In The Mail

12 Replies to “In The Mail”

1. Living in what was the edge of civilization in Northern Alberta, I can testify that there is probably 10 times the wildlife population than there was prior to settlement. I dodge deer on a daily basis and my truck is covered with tongue marks from from the moose who are so overpopulated that the periodically go insane from ticks.
   There never were coyotes around as the wolves considered them tasty morsels. The early traders would march through hundreds of miles and see no big game tracks. Mother nature used wolves to keep life to a minimum in the bush.

2. “my truck is covered with tongue marks from from the moose”
   Had the truck parked outside our trailer last winter (yeah,we love winter camping),when the wife came in and said something had scratched the hood.Had no idea,so took it to a local guy just outside Barrhead (AB).Wolverine.He said they had been moving that far south for about 5 years now.Funny thing was,we had 4 cats with us.They never even knew it was there.Methinks we have very little to worry about Mother Nature.Oh.And the moose love the left over peas from our garden.

3. Well, let us hope that people living in bear territory do feed the bears – with their pets,
   maybe with their children. That will be an education.
   The Louvre museum is now in the heart of Paris. The word means something like “wolf den”.
   One story has it that a huge she-wolf lived nearby, ca. 1100. It probably only snaffled up the occasional
   peasant. Anyway, spears are all very well but they are expensive and require a little skill.
   Until firearms became relatively inexpensive, humans did not automatically have the upper
   hand when faced with wild animals. The notion that we did and do is yet another example
   of collective stupidity and ignorance.
   The present situation, wild animals vs. us, is the result of a couple of centuries of widespread
   gun ownership and use. Remove the “widespread gun ownership” and we will have various
   hungry wild things munching on our legs.

4. I almost bulls-eyed one of our white tailed deer/rats on Christmas Eve. Idiot thing just standing in the road, watching the giant truck bearing down on it.
   I’m thinking of upgrading my front bumper from stock to the “deer destroyer” welded plate type. Maybe I can get one made with big frickin’ teeth on it to scare the Hondas.

5. There has been a resurgence of coyotes in Ontario with attacks on people reported. Up until ’73 it was $50 a head for a coyote, taken anytime, no questions asked, no forms to fill out, etc.
   The current system is – coyote kills lamb, farmer calls government who send out a provincial ‘livestock evaluator’ who looks at the remains and says ‘Yup, coyote(s) did this’, farmer receives compensation for dead lamb from the municipality and is allowed to hunt coyote(s) or calls in local hunters who must have firearms licence, small game licence and Outdoors Card and the appropriate government form filled out per each bounty claim. Sort of makes ‘shoot, shovel and shut up’ the sensible course of action.
   Happily an MPP with some sense (a Conservative of course) is starting a petition to restore the old system with a $200 bounty.
   rippleoutdoors.com/hunting/coyote/petition-for-coyote-bounty/

6. They are pretty bold in close to here.
   The Beast

7. “Until firearms became relatively inexpensive, humans did not automatically have the upper hand when faced with wild animals. The notion that we did and do is yet another example of collective stupidity and ignorance.”
   I wouldn’t fancy trying to take down an aurochs with an atlatl. Would you?

8. BM……as the saying goes…I do not have to outrun the bear…just you…heh

9. Have I told you about Armadillos?

10. Interesting hazards in Winnipeg…. deer (lots of deer)… geese (way too many on major roads)… racoons (one is one too many and there is NEVER just one)… foxes (only cute in movies)… black bear (occassional but still just dangerous hairy pigs.
    Gun fearing hysterics ….. WAY TOO MANY.

11. As a deer hunter of many years who knows professional wildlife managers personally, I can state authoritively that the areas with the largest and most endangered deer herds ( danger of winter kill and disease from over population) are in rural areas taken over by urban nesters buying once productive agricultural land, taking the land out of production by running acerage homes or hobby farms. No hunting usually follows this crew and with the deer’s nantural predators gone, the fall hunting harvest is the only control on their population aside from disease and starvation. Farmers and ranchers adjacent to these new urbanite retreats are always complaining about crop loss and property damage from over populatingg deer. I have had calls from them pleading for me to take a few deer of the place and I have to refuse because thre are no predation tags issued in the area because the new yuppie land owners petitioning the local government to shut down hunting or have a bow only zone. Even if a season is openeded they allow no public access to the game by signing off all their land. This phenomena is unbalancing herd vitality. In one such area,where deer hunting was all but absent and the population was past peak support numbers, the winter kill took 76% of the herd to starvation and stranding, then come spring they were hit with a plague of Bovine Tuberculosis , this herd never came back to normal numbers to my knowledge and would probably have withstood both problems had their numbers been reduced going into winter. All those animals wasted, food for crows, just to placte some misplaced urban values concerning wildlife.
    Now that the executive end of many wildlife services have been invaded by animal welfare and anti-hunting types, the herd planning programs are getting truly silly/dangerous. Herd endangerment from over population is the norm.

12. A few years ago I asked a Treaty Indian whether he wanted to shoot an elk or two that the Queen had been fattening on my hay. The guy replied, “I’m not sure we should eat elk, what with the BSE and all.” Mind you the guy was a heavy equipment operator who worked like a dog all his life so maybe he earned the right to be discriminating.