Wolves.

[IowaHeritage]

I had friends of mine in Kanasa City buy a baby Mountain Lion. No, that is NOT a good idea, and I told them so.

They would get up in the middle of the night to bottle feed, of course it grew and grew and off to a " sancturary " it went.

City People and others do some whacky stuff...............

 

[woodmort]

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That's bull--never happened--one of those conspiracy theories that just isn't true. These animal migrated in from elsewhere as the habitat became available to them to fill in the predator niche. As far as the coydog thing, the naturalist have pretty much done away with that theory through DNA research--read the link back a few posts.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

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X2

Did you hear about the one that escaped from WolfPeople???

 

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

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Did you hear about the one that escaped from WolfPeople???

Yes I did. I would of used my tag on it. I don't like them and never will. I had this dumb neighbor that had one when I lived in VA. She sent her 2 sons out to feed it and it killed the oldest one. It seemed totally tame and was like a big baby around me. Never thought much about them until then. They are really destroying our wildlife and its not hard to see it if you get into the mountains as much as I do. I am for total extermination.

 

[tsmith1499]

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That's bull--never happened--one of those conspiracy theories that just isn't true. These animal migrated in from elsewhere as the habitat became available to them to fill in the predator niche. As far as the coydog thing, the naturalist have pretty much done away with that theory through DNA research--read the link back a few posts.

I hate to disagree with you, but I was sitting in the living room at my friends farm where the IMPORTED coyote was shot and killed. It had a tag with an 800 number on it and I was sitting there when the conversation took place. This is not bull. We also after 2 of our state delegates looked into it got confirmation that this in fact did happen. I'm not saying that there aren't other coyote breeds that were already here, but these in particular were not native to the state of MD.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
That's bull--never happened--one of those conspiracy theories that just isn't true. These animal migrated in from elsewhere as the habitat became available to them to fill in the predator niche. As far as the coydog thing, the naturalist have pretty much done away with that theory through DNA research--read the link back a few posts.

I hate to disagree with you, but I was sitting in the living room at my friends farm where the IMPORTED coyote was shot and killed. It had a tag with an 800 number on it and I was sitting there when the conversation took place. This is not bull. We also after 2 of our state delegates looked into it got confirmation that this in fact did happen. I'm not saying that there aren't other coyote breeds that were already here, but these in particular were not native to the state of MD.

Are you sure the animal wasn't tagged for research by wildlife people? Just because it was tagged doesn't mean it was imported, there is a lot of tagged and release research going on with these animals. DNR people aren't into importing predator animals without a lot of public meetings and research beforehand. In fact, to my knowledge, this kind of thing has only been done with wolves in Yellowstone Park and parts of N. Mich.--never in PA or MD they have had coyote populations since at least the 1950's so there would have been no reason to.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
That's bull--never happened--one of those conspiracy theories that just isn't true. These animal migrated in from elsewhere as the habitat became available to them to fill in the predator niche. As far as the coydog thing, the naturalist have pretty much done away with that theory through DNA research--read the link back a few posts.

there is a little bit of truth in it but the wrong folks get credited with releasing them I am a trapper and kina apply Reagan's 11th commandment to hunters, fishermen and trappers

 

[geoff40]

