Nature & Wildlife Thread

[CometKeith]

Very cool @CometKeith - truly a magnificent sight. My son was in South Africa this spring and the videos he shared with us were amazing - the animals all use the same roads as the vehicles, so they had no trouble finding each other!

Lisa. It is pretty amazing there. It was much better than I expected. Where we went to in Sabi Sands it was once all farmland. It was converted to a private game reserve owned by I think 7 lodges and is as large as Krueger National Park. It took 50 years of planning and work to get it where it is today. The guides and people working there know a tremendous amount. You hear stories where maybe they need to take an action regarding conservation and everyone passes judgement here. In Botswana they have over 200,000 elephant in Chobe National Park. They have built all sort of mud pits and watering holes to support them in the dry season, but the land can only sustain so many. Now you have big trees dying because the elephants rub against them and other habitat that relies on the trees are disappearing. It's very complicated...

 

[Doghouse Riley]

We had some uninvited guests under our tea-house last year. Six of them, plus mum.

But they were fairly well behaved, did little damage and she kept them immaculate loooking..

They were very cute

And got cuter.

Would it be OK for me to have some of these mealworms you've put out for the birds?

You know what will hapen if you say "No," don't you?

Their mother was very attentive.

What have I told you about coming out of the den when I'm out shopping?

I gave them this box to practice their "pouncing,"
Their mother stole some soft toys from other gardens and brought them in for them to play "chase."

When they were old enough she took them away two at a time over our 6ft fence, over three nights. She taught them to jump up onto one of our Japanese lanterns and from there scrabble over the fence.

We didn't befriend them, just made sure they had some water and I left a can of cat food out for them each night to suppliment whatever their mother brought in, though they were still on her milk for quite some time.

I took all these photos on zoom through the glass of our French windows.

Here's the video I took the same way. They used to set off the security light on the back of the shed, but it didn't worry them.

 

[j.w]

Ah they are so darn cute! Lucky you getting to see them grow up. Maybe some will be back to start other families someday.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

Ah they are so darn cute! Lucky you getting to see them grow up. Maybe some will be back to start other families someday.

Our tea-house is built on low brick piers. it has "skirts" on the front and sides attached to the base, which don't quite reach the path, there's a gap of a couple of inches. But there's no skirt at the back of the building. There was a 9" gap that she could get under. I'd left it like that for ventilation when I built it.

That's how the mother got under there. She must have been under there for several weeks before we realised she had cubs. I was playing my jukeboxes in there at the week-ends for a few hours as usual, so they must have liked MoTown as they didn't complain!

But we decided we didn't want to encourage her to return. The cubs caused a bit of havoc in a few neighbours' gardens after they left for a time. The people behind us weren't too pleased as the mother, "Fiona" as we called her was often in their garden (probably pinched the toys from them, as they have young kids) and they came and complained. There's nothing much you can do if you find a fox has made a den in your garden and had some cubs. I asked them if they wanted me to shoot them. Which rather set them back a bit. The RSPCA don't want to know nor animal charities, unless the cubs have been abandoned.


So after they left I concreted the ground between the building and the back fence and made a double wire mesh covered wooden frame to block off the access.

We've always had visits from foxes over the years, there's open land about 500 yards away. Btr this one made several visits over a few days in January and February last year. She just stood on the patio for a minute or two just watching to see what we did. I guess because we didn't react when we saw her, she thought it safe to have her cubs undr there as our garden is quite secure.

She did come back in February tghis year, just to have a look I guess, but we've not seen her since.
She just had a look at us and then made her way to the lamp and went over the fence. She looked very fit, unlike when she had the cubs as she looked very careworn for a while.

 

[GBBUDD]

Betting there weren't a whole lot of frogs making noise that summer

 

[Tara]

How great that you got to experience a family of foxes from your window.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

I must have over 100 photos.



We worked out that there were four males and two females.
The males competed with each other for the mealworms.

The two smaller females "shared."

Meal worms with a wisteria blossom garnish.

The experience had its moments. One afternoon they were chasing each other, round and round the garden and our koi pool. I did stretch a taut net over it, once they started coming out, not to protect the fish, but in case in the excitement one fell in. It has sheer sides so they wouldn't have got out.

One had a black object in its mouth and the others were trying to get it for themselves. My wife was most distressed. "They've got a blackbird!" There's always blackbirds in our garden. I tried to explain that it was "just nature."

The following morning I went into the garden to see if I could see any evidebnce like feathers. But there weren't any.





But I did find this in the middle of the lawn.


























Their mother must have found it somewhere and brought it back for them to play with it. There were never any casualties amongst the other visitors to the garden, that we saw, but they did keep neighbours' cats away.

This is the cutiest photo.

Not very clear as it was gettiing on for dark.

Look at the mess they made of the tea-house verandah. There were paw prints on the windows too that I was having to clean every few days. As the cubs grew which was very rapidly their paw prints were getting higher and higher up the doors.

 

[addy1]

I would love to have a family of fox living here. They are so neat. I see, a red fox, occasionally, but not often. Our pup would be a small meal, but we never let her outside without us. And on a leash. She would see a fox and run up to bark and fight it...............crazy 5 lb yorkie!

 

[Doghouse Riley]

I would love to have a family of fox living here. They are so neat. I see, a red fox, occasionally, but not often. Our pup would be a small meal, but we never let her outside without us. And on a leash. She would see a fox and run up to bark and fight it...............crazy 5 lb yorkie!

"I can see you!"

 

[GBBUDD]

One of my favorite shots from Yellowstone. This is why I get a rush from chasing wild life out there.

 

[Becky]

This is why I get a rush from chasing wild life out there

You chase bears?! You must be brave!

Great photo

 

[Mike in Vermont]

I have had 3 close encounters with bears. One was so close, the bear brushed against me. That one was the least scariest of the 3. There's no way I'm going bear chasing.

 

[GBBUDD]

I have had 3 close encounters with bears. One was so close, the bear brushed against me. That one was the least scariest of the 3. There's no way I'm going bear chasing.

YOU GOT ME BEAT MIKE ! 10 feet as close as I have found myself I was taking photos of a mom and cub when an other came out of the woods just ten feet behind me. I was lucky we just crossed paths and he didn't think I was a threat.

 

[j.w]

As close as I want to get to a bear is his poo
Same for cougars around here and I think I would be more scared of seeing one of them then a bear for some reason. Cougars seems to me would track you down to kill and eat you but a bear I don't think will hunt for a human will he? Maybe it depends on what kind of bear tho.

 

[Mike in Vermont]

Well, the rule of thumb with a Grizzly that is chasing you, is to play dead. If they start to eat you, fight back. This is in case you forgot the bear spray. Even with that, I would worry about a heart attack.