on a yearling bison this Spring.
Nature is awesome.
Goldy grew up in the wilderness of Philadelphia…where parents gave the animals alcohol!!
All my neighbors shoot coyotes….and leave them lay there to rot for their coyote buddies to see. They tend to leave the area when there are a few dead ones.
re 16: Females are usually the leaders of a pack of wolves. Wolves mostly hunt in packs, picking out the weakest and the most defective of their prey animals for consumption.
“They have decimated elk herds in Central MT & Wyoming…hunting in dangerous packs.”
Proof? Besides what some rancher said.
Wolves always hunt in packs, except for the rare, solitary wolf. There is not a recorded instance of wolves attacking humans except in the prose of JF Cooper and the occasional 6th grader’s biography of Jim Bridger.
Have you ever been close as a herd of Elk thundered by in the wild? I have. Wolves may be able to pick off a calf now and again and a weak, older adult. There is no way they could decimate a healthy herd of Elk.
One of the real staples of wolves’ diet are the decidedly unglamourous rodents. Do you live in a phantasy world?
@17
Wouldn’t it be a shame if someone shot your neighbors?
@19 I thought you reds bragged about how good your “gun control” is …
Headlice–
West of Billings, virtually all the outback guided hunts have gone by the wayside.
No Elk…due to wolves.
I know a couple outfitters who had permits in that area. They are d-o-n-e.
guided hunts?
*lolz*
We live close to Goldie and found a dead cat (stomach ripped out) in our neighbor’s yard. Vet said that was probably raccoon, but did say that clients closer to the park saved their cat from 2 coyotes (at 4 AM). Unfortunately, 2 more made off with the cat across the street. The coyotes are new to Seward in the last year or so and have cleared out most of the bunnies and a lot of the squirrels. They have also ganged up on a small dog. Cats should be kept in from dawn to dusk now.