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Rabid animals are a serious threat because they lack the part of the brain functioning that tells animals to relent, so they will literally attack until you are dead or until they are dead or subdued… This poor man.

By Kim Hackett

Call it an utter otter horror.

A 96-year-old man was ambushed and mauled by a rabid otter early Friday morning as he walked past brush near a lake in the Venice East neighborhood.

Morrell Denton was midway through his two-mile daily walk when the otter confronted him on the sidewalk. Denton said he thought it was someone’s pet.

But the otter “grabbed me by the foot and pulled on my leg and I went down,” said Denton in his living room, shortly after returning from the Venice Regional Medical Center’s emergency room about seven hours after the attack.

Covered in white bandages on both hands, and with nine stitches on his badly bruised forehead, Denton said he pulled the otter off with one hand before the animal started biting him on the other. The animal bit him to the bone on several fingers.

“I kept trying to get him off me,” Denton said. “It’s like nothing I’ve heard of.”

Two men saw the attack and raced to Denton’s aid, one striking at the otter with a shovel as the other called 911.

Christopher Janssen, 36, was bitten by the otter but the other rescuer, 53-year-old Raymond Duval was not injured.

An ambulance arrived minutes later, taking Denton and Duval to the hospital.

Both men were treated and released. Sarasota County’s health department issued a rabies alert Friday afternoon after the animal tested positive for the disease. Another otter tested positive for rabies in mid-February after attacking two horses in Sarasota County.

A biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said otters are not typically aggressive.

“They are skittish for the most part,” said biologist Jeff Gore.

Sheriff’s deputies shot the animal dead.

EARLIER REPORT

An otter attacked and wounded a 96-year-old man out for a stroll in Venice early today, and then turned on two men who came to his rescue, injuring another.

Morrell Denton, 96, and Christopher Janssen, 36, suffered unspecified injuries during the attack on Venice East Boulevard, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. The men were treated at nearby Venice Medical Center and released.

The otter was killed.

According to reports, Denton was walking along the 300 block of the roadway near an area of thick brush, sometime around 4:30 a.m. Friday, when the otter charged out and attacked him. The attack sent Denton sprawling to the ground.

Janssen and another man, Raymond Duval, 53, saw the attack and raced to Denton’s aid, striking at the otter with gardening tools as one of the pair called 911. Jensen was wounded during the scrap; Duval avoided injury.

The otter was killed.

Almost.

After a time, the animal roused again and began to head back into the brush. But after one attack on a human, there was concern the animal may be a danger to the public.

The otter was killed.

Definitely.

It was not immediately clear whether the rescuers or responding deputies put down the otter. Sarasota County animal service crews responded and took the otter to examine it.

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Not sure why they had to euthanize the bear… couldn’t they return it to a wild area? Or if that wouldn’t work out, a zoo?

TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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The N.J. Division of Fish and Wildlife Bear Response team tranquilized a black bear that was tracked to the back porch of a home on Fox Hill Drive.

In recent days, he’d become almost a familiar sight, trudging the street, checking trash cans for easy snacks.

“He’s been around here for a long time,’’ said resident John Rondi. “He hasn’t been aggressive. He’s been curious. He’s been taking garbage.’’

Until Wednesday, the bear hadn’t caused any harm in the suburban neighborhood he’d made his home.

But that changed fatally after nightfall, when he wandered into a fenced yard a few blocks away on Lyle Avenue after 11 p.m. and killed the 16–year border collie-Corgi mix — coincidentally named “Bear.” The attack prompted a police hunt through neighborhoods off Preakness Avenue the next day, put residents on alert and kept the township’s elementary school children inside for recess.

The search ended after police officers Robert Franco and Jack Belanger traced bear tracks through the snow from Lyle Avenue to 4 Fox Hill Drive, where residents had reported seeing the animal the night before. They found the bear asleep under the deck, Capt. Paul Ireland said.

Authorities notified members of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife Bear Response team who were in town looking for the bear. The wildlife staff tranquilized the bear as police stood guard with shotguns. Wildlife staff member Chuck Sliker said the bear was awake when he approached, but was not alarmed by people. Sliker shot the tranquilizer dart at the bear, which then fell asleep.

