Discussion: Interesting fauna

Yesterday I went out with my chainsaw to remove a limb leaning across one of the land trust trails, and brought my dog Hazel. We hiked in about 15 minutes, cut the limb, and on the way back out Hazel scared up a moose. First one I've seen around here (western CT). The same moose was seen again later in the day by a neighbor who was on horseback. She did a quick dismount, as the horse was pretty agitated by the experience.

Heavens! Now if you start to see badgers hiding behind trees we should really be worried.

Badgers are no match for the attack beavers we have here. The slap of an attack beaver's tail sends chills down the spine of anyone fortunate enough to be far enough away to survive it.

The trick is to use attack beavers to fight of these sweet little moose. Attack badgers are only a cheap substitute for the attack beavers which Swampfox misses out West. Also, Swampfox might be, in an allegorical way (not to say metaphorical way) an alias for attack beaver.

On a more serious note, who else had to fight off foaming tiger sized beavers while crossing the beaver dam during the mega world record? Maybe we should require the crossing of a well defended beaver dam for a real world record in mega control picking. This would leave the French in big trouble.

yeah, given the history of crossing well-defended French dams.

Andy got chased by a beaver with chattering teeth. I think on the same day, he walked into a hornets nest and dropped his mapping compass when he was flailing his arms to get away.

a bee or three got caught inside the animal cracker bag at our NOD meet. I was afraid to get animal crackers, which is disappointing because my craving for those animal crackers was high at the time.

I wouldn't say the beaver chased me exactly, but it certainly advised me that it was a pretty fierce creature to be avoided at all costs, and I took due notice!

For those who run the Genesis adventure race on October 1 (a good warm up for the Highlander on the next day), I met a nice black bear, fully grown up, about 6-8 feet, while scouting the (top secret) course. I talked to him/her and she/he promised to show up on the race day. So be warned. - The bear might also make an appearance at the Highlander, when we tease him with enough fresh blueberries. The rule of thumb is: Always talk to the big animals, then they are peaceful.

It's apparently getting moosier in these parts. I saw a few large and moosy footprints in the mud where I'm building my bridge this week.

You're building a bridge, in your part of the world? Seriously, aren't you very worried about the possibility of dangerous trolls moving in? Mooses will become the least of your troubles, and you will never be able to conduct good Micro-O with trolls around.

Well, I was concerned about white courses - how to get the little buggers across attack beaver infested semi-crossable marshes and the like. The odd troll or too is an undesirable side effect, but sometimes a landowner just has to suck it up and deal with it. Opening things up has also encouraged the local ATV crowd, but Rhonda straightened out a group of three of them on Saturday, reducing one of them to blubbery tears and an emergency trip home for clean underwear.

When it comes to tears, blubbery are the best kind.
Wow! Rhonda gave one of the ATV riders a wedgie?

In a metaphorical way, yes. He seemed to be envisioning a trip to prison and it overwhelmed his tender young psyche. Rhonda extracted their names and telephone numbers and said she would call their parents if she ever saw them again. They were pretty relieved to be let go, and the most wounded of the lot walked his motorcycle out rather than start it up again.

An attack badger ain't nothin' compared to an attack Rhonda. Remember, she may look small, but inside she's 100% Texas. And these ATV guys are probably easy pickins for somebody who trains by corraling Zack.

I have another dangerous Fauna question. I was mapping in some woods behind a little city park, and found a young deer carcass in a secluded clearing. The body was picked clean. It was getting toward dusk, so I left.

Does anybody know how to ID a cougar kill? I kind of suspect that's what it is, but other possibilities are coyotes, dogs, or bobcat. Maybe it died and some birds are eating it. Have any orienteers had problems with cougars?http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/pub/cougsf.htm

Blegg, I kinda suspect you are wrong. You have bigger problems than a cougar, you have African Driver Ants, and that is very bad news! Cougars never pick a carcass clean, as they are kind and always leave a few tidbits for the crows. Ants, on the other hand, take every last scrap. If you should see them coming, you should run! They will not care if you like Micro-O or not, and will eat you either way.

There are lots of ways deer die, although maybe in Corvallis a cougar is more likely than in Connecticut. Here the top cause of mortality is coyotes, and I've never heard of a coyote-orienteer interaction. I'm with Swampfox - whoever killed the deer is unlikely to have picked it clean. If it was in an open area, vultures would find it and work it over pretty well.

I did see a cougar on an o-map once (although not during a meet). Several years ago I was running on the Mt Laguna map E of San Diego and saw one across a large meadow. He looked at me and I looked at him and then we went our separate ways. Apparently he made more of an impression on me than I did on him.

Had a turkey and two very little turkeys (small as I've ever see, about 10-12") on the driveway when I went out to get the paper this morning. I waited until they wandered into the trees, and they seemed in no hurry. When I came back a few minutes later, well it was lucky/unlucky I had shut the garage door on the way out because they were right in front of it and I'm sure they would have come in if it had been open. But it was closed, so mama strolled up the steps towards the front door (the little ones flew, the steps were too big for them) and then very casually strolled across the "yard" and out the back trail.

The leading cuase of deer mortality around here is rednecks.

Well, I've gone back to it and done some online research. My conclusion: Inconclusive. It will go down in the books as just another mundane deer carcass. (Note that it wasn't comepletely clean, the legs had been discarded intact, and much of the hide was pulled off) It doesn't display some of cougar traits such as being partially covered by debris, nor did I find any scat that could be distiguished from dog. However, it seems at least a week old so I suspect some dogs have been playing with it too.And of course, time for birds to do their thing.

However, I think the cougar possibility was good to keep in mind. They are commonly reported in the research forest (only 1 mile away). And now I know the cougar safety rules!!!

Anybody else see the remains in the middle of the parking area at Trout Brook Valley Sunday? A few bones, some fur. One guess was a rabbit. But also possibly an attack badger overwhelmed by a local beaver.

Couple weeks ago as we were driving off to the Sprint Finals a scruffy coyote was sitting in the driveway across the street, watched us go off casual as could be. Then around the corner another was sitting on a curb as we drove by, again checking out the neighborhood. Or perhaps the Block Watch to keep badgers at bay.

I didn't see your potential (ex)rabbit, but I did see a rabbit whilst running in Caracas about 1 1/2 weeks ago. It looked completely unphased by the fact that I ran right by it. In fact the only evidence that it was alive was by it twitching its ears. The funny thing was I ran back past the same spot about 1/2 hour later, and it hadn't moved ! A lot of the houses in the area had barking dogs, and I recon the rabbit had decided that whichever way it went, it was going to get nearer one of them.