Archive for the 'Animals' Category

News from Montana.

They awoke around 3 a.m. Thursday morning to their dog barking downstairs. When Bolkcom went to check out the commotion, he found a black bear in his living room.

Bolkcom grabbed his gun and shot the bear, chasing it from room to room before it finally collapsed after several shots.

The bear was 250-300 pounds, and F&S says he used a 10mm handgun.

Chalk up another win for the 10mm, but I still say that a 1911 shooting 450 SMC cartridges would be just as effective, if not more so.

I guess he’s pretty excited to get into the outdoors.  I am too when I’m couped up, as I am working behind a computer building physics models all day.

Ken likes to do a good morning post.  This can be my goodnight post.

Well that’s a big flock of chickens. I’m guessing that daddy coming home means feed time. Since these are free range chickens, I’m wondering how he keeps the hawks away unless there’s a few roosters in that flock (but more than one rooster will cause problems).

@chelseamyers613 #chicken #chickenarmy #tinyraptors ♬ original sound – Chelsea Myers

I don’t know how this guy got a cam attached to an eagle, but these views are amazing.

Okay, well now I do know how he got these shots.

Don’t worry, park staff quickly responded.

An eight-year-old girl was camping with her family at Olympic National Park in Port Angeles, Washington, over the weekend when she was attacked by a cougar, officials said.

The National Park Service said the attack happened at Lake Angeles about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. The cougar fled the area after the girl’s mother screamed at it, FOX Seattle reported.

Park staff quickly responded to the area and treated the girl for minor injuries. She was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation, the service said. The area was also temporarily closed to the public.

“Due to the extreme nature of this incident, we are closing the Lake Angeles area and several trails in the vicinity,” Olympic National Park Wildlife Biologist Tom Kay said in the release. “Out of an abundance of caution, the Lake Angeles Trail, Heather Park Trail, Switchback Trail, and the entire Klahhane Ridge Trail are closed until further notice.”

Wait for it…

If found, the cougar will be euthanized and removed from the park for a necropsy. Officials said this may provide clues for why the attack occurred since cougars are rarely seen and attacks against humans are rare.

Oh, yes, another rare instance of a wild animal attack. These rare instances sure do happen often.

And via Liberty Park Press.

It has been legal to carry firearms in national parks since 2010, though an advisory from the National Park Service notes, “In areas administered by the National Park Service, an individual can possess a firearm if that individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm and if the possession of the firearm complies with the laws of the state where the park area is located. 54 U.S.C. 104906.”

A supplemental note at the end of the advisory adds, “Visitors should not consider firearms as protection from wildlife.”

Work that one out, ugh.

I’ve told Wisco he needs to keep better control over his pets.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this dance Swans do before.  It’s seems well choreographed.

I guess if you’re shy, you’re shy.  Being around other shy dogs doesn’t suddenly make you not shy.

Dogs will be dogs.

@kimberlyclark78 #dukehasapooladdiction #everydayshouldbesaturday #iwasnothappy ♬ original sound – Kimberly Clark

This lion took on the wrong guys at the wrong time.

Via Ken, this ridiculous report comes as a result of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

DALY CITY, Calif. (KGO) — A Bay Area man is devastated to learn the prosthetic foot he was crafting for a one-legged eagle in Pennsylvania won’t be put to use. The golden eagle named Aura was put down at the order of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Nam Duong’s Daly City workshop makes a very specialized product for animals.

“Some call me the chicken feet maker!” He laughs.

After tinkering with 3D printing during the pandemic making masks toys, it was his love of animals and wanting to help others, that inspired Duong to turn his hobby into a prosthetics business called Pet1stProsthetics on Etsy to help more than just chickens.

“Ducks and I do help a lot of dogs, turkey, I did peacock I did goat, a finch…” he rattles on while showing off a boot made for a cat.

During the pandemic, Duong crafted hundreds of 3D-printed legs for animals in need across the country. He now also has clients around the globe in places like Japan and Europe.

Most recently, it was a request from 2,800 miles away in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania that held special significance.

“I saw it was an eagle and I was so anxious, I said this is my first one!” He beamed.

Aura the Golden Eagle, who is in the same family as our country’s national bird, the Bald Eagle had been found in a field in need of care. She was brought to the Pocono Wildlife Rehab and Education Center.

Being able to save the life of an Eagle and improve the time it had left would be a cool thing, yes?

Katherine Huler, the organization’s founder and current Director of Educational Programming says the bird was underweight.

“She would not have survived that much longer out in the wild, certainly not without being fed.”

It’s believed one of Aura’s talons got caught in a trap and was severed right below the ankle. After being seen by three doctors, her rehabbers at the nonprofit center say she was completely healed and thriving.

“Never once tried to bite, never one tired to talon. She was just incredibly soft and acceptive,” says co-executive director Susan Downing. Videos sent to ABC7 News of Aura show her calmly being bathed and interacting with humans.

Aura who was estimated to be 3 to 5 years old was on track to become an educational animal. Duong was hired to make a prosthetic as a finishing touch.

But there is no situation so bad, so dire, so ugly and desperate, that it cannot be made far worse with the presence of the FedGov.

“She’d walk without so much as a limp.” Says her rehab team.

All seemed on track until the nonprofit center received a letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, indicating Aura had to be euthanized because of her amputated leg.

“The order itself was received at around 1 p.m. last Thursday, and states to euthanatize immediately.

That could have resulted had we refused to cooperate with the federal order,” says Janine Tancredi, Co-Executive Director of the center.

That very night, Aura was put down much to the devastation of the rebab center… and Duong.

“I almost wanted to cry, honestly, it’s not right.” He said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife sent ABC7 News a statement answering how the service determines if a bird should be euthanized or not.