Six officers helped state staff carry the bear from the yard around 2 p.m. and load it into a pickup to be taken to a state facility. It was euthanized soon after.

Nirmeen Ibrahim, who lives at the home where the bear had been sleeping, said she had seen it walking through the neighborhood recently but had no idea it was living under her backyard deck.

“I feel bad for the bear, but it could have been dangerous,” said Ibrahim, who was home with her infant daughter. “I’m glad it’s taken care of. I’m worried about the kids here. … It’s kind of scary.”

The incident occurred as the state’s Fish and Game Council is to unveil the new Black Bear Management Policy. The Council will meet Tuesday and is expected to introduce the policy, a first step before the state can consider holding another bear hunt after a moratorium of several years.

The policy will contained an updated population estimate based on a DNA study by East Stroudsberg State University. It also will explain the state’s strategies for dealing with bears, including public education, garbage can maintenance, and hunting.

The dog’s owner, Marian Szal, said she was relieved to learn that the bear had been caught and would cause no further harm.

Szal said she had let the dog out one last time before bedtime. When Bear did not bark to come back in, Szal looked out a glass door and saw what seemed like the back of the bruin on all fours.

She rushed upstairs, and she and her husband shone flashlights through the door. When officers arrived, the couple went outside and called for the dog, in vain. Police followed bear tracks and found the dog dead on a hill near Szal’s property.

“You hear about bear sightings, but not in your own yard,” Szal said. “It’s a tremendous loss. He [Bear] had a beautiful disposition, and he was great with everyone.”

Szal said her family is devastated by the loss of the gentle dog they adopted as a puppy from the Wayne animal shelter 16 years ago. He was named Bear because the fuzzy, black puppy looked just like a cub.

“He made our day every day,” Szal said. “He was a gentle, gentle soul, very smart, very well mannered, very affectionate.”

State officials said the black bear was killed because, in killing the dog, it was involved in a so-called Category 1 incident, exhibiting aggressive behavior.

The dog apparently died of a broken neck, which suggests the bear either took a swipe at it, or clenched it with his jaws, said Larry Herrighty, assistant director for the Division of Fish and Wildlife. He called the incident “an unprovoked attack.”

But bird feeders in the yard might have attracted the bear, he said.

And the recent mild weather might have stirred this bear to activity. Because of the state’s mild winters, bears in New Jersey don’t hibernate. They enter a winter dormancy called torpor and can rouse to forage for food.

“In another month, bears will be up and become very active,” Herrighty said.

Residents of Wayne, which have had numerous bear sightings in the past, should take heed and maintain trash correctly, he said.

Precautions

The Fish and Wildlife Divi¬sion of the New Jersey Depart¬ment of Environmental Protec¬tion offers the following tips to avoid attracting bears:

• Use certified bear-resist¬ant garbage containers, and store them outdoors. Those not using certified containers should place their refuse in containers with tight-fitting lids and store them in a secure lo¬cation – a basement, for ex¬ample – until the morning or evening of garbage collection.
• Wash trash containers with a disinfectant at least once a week to eliminate odors. Carefully rinse recy¬clables to rid them of food residue that can attract bears.
• Pet owners should avoid feeding their animals outside.
• The use of birdfeeders is discouraged in areas frequent¬ed by black bears. Those who insist on feeding birds should do so only in daylight hours between Dec. 1 and April 1, when bears are least active. Store feeders indoors at night, and clean up any spilled seeds daily.
• Thoroughly clean outdoor grills after use. Never dump grill grease on the ground. Store grills in a shed or garage after use.

Source: The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

– William Lamb

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Bear attacks Sudbury woman

Posted By The Canadian Press

Posted 2 days ago

SUDBURY — Police in the Sudbury, Ont., area are warning about the possibility of bear attacks.

A 30-year-old woman was on her driveway in the community of Conniston Wednesday just before 2 a.m. when she was attacked.

She didn’t actually see the animal, but the lacerations on the back of her left leg look like a single swipe from a bear.

The animal was scared off by the woman’s dog.

