Wild animal encounters?

[Guest MormonGator]

On 9/10/2019 at 8:36 AM, Fether said:

You should visit Glacier National Park. It is immensely more beautiful with its massive sheer cliffed mountains, beautiful glacier valleys, turquoise lakes, AND wild life. we saw a massive grizzly, stopped my wife from excitedly charging a moose, a herd of big horn sheep, and tons of mountain goats. I’ve been to a ton of parks, and It is my all time favorite national park, my wife and I actually went there on our honeymoon.

 

Beautiful pictures! 

[Grunt]

4 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Agree totally. They are pretty to look at, but carry deer ticks that I don't want my dogs to get. They also cause vehicle collisions that can kill people. Moose do too. In NH there are road signs all over the place that warn you about them. Bears I think (and @Grunt can correct me again if I'm wrong) are of course, a danger to cars but I don't read about many bear-car collisions. 

Not many.  I almost hit a bear on my motorcycle just before my driveway last year.  They're quick and typically don't stand there like deer do.  

[Guest MormonGator]

In high school I drove a girl home from a drama event. A porcupine or something ran in front of my car and I had two choices. 1) Turn the car, crash and maybe kill us both or 2) sorry porcupine, nothing personal and hit it. I hit it and she flipped out on me. I tried explaining to her that I didn't really have a choice but she didn't get it. 

[Grunt]

Porcupines can cause a ton of property damage.  Lots of people just kill them when they see them.  I don't, unless they become a nuisance.  

[Guest MormonGator]

10 minutes ago, Grunt said:

Porcupines can cause a ton of property damage.  Lots of people just kill them when they see them.  I don't, unless they become a nuisance.  

Do they carry rabies a lot? Like raccoons? 

[Traveler]

34 minutes ago, Vort said:

We have deer living in the green spaces right here in town. They're pretty, but sometimes a nuisance. When we lived in Pennsylvania, you couldn't get away from the deer. My brother-in-law was killed a few years back when he hit one on a Pennsylvania highway.

Don't know if it's true, but I've been told that there are more deer (and more forested area) in the US today than there were in 1776.

Every once in awhile someone criticizes the hunting of deer in Utah on the grounds that such is disruptive and bad for nature.  But here in Utah substantially more deer (without age, season or sex limits and restrictions) are killed by someone driving a motor vehicle than are killed by hunters (that have restrictions specifically intended and designed for the benefit of neature).

 

The Traveler

[Guest MormonGator]

Just now, Traveler said:

Every once in awhile someone criticizes the hunting of deer in Utah on the grounds that such is disruptive and bad for nature. 

They did that up north a few times too. In reality, I think it's much more humane to cull the herd and hunt than have the deer over populate and slowly starve to death. 

[Grunt]

10 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Do they carry rabies a lot? Like raccoons? 

They can, but I've never heard of a rabid porcupine.

[Traveler]

1 minute ago, MormonGator said:

They did that up north a few times too. In reality, I think it's much more humane to cull the herd and hunt than have the deer over populate and slowly starve to death. 

More than humane to deer - it is critical to the environment.  About 100 years ago in the forest north of the grand canyon predators and hunters were removed as a humane environmental effort for deer.  It nearly caused the deer to become extinct and caused great damage a problems with other creatures in the forest ecosystem.

 

The Traveler

[Traveler]

1 minute ago, Grunt said:

They can, but I've never heard of a rabid porcupine.

I have.  However, the more social the breed the more likely a particular breed will spread rabies. 

 

The Traveler

[Guest MormonGator]

1 minute ago, Traveler said:

I have.  However, the more social the breed the more likely a particular breed will spread rabies. 

 

3 minutes ago, Grunt said:

They can, but I've never heard of a rabid porcupine.

Thanks guys. 

[Guest MormonGator]

@Traveler-do bears often get rabies? I've never heard of a rabid bear. 

[Traveler]

1 minute ago, MormonGator said:

@Traveler-do bears often get rabies? I've never heard of a rabid bear. 