The law states in part that euthanization must happen if a bird can’t feed itself, or move without inflicting additional injury… if it’s blind or have injuries requiring amputation.

We need federal laws for that, you see, because someone knows better than raptor center experts what needs to be done with birds of prey.

Also you see, this dovetails with the way King George sees the world.  We need to be licensed to drive on the king’s highways, we must be licensed and follow all of his rules when hunting the royal forests, we cannot enter prohibited lands (like parks or BLM) to hunt them because they are the exclusive royal forests, and finally, the royal birds belong to the king – only he can decide whether they live or die.

And upon the evolutionary perspective (which I don’t share), we’re just animals.  It’s a short hop and a skip to the FedGov deciding if its subject, like you and me, are any use to the king anymore and need to be euthanized.

It’s a Brown bear I believe.

Here’s what I suspect is happening.  That bear knows he could kill the more aggressive dog.  What the bear is instinctively thinking is this.  If I turn my attention exclusively to that aggressive dog, what’s going to happen with the other three when I take my eyes off of them?  The bear did try to keep his eye on the one behind him out of the corner of his eye.

Fighting a dog isn’t like fighting a pack of dogs.

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“I can run as fast as you can bike!”  These dogs are having the time of their lives.  Make sure to catch the second dog.  He’s catching big air.

Deer plays with a big cat.  Frankly, I think that Leopard must be thinking, “Is this really happening?  What is that thing doing?”

A puppy is way better than a stuffed animal.

I’ve always known that cats don’t much like water.  I guess big cats are no different.

Who said turtles are slow?

All dogs do this with streams of water.

Numbers matter in a fight.  I believe these are muskrats.

They decided to sedate this Bobcat to get it out.

Maybe they should have called this boy.

Numbers matter even to bears.

But size matters too.

Cowboy State Daily.

It’s illegal to even so much as point a firearm at a wild animal in Yellowstone Park, so bear spray would be the only allowable defense in case of a bear attack.

While it’s legal to carry firearms both open and concealed in Yellowstone, it’s not legal to brandish, aim or shoot them — at animals, people or even targets.

“It is unlawful to point, display or discharge a firearm in the park,” Park Service spokeswoman Linda Veress told Cowboy State Daily. “If a firearm is discharged against wildlife, we would investigate the incident.”

The penalties of any firearms-related violation in Yellowstone Park would depend upon the outcome of an investigation into the incident, she said.

[ … ]

Yellowstone allows people to have firearms in their vehicles, and even to carry them on their persons in some places. But people can’t fire them, even for target practice, within the park, according to breakdown of Yellowstone gun regulations published by Outside Magazine.

The Yellowstone firearms rules were established mostly because so many hunters and other firearms owners travel through the park from the gun-friendly states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

But the strict rules against firing the weapons would leave someone carrying a firearm with little legal option, other than perhaps to use it as a club against a bear, moose or other large, angry critter.

The Park Service recommends that people carry bear spray for defense against possible animal attacks in Yellowstone, Veress said. The agency offers information and tips for the proper use of bear spray and how to stay safe in grizzly country.

“God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” [Genesis 1:28].

“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, as I gave the green plant.” [Genesis 9:3]

I’d certainly like to see this challenged in court.  In the mean time, there goes that backpacking trip to Shoshone lake out the window.

Because it’s the roughest, most dangerous place in the lower 48.

F&S.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 11, a black bear attacked a man who was working as a sheep herder in the San Juan National Forest of southwestern Colorado, about 23 miles northeast of Durango. According to a Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) press release issued yesterday evening, the man survived and was treated for head wounds and other severe lacerations. The bear was tracked down and killed by a federal agent less than 24 hours after the attack.

The 35-year-old herder was working for a permit holder of a sheep grazing allotment in the nearly 500,000-acre Weminuche Wilderness Area when the bear attacked him. It bit him on the head and left additional wounds on his left arm and hand, CPW said. It also left deep cuts on his left hip and scratches on his back.

The herder told CPW agents that he was awoken by the sounds of the bear preying on his sheep around 1 a.m. He fired a .30-30 rifle in response to the attack before the bruin charged and mauled him. “This is an unfortunate incident and we are thankful the victim was able to contact help to get emergency services deployed and that he was able to be extracted to receive necessary medical care,” CPW Area Wildlife Manager Adrian Archuleta said in the press release.

In the aftermath of the attack, the man managed to crawl to his tent and call his cousin for help. An airlift was summoned to the scene, and he was transported to the Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango.

See F&S for the rest of the story.

I’m assuming that he missed with his .30-30.  I would think that round would easily put down most black bears.

It’s good that he had the means to call for help – that area is rugged and is several hours from cell phone connectivity.

When I was there we all three carried firearms, and I carried a 1911 with a 10-round magazine and 22# spring with 450 SMC cartridges (230 gr. at 1130 FPS), along with additional ammunition and magazines.

I also carried a satellite texting phone capable of reaching 911.  Any rescue out of where we were would have required a helicopter because the hike for foot-borne rescuers would have been two or more days.  This is extremely rugged terrain and isolated area, and the sheep herder is blessed to be alive.

See this post for video details if you missed it.  I called the cop a bunch of ugly names because he deserved it.  I was right in what I said, and everybody knows it.

I said he wasn’t a real man and needed to go learn to train, care for and work with farm and ranch animals.  Better still, as a beginner he needs to “pick” (or clean out) stalls for a few months, carrying horse shit out of their way so it doesn’t ruin their hooves.

So is there a contrasting example of how real American men behave around good dogs?

Why, yes there is.  See it right here.

I’m glad I could be of assistance today.