The woman was taken to hospital, treated for her injuries and released.

Police have gone door to door in the area warning residents to be on the look out for bears and passing on tips that could help keep the animals out of the area.

The Ministry of Natural Resources is also trying to track down the bear.

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Girl bitten by rattler on school playground

By BECKY SHAY – Billings Gazette – 05/31/09

BILLINGS — A student at Eagle Cliffs Elementary was hospitalized Friday after being bitten by a rattlesnake.

Billings School District 2 Superintendent Jack Copps said the unidentified girl is in the lower grades. She was on the playground shortly before 11 a.m. and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Steve Wilson, a captain with the Billings Fire Department, was one of the first emergency responders on the scene, along with engineer Bret Thormahlen and firefighter Craig Riske. He said the girl, who is 6 or 7 years old, told the firefighters she was running on the playground when “she ran into what felt like a couple of sharp sticks” on her foot, which turned out to be the snakebite

“She was a little scared but still in good spirits,” Wilson said.

The snake was caught and killed by somebody at the school before emergency crews arrived. It was a small rattlesnake, about a foot long, with just one rattle on its tail.

At about 6 p.m., Copps said he was told the girl would stay overnight at the hospital for treatment and evaluation, but did not know her condition. 

Children are being advised not to pick up snakes and to report seeing snakes immediately to adults. School officials will inspect the playground and aren’t sure yet whether they will close the area to students.

“It may have been a small snake, and that means there may be a den up there we need to look for,” said Copps.

Two Billings health care providers said snakes like to avoid people and people should try to avoid them, including not reaching under rocks or into other places where snakes may hide to avoid the heat.

“It’s a dangerous time for snakes,” said Dr. Peter Light at Billings Clinic. “They are usually very active at this time of year.”

Someone bitten by a snake should go to the nearest emergency department. It is important to avoid significant activity and exertion, Light said. Venom starts in the soft tissue and will eventually go into the bloodstream and circulate, he said.

“Then it causes problems,” Light said. “If it’s not systemic, it’s better for the patient.”

Dean Angell is a registered nurse at St. Vincent Healthcare emergency department who has an interest in rattlesnakes. The most common variety in this part of Montana are prairie rattlers. Research suggests about 40 percent of their bites are “dry” and do not release significant amounts of venom, he said, but people should not make assumptions.

“Things are drying out and the snakes are starting to come out,” Wilson said. He has been a firefighter for 25 years and said this is the first rattlesnake bite to which he’s responded, but that the possibility of a bite is always there.

If enough venom is injected, there will be immediate swelling and pain. But, it can also take hours for other venom complications, such as neurological or clotting abnormalities, to become obvious.

“We want anyone who has been bitten by a snake, whether they think it is a rattlesnake or not, to come in,” he said.

Antivenin counteracts the effects of the venom. Both Billings hospitals have adequate supplies of the drug, which is called Cro-Fab. Antivenin is expensive, Angell said, and how much is needed depends on the bite and the reaction. He’s seen people who require two to three doses and those who require more than 20 vials.

Both Angell and Light also said snakes have their place in the world, including helping to control rodent populations.

“They are part of the food chain,” Angell said. “If you see a rattlesnake, they don’t want to bother you if you don’t bother them.”

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Alligator shows up at diner, but isn’t on the menu

Alligator shows up at diner, isn’t invited back

By JOHN MONK

Wade Davis peered over the yellow tape into the pine woods Wednesday, looking for the gator.

“Where there’s one, there’s gotta be more — right?” he said.

Davis, 39, is one of hundreds of people who have dropped by Betty’s Diner on Bluff Road the past few days after hearing reports of a huge alligator behind the popular Bluff Road restaurant.

Betty Mack had a different kind of customer near her small diner on Bluff Rd. last Friday. An eight to ten foot alligator came within 30 yards of the restaurant making quite a stir with staff and customers.

- Tim Dominick/tdominick@thestate.com

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

• Gator facts

  Alligator information from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources

  • At least 100,000 alligators are estimated to live in South Carolina, much fewer than the estimated 1.5 million in Florida.