I believe so - but bears are usually solitary and territorial and usually, as an apex predator, end up killing what they attack - so they do not spread rabies as much.   On the other hand bats are very social and not very territorial and thus are a species most likely to spread rabies.  As a side note - most hunters (trappers) will check the liver of a kill as a quick check that the kill is good to eat.

 

The Traveler

[Guest MormonGator]

1 minute ago, Traveler said:

I believe so - but bears are usually solitary and territorial and usually, as an apex predator, end up killing what they attack - so they do not spread rabies as much.   On the other hand bats are very social and not very territorial and thus are a species most likely to spread rabies.  As a side note - most hunters (trappers) will check the liver of a kill as a quick check that the kill is good to eat.

 

The Traveler

Thanks bud. 

You and @Grunt are like Steve Irwin. Whenever I have an animal question, I'm going to you guys! 

[mordorbund]

1 hour ago, MormonGator said:

In NH there are road signs all over the place that warn you about them.

Well there's your problem. We put up signs on the road to warn drivers, but does anyone put up signs in the woods to warn the animals?

[mirkwood]

So no kidding, there I was on vacation and hiking on this tropical isle...

 

 

[Guest MormonGator]

2 minutes ago, mirkwood said:

So no kidding, there I was on vacation and hiking on this tropical isle...

 

 

Wait a second, I thought you couldn't leave your house? How did you take off the ankle monitor? 

[mirkwood]

Shhhhhhh

[Guest Scott]

On 9/11/2019 at 9:59 AM, Vort said:

In the future, you might want to confine your driving to paved roads. Just a thought.

Seeing those animals was a positive experience rather than a negative one.   

[Guest Scott]

A few stories.

In September 1994, my wife and I were canyoneering in Zion National Park.   We were doing a multi-day trip down from Kolob Reservoir and exiting Lee Pass, but taking an obscure technical route through Beartrap Canyon.     We were hiking down Beartrap Canyon and ran out of daylight.   We were expecting to find a place to camp before running out of daylight, but the creek covered the canyon bottom wall to wall.   Eventually and in the dark we found a 4 feet by 4 feet mud ledge which we could sleep on.   All night we kept hearing buzzing so we knew that we were near a wasp nest or beehive.   In the morning and when it got light we found out that our mud ledge really wasn't a mud ledge.  It was a giant beehive and that's what we slept on all night.  Luckily bees aren't that active at night!   

In December 1997 my wife and I were camped in a tiny one man tent off the shores of Lake Boringo in Kenya.  The lake is known for its hippos, so seeing hippos at one time or another can be expected, but at night they must have decided that the area around our tent has the tastiest grass in the region.   At night they surrounded the tent to graze.   A one man tent is tiny and the hippos were literally pulling up grass next to the tent.   You could here them breathing, chomping, sloppering, and snorting right next to the tent walls.   It was loud!  Hippos can be dangerous, but usually only when you get between them and their water.    They never did bother us.

Also in December 1997 we were camped in Tanzania with a group of other travelers.   At night a baboon jumped onto the tent next to us and and started shaking it wildly.    The lady in the tent was really freaking out, but the baboon eventually left.   The lady however remained really freaked out the rest of the time we were with that group.

In December 2001 my wife and I rafted the Seti Ghendaki river all the way from the Himalaya in Nepal to the sub-tropical forest of India.    At night at one of our camps we awoke to huge tiger footprints all around the tent.   We never heard or saw the tigers, but the footprints were huge!      Later we were told that the tigers come down to that location to drink the water in the river, but that they usually don't bother people.       Although we didn't see the tigers there, later we did get to see a wild tiger at Bandhavgarh.    It was a neat experience and we got some good photographs.

In December 2010 my wife, kids (6 and 8 years old at the time), and I crossed Sumatra on foot (and partially by boat) in order to see all of the fantastic scenery and wildlife.   We ran into oragutans on several occasions, but usually they either swing away or just watch us cautiously and curiously.    On one occasion though, one really big orangutan came down and smacked our guide on the back before climbing back into the tree.    We still don't know what the motivation was, but we all got out of there quick.    Was it a friendly smack?   Did he want to challenge us?    Or was he just curious?   We don't know.

I guess I have a lot of wildlife stories, but these are some that are memorable.  

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Scott