Bears - Wolves - Alligators

[GChief]

Its that time of year when the yearling bears leave the national forests west of me and drift down your way. In a week or so the news will have "bear seen in Richmond suburbs".

There have been a lot of them all over the area already. One wondering around a middle school in VA Beach, some subdivisions in Chesapeake etc. Even had one wondering around a TV station in D-Town Portsmouth.

We had the river otters that visit our pond regularly yesterday.

 

[montidale]

My wife and I saw these two while riding bikes at Elm Creek Park reserve. It’s just on the outskirts of Minneapolis. We have lots of coyotes around here but that’s about it. A lot of yipping at night. Bear sightings seem to be getting more common.

 

[GChief]

I think it is great that these critters are making a come back after Earth's most efficient parasite (humans) tried to genocide them.

 

[john in la]

This is deep southern Louisiana
If it doesn't stick you it will bite you.
But my greatest fear is cottonmouths and copperheads
We only see one or two a year but that is enough you never stick your hand in a hole and you look before stepping.

 

[Loosehandle]

Coyotes, bobcats the size of coyotes, black bears and cougars. For all the talk about them though, you never hear of anybody or any livestock being bothered by them. My son shot a deer and said he saw a bobcat drag it off. He has them on trail cam and pictures that he's taken of them with his phone and the size of them is pretty impressive.

That must have been a tiny deer!
I see dogs that are chasing deer here in Wisconsin

 

[GChief]

is cottonmouths and copperheads

I forgot about those, you see a few every once in a while.

 

[jimmyjoe]

While watching a TV program I saw some folks being chased by a brown bear and they hid under a pickup (yes, I know it is all fake). I live in northern Indiana on 10 acres of woods in a farming community. I got to thinking there is not many rural areas where a person could go for a walk in the woods or safely let a 2 yr old wander around the yard without the danger of 4 legged predators. Northern areas have bears. Southern areas have bears and alligators. Out west is mountain lions among other critters. In this area there are coyotes but I have never heard of them dragging a kid away. Is your area 4 legged predator free like where I live? Notice I said 4 legged, not 2 legged. Every area has their druggies and child molestors.

25 feet from our house.

 

[rrlund]

That must have been a tiny deer!
I see dogs that are chasing deer here in Wisconsin

I don't know. He said it was a good sized doe. I saw a picture of one that he took in the corn right next to his house. He drove by it on the side by side and it stood right there. He got out his phone and took a picture. Compared to the corn where it was standing, that thing was scary big.

 

[jddrawbar]

I don't know. He said it was a good sized doe. I saw a picture of one that he took in the corn right next to his house. He drove by it on the side by side and it stood right there. He got out his phone and took a picture. Compared to the corn where it was standing, that thing was scary big.

I've seen some really large Bobcats on my game cameras, but I would expect some serious ground shrink if it was dead. Like the giant buck on the hoof & ends up being a 6 pt. with a 12" spread.

 

[MeanGene1]

Bears are getting out of hand around Lake Tahoe- my friends bought a couple decent rentals up there when they sold their business. The first thing their new neighbors asked was do you have your bear wires hooked up? Huh? Bear wires? Seems is common practice to run electric fencing on all the decks and around doors etc., Yogi and BooBoo were amateurs compared to these guys. They will climb up stairs onto decks and things and have gotten very good at breaking in and opening doors and such, so the zapping fence helps keep them out. When you come home, you go in with the garage door opener. Standard practice these days, and the bears come and go quite a bit. So a buddy went up there with them one weekend to help with some painting, and took his 4-door cab pickup- and forgot to lock the doors. A bear got in there quite easily, having learned how door handles work, and rummaged through the interior. What he found was a pot-infused candy bar that my friend had stashed in the console. They found the bear curled up in a ball sound asleep in the driveway in the morning by the open pickup door

 

[marloweg]

we have a Ptitzker here in Illinois

that will total your truck and suck the life out of you

we have a Ptitzker here in Illinois

 

[RJKeith]

Its that time of year when the yearling bears leave the national forests west of me and drift down your way. In a week or so the news will have "bear seen in Richmond suburbs".

I live just west of Richmond. Last summer I went hiking in the Shenandoah National Park for several hours. Did not see one bear, but driving home near my house I rounded a curve and suddenly had to brake for a bear in the middle of the road. One one side of the road were woods, on the other side a cornfield, or as the bear calls it, the 24 hour buffet.

 

[petertay]

Northern Illinois here. Coyotes and bobcats, though we don’t see them. We see whitetail deer on the hard, year round. A wolverine ran across our yard last week. DNR says we don’t have them in Illinois, but the farmers say we do.
Worst of all are the ticks. Mowed the yard today neglecting to spray Repel. Now I’m itching in half a dozen places.

 

[da.bees]

This is deep southern Louisiana
If it doesn't stick you it will bite you.
But my greatest fear is cottonmouths and copperheads
We only see one or two a year but that is enough you never stick your hand in a hole and you look before stepping.

So does that mean you always stay in boat on noodling trips so that you can hand beer to the boys in water?