  • The alligator’s natural range in South Carolina is as far north and west as the fall line, an area characterized by rocky shoals in rivers. In the Midlands, that’s in downtown Columbia on the Congaree and Broad rivers and just below the Lake Wateree dam on the Wateree River.

  • Of the nine documented alligator attacks on humans in South Carolina in the past 30 years, more than half were provoked by people.

  • The S.C. Department of Natural Resources established the first alligator hunting season in four decades last year. Hunters who won limited permits in a drawing killed 362 gators. This year’s season runs Sept. 12-Oct. 10.

The alligator — between 10 and 14 feet, estimates went — climbed a hill from a clearing in some woods about 140 yards back from the road. It then crawled over dry, flat terrain to get within about 30 yards of Betty’s Diner. From that vantage point, the gator no doubt could smell the country cooking — burgers, yams and chicken.

“I check under my car when I go out,” said Betty Mack, 59, the diner’s chief cook and restaurant’s namesake who says her specialty is her fast-selling, secret-recipe, nonalcoholic green fruit drink she calls “Jesus.”

The gator hung out all day Friday.

At times, crowds of people surrounded it, taking photographs and videos, poking it with a stick and even touching it.

State officials came out Friday afternoon. Mack and others wonder why they left it where it was, instead of capturing or killing it.

After that, the gator vanished.

Its disappearance only increased the talk.

Restaurant owner Horace Mack, Betty’s son, put up the yellow tape and “No Trespassing” signs to warn people not to go into the woods.

“We have neighborhoods with children all around here. The gator could get to them,” Betty Mack said.

State Department of Natural Resources officials told Betty Mack they couldn’t do anything with the gator since it was not on the Macks’ property or causing danger to anyone.

In fact, said DNR alligator program coordinator Jay Butfiloski, if an alligator is in its own habitat — where this one was — the department rarely intervenes. Intervening means the department would hire an alligator specialist to remove or kill the creature.

It has to be an emergency situation in which life or property is threatened for DNR to do that, Butfiloski said. An alligator on a road as night falls or an alligator at a schoolyard would probably be an emergency, he said.

“Every situation is different and has to be judged on its own.”

In many cases, DNR gives property owners a permit to hire their own alligator removal specialist if the animal comes back on their property and they feel it threatens people.

That’s what DNR did in this case. It also gave the diner a list of about 70 alligator specialists to call for removal if the alligator shows up again.

That didn’t please Betty Mack.

“They were real nice,” she said, “but they didn’t give us the answer we wanted.”

Butfiloski said alligator attacks on people are exceedingly rare in South Carolina. The state’s 100,000 alligators — which reach as far west as Columbia — attack fewer than one person a year, he said.

Fear of alligators is far more common than actual alligator attacks, he said.

Alligators generally try to retreat with people around, he said. But the reptiles can become aggressive if provoked, or if protecting a nest, he said. He advised people to keep a distance.

“It’s like snakes. The more you mess with them, the more they’re likely to bite you.”

Alligators are usually found near water, but at Betty’s Diner, there wasn’t any water nearby. In fact, for several hundred yards in the woods, it was dry land. A large pond, named Alligator Lake, is about 1½ miles to the southwest.

“Alligators sometimes walk between bodies of water. Maybe that’s what this one was doing,” said Butfiloski.

Neighbors also wish DNR had removed the gator.

Less than a half-mile up the road, at the Eastway subdivision where dozens of children live, residents were worried.

“You want to be concerned about the kids,” said Jason Downs, 42. “It was too big to let wander off.”

Betty Mack says she’ll keep looking under her car.

That’s not because she wants to kill and cook it, even though alligator tails are a delicacy with their taste of fishy chicken.

No, it’s because the gator might find her to its liking.

“If he caught me, he’d probably eat me up,” she said.

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Woman attacked by pack of dogs in Oak Cliff

 

02:32 PM CDT on Friday, May 22, 2009

 

By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News 
eaasen@dallasnews.com 

A 37-year-old woman was hospitalized this morning after she was attacked by five dogs in South Oak Cliff.

