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Post by Kimby on Apr 25, 2010 17:51:35 GMT
And even deer feeding, which may seem innocuous, can attract mountain lions into the neighborhood to prey on deer, and also on pets and unattended children.
Plus deer feed is attractive to bears and wild turkeys. (Turkeys make good lion food as well!)
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2010 23:54:24 GMT
I guess it's best not to feed wild animals at all. We haven't had any lion sightings for many years. At least not in the area that I live. I have heard some very lion like growlings before though, at night and in the day time, right by my house... I reported it and was told that it was probably Bob cats...
When I heard them one afternoon I took in my dog and cats and shut the doors! It was a very unnerving sound..
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Post by Kimby on May 12, 2010 23:12:35 GMT
A bear was reported in my neighborhood this weekend. Will keep the camera at the ready. When I get home. No bears on Sanibel!
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2010 10:48:49 GMT
Do that, Kimby. I want at least one of us to that that picture!
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Post by Kimby on May 23, 2010 1:04:57 GMT
My neighbor saw a big black bear in the meadow across the creek from our neighborhood this morning. I've been keeping my eyes open, but no sightings yet.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2010 2:05:55 GMT
Well keep, looking. I'm taking my camera with me everywhere I can lately. I want to be the first one to get that bear shot!
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Post by Kimby on Jun 9, 2010 18:06:04 GMT
Somebody scratched a tree in my backyard. Either a bear or a mountain lion. The bears are around and everyone except me has seen one. My neighbor called to ask if I'd seen the blonde bear that walked into her yard from mine, and she also saw a sow black bear with twin cubs. All I've seen is big rocks rolled over by bruins looking for ants to eat....
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2010 19:22:02 GMT
That's so exciting, Kimby! I'd love to see some baby ones too. I hope you get to get that pic.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 6, 2010 23:01:09 GMT
More excitement in the neighborhood. I carry my camera every time I go on a walk, because 3 different bears have been seen in my neighborhood this summer.
Yesterday Mr. Kimby found a dead deer in the brush between our house and the neighbors. When I looked at it this morning it had obviously been eaten on. Today when I got home from town, there were TWO messages on the answering machine from neighbors who had seen a big blond bear (black bear, not grizzly bear) eating on the deer while ravens circled overhead. Of course it's gone now. But I'll be ready when it comes back....I hope.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2010 13:51:00 GMT
The bear ate the deer? That's kind of worrying. Yes, keep the camera ready, Kimby. Would be nice to see that bear picture.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2010 16:51:50 GMT
Still no bear picture, but the deer carcass keeps moving around... Pretty soon the maggots will have it crawling away...
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Post by fumobici on Jul 8, 2010 21:36:41 GMT
Bear are great carrion eaters- it's practically the only meat they can expect to get aside from garbage and burrowing animals they can dig up. They really aren't impressive predators- mostly vegetarian for much of the year but never likely to pass up any opportunity for a protein snack.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2010 21:47:59 GMT
Poor deer. I never saw bears as predators either really. But I can see how they would eat animals they find laying around.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 8, 2010 22:20:23 GMT
I think this deer was whacked by a car and crawled into a thicket to die.
BTW, on my walk this morning I discovered a trail of garbage from one of my neighbors trash cans leading way back into the woods. Today is garbage day, but you never know when they will come so some folks put their cans out the night before, and the bears get a "food reward".
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Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2010 15:36:54 GMT
Oh, and I forgot to mention something that happened while I was gone to Wisconsin. My walking partner neighbor heard a deer alarm call (a snort of sorts) and looked out her window to see a doe on the far side of the creek and a black bear on the near side of the creek. The bear seemed to be foraging in the grass, then it reared up and pounced like a cat on a mouse. It came up with a very small spotted fawn in its mouth which bleated piteously while the bear carried it away to eat it.
Who says bears aren't predators? They just don't pick on animals their own size!
BTW, my neighbor is STILL traumatized by this event, even though rationally she knows that this type of thing is nature's way and happens all around us all the time. She just didn't need to have the image seared into her brain.
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Post by fumobici on Jul 9, 2010 15:56:00 GMT
Well almost any animal can become an opportunistic predator. Deer will even turn the tables and eat baby birds and mice if the situation presents itself.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2010 17:41:59 GMT
How is it "turning the table?" You don't see deer eating any bears do you?
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Post by Kimby on Jul 12, 2010 15:56:22 GMT
We saw a bear! This weekend! Feeding on the deer carcass. Pictures to come.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2010 16:53:41 GMT
Oh my gosh! Can't wait too see the pictures.
I've had no sightings as yet. The Fall seems to be the season when they are more evident around here.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 12, 2010 19:15:14 GMT
So this weekend a bear returned to the deer carcass. A different bear I believe, from the description. The other one was "blonde" but this one seems pretty brown to me. That birdbath is on the edge of my lawn. Enlarged for closer look: As it ambled away I did my best to get another shot: And enlarged:
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2010 19:27:38 GMT
I knew that bears are omnivores, but I did not know that they ate carrion like hyenas or vultures.
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Post by dahuffy on Jul 12, 2010 20:50:58 GMT
Good Lord,be careful!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2010 22:58:25 GMT
Wow, nice shots there, Kimby! The bears look quite young. And right on your doorstep too? Do be careful.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 14, 2010 16:38:46 GMT
My 4 photos are of one bear, 2 shots with closeups. And it was not real small - the trees are big. And the distance between my house and the one in the background is almost 300 feet, so the bear is quite a ways from the birdbath in the foreground, which makes him/her LOOK smaller than he/she is.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2010 16:42:16 GMT
I have a memory of black bears from early childhood. We took a vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NC?) and there was a zone of little black bears that would come up to the cars and beg. People would give them all sorts of weird items. I bet a lot of them died from indigestion.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 14, 2010 17:03:40 GMT
There is essentially nothing left of the deer carcass, just ribs and some attached hide and part of the skull and a leg. Plus a much smaller leg. Which tells me that the injured doe had a fawn that was with her as she was hit by a car and retreated to the bushes to die, and the bear got the fawn as a bonus.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 15, 2010 15:16:52 GMT
My neighbor called last night to say that she was watching a big black bear headed my way. I did not see it.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2010 16:01:18 GMT
That's annoying isn't it, Kimby? My neighbor told me she saw one at the back of my garden (this was two years ago), but I missed it too. My son saw one on the side of a road some time back.
Best to keep your camera with you, you just never know when they might appear.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 15, 2010 16:49:38 GMT
Camera in one hand, pepper spray in the other?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2010 19:37:02 GMT
;D Always.
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