If you go down to the woods today
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From: Sean_Q_ on 1 Nov 2009 12:52 sleazy wrote: > Gee, big ole mean wild animals bite and maul. Who'da thunk it? What was news to me was that eastern coyotes are 2x as big and 4x as mean as our western type. It got me to think about packing some kind of equalizer. I haven't spent much time on the East Coast (but plan to see more, on 2 wheels) and didn't encounter much wildlife -- although I was swarmed by pigeons* on the Halifax-Dartmouth ferry. Meanwhile here's an unfriendly encounter with "man's best friend". http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2409086.ece I'd believe that fatalities by domestic canines are more numerous than their wild relatives. I've seen coyotes here in Greater Vancouver, mostly in the farmlands in Richmond south of the Fraser River. They looked so small and non-aggressive towards me that I've never felt particularly at risk. It would be different if I were charged by a hungry pack in mid-winter or even one, especially if showing signs of rabies. However my friend who lives at the blueberry farm down there was threatened by a pack, right near his home. He was walking their dog, a poodle/maltese/something (a real coyote snack) when 6 of them ran right towards him from over the field. Luckily he was close enough to the house that he had time to grab the dog and make a run for the porch, a more defensible position because they couldn't surround him. They were well into his yard when they broke off the pursuit and retreated. * re pigeons -- I made the mistake of feeding one, and right away all his sisters and his cousins and his aunts figured they were entitled to a handout too and suddenly I was in the middle of a scene like Alfred Hitchcock's _The Birds_. SQ
From: Sean_Q_ on 1 Nov 2009 13:16 J. Clarke wrote: > So let's see, someone looking at the grave of their parents a half a mile > from Harvard is supposed to go armed and exercise situational awareness due > to the danger of coyote attack? She was more than half a mile from an Ivy League university, though, it was in a wilderness, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, 950 sq km of mountains, valleys, forests, waterfalls, rocky coastlines and a tundra-like plateau known as the Cape Breton Highlands. [from WP] SQ
From: Sean_Q_ on 1 Nov 2009 13:26 J. Clarke wrote: > That attack could as easily have happened in Chicago or > Boston or San Francisco-- However the expert said eastern coyotes are more aggressive (and bigger) than in the West. Not that I'm anxious to try and verify this in person... SQ
From: turby on 1 Nov 2009 13:40 On Nov 1, 9:52 am, Sean_Q_ <no.s...(a)no.spam> wrote: > > I'd believe that fatalities by domestic canines are more numerous > than their wild relatives. > Unh, yeah. Wiki says Mitchell was only the 2nd recorded death by coyote attack, after a 3-year-old in 1981. It also says there were 264 deaths in the U.S. from domestic dogs between 1982 & 2008.
From: J. Clarke on 1 Nov 2009 13:30
Sean_Q_ wrote: > sleazy wrote: > >> Gee, big ole mean wild animals bite and maul. Who'da thunk it? > > What was news to me was that eastern coyotes are 2x as big and > 4x as mean as our western type. It got me to think about packing > some kind of equalizer. I haven't spent much time on the East Coast > (but plan to see more, on 2 wheels) and didn't encounter much wildlife > -- although I was swarmed by pigeons* on the Halifax-Dartmouth ferry. > > Meanwhile here's an unfriendly encounter with "man's best friend". > http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2409086.ece > I'd believe that fatalities by domestic canines are more numerous > than their wild relatives. > > I've seen coyotes here in Greater Vancouver, mostly in the farmlands > in Richmond south of the Fraser River. They looked so small and > non-aggressive towards me that I've never felt particularly at risk. > It would be different if I were charged by a hungry pack in mid-winter > or even one, especially if showing signs of rabies. > > However my friend who lives at the blueberry farm down there was > threatened by a pack, right near his home. He was walking their dog, > a poodle/maltese/something (a real coyote snack) when 6 of them > ran right towards him from over the field. Luckily he was close > enough to the house that he had time to grab the dog and make a run > for the porch, a more defensible position because they couldn't > surround him. They were well into his yard when they broke off > the pursuit and retreated. > > * re pigeons -- I made the mistake of feeding one, and right away > all his sisters and his cousins and his aunts figured they were > entitled to a handout too and suddenly I was in the middle > of a scene like Alfred Hitchcock's _The Birds_. FWIW, the recent incident is the second coyote fatality in all of recorded history. The big trouble with them is that since people quit shooting them on sight they've lost their fear of humans. That and they eat cats. > > SQ |