Woman attacked by five dogs

The attack happened about 6 a.m. in the 2100 block of Lamont Avenue, near Woodin Boulevard, according to Dallas police. Erica Johnson was transported to Methodist Dallas Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition.

A neighbor, who declined to give his name, said he heard a woman screaming early this morning and called 911.

Dallas Animal Services says the attack happened after the victim was carrying a large stick while walking by the home of the dogs’ owner. He warned the woman not to wave the stick because it would irritate the dogs.

The five dogs, each a ridgeback-heeler mix, jumped the fence and ran after her, biting her in the torso, on the back and on both arms, said Kent Robertson, animal services’ division manager.

The dogs’ owner, 76-year-old H.J. Whitmill, tried to pull the dogs off the woman and was scratched himself. Police said he refused medical treatment.

Neighbors said that motorists had driven by during the attack, and that no one assisted the woman because of the dogs.

Animal Services quarantined the five dogs and issued the owner several citations for lacking current rabies vaccination and registration. Other citations were issued for not having spayed or neutered dogs. In addition, the owner was issued a 10-day notice to repair his fence so his dogs can’t escape.

Six other dogs remained in the yard at the home this morning.

Dallas police Senior Cpl. Gerry Monreal said the relationship between Johnson and Whitmill was unclear.

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Rattlesnake turns up in middle of downtown

Taft, Calif. -

Police and animal control officers are used to dealing with gopher snakes and other nonpoisonous reptiles from time to time.

Poisonous snakes are rare, at least in the populated areas.

But on Sunday a Taft Police officer had to deal with a rattlesnake right downtown.

The 20-inch snake was curled up next a tree right in front of Alpha House on the 200 block of Seventh St.

It was also right across the street from two churches and just a half a block away from a third.

Officer Kevin Altenhofel was sent to handle the problem.

He had no choice but the kill the snake because there was no way to safely handle it or transport it and it couldn’t be left in a populated and area right on a heavily traveled sidewalk.
 

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Admittedly, not a lethal situation by any stretch, but still a story worth telling. And, at the very least, more proof that snakes and other animals can show up in the most unusual places – not just in the “wild.”

Snake Bites Man Sitting
on Toilet

Updated: Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 1:49 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 1:43 PM EDT

• By ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ

(MYFOX NATIONAL) – “Toilet snake” has one meaningfor plumbers and a very different meaning for a Taiwanese man who was bitten on the genitals by a snake as he sat on his toilet. The Taipei Times reportsthat the man now suffers from a phobia of toilets.

According to the Daily Telegraph , the 51-year-old man, who has only been identified by the last name Lin, “suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up” as soon as he sat down. When he looked down, he saw a snake sitting in his toilet. The yellow and black snake is believed to be a species of rat snake, which is not poisonous. “If it were a poisonous snake, Lin would be lucky to be alive,” his doctor was quoted as saying in the Taipei Times.

It is believed that the snake entered Lin’s toilet through a crack in the lid of his septic tank. Considering the nature of his injury, Lin is being surprisingly gracious to the snake, which was released into the wild. “It was the snake’s signal for help when it bit me,” he said. “If it hadn’t, maybe it would have been stuck in the septic tank and either suffocated or starved to death. It looked like an accident but it was actually fate.” 

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Venomous South American spider found in Manitoba grocery store

This venemous Brazilian wandering spider was a stowaway in a bundle of South American bananas that arrived at an IGA store in Manitoba. (Photo courtesy the Russell Banner)Staff at the IGA grocery store in Russell, Man., got a big shock this week when a live venomous spider was discovered in a shipment of bananas from South America.

The large arachnid was captured in a jar and passed on to the local high school biology teacher, Bonnie Morris, at Major Pratt School.

Her students have used the opportunity to research on the internet about the hairy, fanged spider, which is about the size of softball. The class discovered the critter was a Brazilian wandering spider.

Also known as the banana spider, it is considered lethal and aggressive. The Guinness World Records book of 2007 lists it as the world’s most venomous spider, stating they are considered to be responsible for the most human deaths due to spider bite envenomation.

They can grow to have a leg span of up to 13 cm and their body length ranges from 17 to 48 millimetres, according to Wikipedia.