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I hear ya about the snakes. Its happened here in NH before.
You seem well informed, so just for the FYI angle, not long ago a mountain lion was run over and killed in CT. The State there of course went on and on about how it was an escaped exotic pet, but in the meantime they send samples in for analysis, and it turned out to be a known cat from the midwest, totally wild, that found it's way to CT through wandering. I think it is awesome that the first confirmed randomly killed mountain lion anywhere in the northeast in many decades turned out to be anything but an escaped exotic pet. You know what? All those people who claim they are escaped exotic pets are now saying this one example isn't proof. You have to laugh out loud at their foolish insistence.
The average coyote around here is a lot smaller of an animal, females run 30-40 pounds, males a bit bigger. Distinguishing between this size, and a couple of sizes bigger is pretty easy to do. The former stands a lot lower to the ground than the giant sized whatever I saw cross the road that night, and in addition the size of the tracks it leaves behind also tell the tale. There are coyotes everywhere around me, I can go outside and hear them several nights a week, and I know other locales you can drive to at sunset, stand there and listen for a while, and you''ll usually hear them before long. The State estimates 9 to 10 thousand coyotes are here in NH, personally I think the number is higher than that. I often woods walk and I see their signs all the time, pretty much everywhere I go. With the lesson of Novia Scotia demonstrating that those who claim they won't attack people are wrong, I am always armed, but I armed myself long before that incident happened. Remember we have documented attacks on little kids right in their own yards out west, thankfully non fatal. So far. But, clearly they are not harmless to humans. The same people tell us there are no documented wolf attacks either, but I think they are full of you know what. I think you will find there are plenty of wolf attack accounts, these people just find reasons to discount them.
They coyotes here eat, and eat, and eat. They have changed the landscape. They eat lots of deer, they eat lots of rabbits, people's pets, livestock, anything they can. They run through neighborhoods of NH cities at night, I've seen tat too, and the cops I know tell me the same thing. They see them often enough on the graveyard shift, going from yard to yard, street to street, looking for pets, pet dishes, etc.
I shoot any coyote that I get the opportunity to shoot without hesitation. Long ago I would never have imagined I'd be like this one day, but I am. I'd like to see a bounty put on the coyote, I'd like to see 1/2 or 3/4 of them eliminated (we'd never get them all, it wouldn't even be close, they are very smart too) They need their fear of man firmly instilled back in to their instincts, as I believe they are losing it quickly. 1 year or 10, its only a matter of time before they kill someone here too, like 2 years ago in Nova Scotia.


Here is a link about the CT cat I referred to above:

http://newrochelle.patch.com/articles/connecticut-mountain-lion-traveled-from-south-dakota-9

 

[woodmort]

Geoff--I knew about the mt. lion killed in CT--it had been tracked through Minneapolis, parts of Ohio and in Glens Falls, NY over the passed couple of years. DNA showed it to be from the Dakotas where they are reestablishing a population that was eliminated. However I am also familiar with one that was killed in the Adirondacks--near Keene Valley--in the '90's, that one's DNA was from S. America so I doubt it got there by itself. Also there is a difference between a rare animal on a "walk about" and a sustained, breeding population. The forest areas of the Northeast just aren't extensive enough to hold one.

As far as coyotes are concerned, like all predators there is always a chance of one attacking humans, especially those that act like prey by either being prey-sized or running. Also getting between one and what it is hunting can always be dangerous. However, I also think they are being credited for far more deer losses than they actually do. While they will take fawns that are still unable to run and wounded/older deer, most of the lower deer population numbers are due to changing habitat rather than coyote depredation.

As far as sizing an animal is concerned, I still maintain it is tough to do if you just get a glimpse of it crossing the road in headlights or running through the woods. I know some pretty good outdoors men that wouldn't dare make any more than an ballpark guess on deer size, even when it is dead in front of them. It is even tough to tell sizes in pictures unless there is something in it to compare sizes too--we've gone around and around on that in another thread on here. Likewise, within a population there are also size variation--sit in the mall and people-watch--and, given that the Eastern coyote has wolf genes there is no reason to believe some of them could be especially large. The truth of the matter is that, unless one were to see the animal up close, face on and stopped it would be hard to tell if it were a smallish wolf or a large coyote and even then it might take DNA testing to be sure.

 

[bloom_ss]

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X2

Did you hear about the one that escaped from WolfPeople???

Yes I did. I would of used my tag on it. I don't like them and never will. I had this dumb neighbor that had one when I lived in VA. She sent her 2 sons out to feed it and it killed the oldest one. It seemed totally tame and was like a big baby around me. Never thought much about them until then. They are really destroying our wildlife and its not hard to see it if you get into the mountains as much as I do. I am for total extermination.

I heard about that one from the WolfPeople also. I never did hear if it was killed or captured though. Anyone know the rest of the story??