They are called a wandering spider because they roam the jungle floor at night, rather than residing in a lair or web. During the day they hide in dark and moist places in or near human dwellings.

Manitoba Conservation has since taken the spider from the school.

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Kind of a funny story. But the woman does have a case.

Woman sues Wal-Mart over ‘Norman the nutria’

BY JANET MCCONNAUGHEY • ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER • MAY 7, 2009

NEW ORLEANS — A south Louisiana woman claims in a lawsuit that a nutria known as Norman ran at her in her local Wal-Mart, scaring her into a panic attack and a foot injury that required surgery.

Employees at the Wal-Mart in Abbeville not only knew a wild animal was at large in the store, but had given it a pet name and negligently failed to warn people about it, Rebecca T. White and her husband, Randal, allege in a state court lawsuit. 

Nutria are rodents with bright orange buck teeth. Weighing up to 18 pounds, they look like small beavers with rat-like tails. Would-be fur farmers in 22 states imported large numbers in the 1930s and ’40s, then let them go when they proved unprofitable. They proliferated in south Louisiana, where many residents call them nutria-rats or neutral-rats. 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had little comment about the lawsuit filed April 22 in state district court in Abbeville, about 130 miles west of New Orleans. 

“A safe, clean and friendly shopping environment for customers is always our goal. We haven’t been served with a lawsuit but we are looking into the matter,” spokeswoman Michelle Bradford said Thursday. 

It isn’t clear what happened to the animal. The parish nuisance animal control officer, Duane Riebel, said he has never been called on to get rid of nutria. 

According to the lawsuit, Rebecca White had a full shopping cart when “suddenly and without warning a large wild nutria came from behind the Coke rack and ran straight towards” her on Oct. 11. 

Fearing for her safety, she “pulled her shopping cart towards her to protect her from the large vicious looking rat,” the suit continued. 

The cart ran over her left foot, breaking two bones, the Whites’ lawyer, Anthony Fontana, said Thursday. He said she underwent surgery in late February for broken bones and damaged nerves. 

Wal-Mart workers “came running” in October but made light of the incident, “telling petitioner that they could see that she had an encounter with ’Norman,’ a name the employees had given to the rat,” the lawsuit alleged. 
Fontana said Thursday that White suffers from panic attacks. 

“She got to the checkout counter,” Fontana said. “That’s the last thing she remembers. She passed out and they had to take her to the hospital in an ambulance.” 

She had had prior surgery on her back, which was re-injured when she fell, Fontana said. “They’re monitoring that as to whether she’ll need any type of treatment.” 

She is asking for compensation for pain, suffering, mental anguish, fear, disabling injuries, and medical expenses. The surgery bills aren’t yet in, Fontana said, but other medical bills totaled $1,945.93.

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Bear wanders into Camarillo [Updated]

8:36 AM | May 6, 2009

Residents of a Camarillo apartment complex received an unexpected visitor this morning: a bear.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department received a report at about 5 a.m. that a large brown bear had been spotted wandering through a densely populated part of town, said Capt. Bill Ayub.

Sheriff’s deputies followed the bear into the Avalon Camarillo Apartment complex in the 1500 block of Flynn Road, where they corralled the animal until shortly before 8 a.m. when wardens from the California Department of Fish and Game shot it with a tranquilizer dart, Ayub said.

Residents were advised to remain in their apartments until the animal had been taken away. [Updated at 8:50 a.m.: The 300-pound male was being trucked to a wilderness area in the hills to be released, Ayub said.]

It was not immediately clear where the bear had come from, but Ayub said it probably emerged from a creek bed about half a mile away and wandered into Camarillo in search of food.

“It was pretty far into town, though,” he said.

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Bear goes to lunch on Metro Parkway

FWC to trap and relocate wild animal

By Rachel Myers
rmyers@news-press.com

• Photos: Black bear spotted in south Fort Myers

Home-hunting had caused him to work up quite an appetite. 

After meandering the streets a while, he found a cozy haunt in the shade, where a bag of salty Lays potato chips hit the spot.

But anyone would get self-conscious with a crowd gathering to watch you dine. 

Too bad the spot was inside a Dumpster, the streets were busy and he was a 6-foot, 150-pound black bear wandering just off Metro Parkway. 

“He jumped in the Dumpster, grabbed a bag and jumped out,” said Dan Peterson, manager of Caloosa Tent & Rental Dumpster. “He brought it to the woods and then jumped back in. Once the police showed up, he took off. It was as if he recognized the uniforms.”

Experts with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission say their approach is typically hands-off. But after seeing the bear’s boldness and lack of fear toward people, the decision was made to trap and relocate him.

“This bear has obviously been fed,” said Gary Morse, FWC spokesman. “It’s a shame, because it often leads to nuisance behaviors, and I hate to say it but people need to know: A fed bear is a dead bear. Once they learn these behaviors, it’s very difficult to get them to behave normally.”

The bears are rarely aggressive, Morse said. But if a bear has been fed by humans, it loses its fear and will come dangerously close. 

The Metro Parkway sighting and another reported later Monday on Franklin Street in Fort Myers make four in three days in Lee County, with another also in Fort Myers off Daniels Parkway on Saturday and the fourth at Jenna Avenue and Seventh Street Southwest in Lehigh Acres.

At the latter location, parents were concerned because the bear was wandering close to a school bus stop. But the wildlife commission declined to respond, saying the best approach is to leave bears alone as they rarely are aggressive unless they’ve been fed. 

Media images Monday show a man taking a picture of the bear on Franklin Street less than 10 feet away as the bear relaxes on the edge of the trash bin before diving in, paying no mind to the half-dozen humans gathered around him.

“That’s not normal,” Morse said.

While the hope is relocation, Morse said, unfortunately habits die hard; if the bear continues to find its way to people, it may need to be killed. 

“The prognosis in these cases is usually bad,” Morse said. 

It’s unknown if the bear seen Monday on Franklin Street is the same one seen earlier on Metro Parkway. 

“It could be one adventurous bear, or it could be a couple,” Morse said. 

There are five main black bear territories in Florida, and one of the larger sites is south of Lee County.

Sightings are more common this time of year, Morse said, because mother bears prepare to bear new offspring, and force the young adolescent males away from their home territory so they aren’t a danger to cubs. The young males search for new space, and sometimes end up in urban environments. 

They are attracted to food — any food — including bird feeders, trash and pet food. 

“Bears will do incredible things to get food,” Morse said. “You’ve got to make it as hard for them as possible so they won’t be tempted to get close.”

Peterson, who spotted the Metro Parkway bear after the furry visitor scaled the fence and dove into the Dumpster, said it’s not uncommon for smaller scavengers to frequent the grounds. But seeing a bear was unnerving — and he almost didn’t believe it.

After running away, Peterson returned, just to make sure he had seen what he thought he saw.

“It looked like it was going to knock the tree down,” Peterson said. “He looked healthy. Usually you think of a bear living in the woods as scrawny. But he looked like a healthy animal.”

— Staff Writer Terry Brady contributed to this report.

Additional Facts

Bear sightings in Lee County
View Bear sightings in a larger map

Link

People or Sheeple?

by  Ted Nugent 

The cute chimp attacks the owner’s best friend and eats her face and hands off. The primate’s owner calls 911 and cries for help that, as always, comes much too late. 
 
A nine year old little girl takes the 160 pound bull mastiff for a walk and loses control. The giant dog clamps down on her head and all people can do is scream and yell.
 
Another nine year old little girl steps off the school bus in rural Michigan and is instantly attacked by a pack of feral dogs, all wearing collars. Again, all anybody can do is scream as the helpless girl’s face and head is ripped to shreds.

The elderly lady leisurely strolls along the causeway like she does every evening, when out from the canal lunges a prehistoric monster, its rows of teeth clamping down on her torso, nearly cutting her in half. The 12 foot alligator drags the gasping senior citizen into the shallow water and devours her.
 
The insane lady lifts herself over the barrier so she can pet the 1000 pound polar bear, but instead is clawed into the jaws of the carnivore as all the zoo goers wail pathetically to no avail.
 
A young athletic gal enters her apartment building in San Francisco after her daily jog and is met by a pair of snarling Doberman pincers that savagely attack and kill her.
 
The Michigan farmer enters the breeding pen of his whitetail deer and is gored and nearly killed by the dominant buck. His cries for help are heard by no one.
 
Two punks taunt the regal Indian tiger in its cage at the San Francisco zoo. The giant killer cat leaps up and over its moat and easily catches and kills one punk and severely injures the other. No one hears their cries (and in this case, that’s just as well.  I’m on the tiger’s side).
 
The animal control officer responds to an emergency call about a pit bull attacking neighbors, but she arrives with only a flimsy net and the powerful dog nearly kills her.
 
A bobcat crashes through a window at a local tavern and begins chasing patrons, clawing and biting people at will. Everybody scurries about helplessly and cannot stop the rabid kill crazy cat.
 
The bicycler pedals through a curve on the bike path near San Diego when a hungry mountain lion catapults onto him, biting his neck, and dragging him off into the brush. Other cyclists scream and holler but the cougar ignores them and kills its victim.
 
A young boy zips up his sleeping bag in the Canadian park for a night of camping, but is savagely attacked by a large black bear. The boy’s family yells and throws pots and pans at the bear who is dragging the helpless boy off into the wilderness, where it kills and eats him.
 
The stoned hippie spends years in the Alaskan wilderness, and in a drug induced stupor, he pretends to befriend grizzly bears and give them names. He and his girlfriend are killed and eaten by his new friends.
 
A family is picnicking in Northern California when a mountain lion stalks their picnic table and grabs the mother by the throat and drags her off into the forest. All anybody can do is scream and yell and cry.
 
I could go on, but I just thought I would mention that carrying a gun might be a good idea. Nah.  Some people are sheeple. 

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5-foot patio visitor startles Hampton man

By MATTHEW STURDEVANT

Daily Press

May 4, 2009

HAMPTON, Va.

Last August, Rick Schumann was about to relax on his apartment patio near Sandy Bottom Nature Park when he saw it: a 5-foot canebrake rattlesnake. 

“It was as big around as my forearm,” Schumann said. 

He’s got a photo to prove it. 

Schumann lives at Meridian Parkside, a new apartment complex that opened last year on Hampton Roads Center Parkway just west of Sandy Bottom. Not long after he saw the snake on his patio, Schumann said a woman and her toddler who lived in an apartment across from his saw a canebrake curled up on Schumann’s welcome mat. The woman has since moved, and Schumann has been very careful before walking outside. 

“Every morning, I crack the door (open) and look down,” Schumann said. 

It’s that time of year again when snakes are on the move, including the venomous canebrakes. The snakes, which are officially designated by the commonwealth as endangered in Virginia, come out of hibernation about mid-May–when the weather warms up–and start looking for a mate. The first canebrake seen this year at Sandy Bottom was on a trail April 28 and was relocated within the park, said Hampton parks department spokesman Ed Novi. 

Last year, an official at Sandy Bottom Nature Park was called on three separate occasions to remove a canebrake rattlesnake from Meridian Parkside apartments. 

Before approaching the snake, the biologist or park ranger puts on snake chaps to cover his/her legs, said Arthur W. Mertz, chief park ranger at Sandy Bottom. A rod with a golf-club-like handle is used to hoist the snake into a breathable, rip-stop nylon bag. The bag is put in a plastic, 5-gallon bucket specifically designated for canebrake retrieval, Mertz said. The snakes are then taken back to the park and released. 

Management at Meridian Parkside declined to talk about the snakes. Last year the apartment managers put up fliers instructing people on what to do if they saw a canebrake. 

Canebrakes have a distinctive black tail and rattle, are usually pinkish, gray, yellow or light brown with brown-to-black chevron patterns down the spine. They can grow up to 5 feet long. They feed on rodents, mainly gray squirrels, and eat once or twice a year. Occasionally, they eat birds and frogs. Canebrakes are an important part of the ecosystem, and they help control the rodent population, Mertz, the Sandy Bottom chief ranger said. 

Canebrakes are in Hampton, Newport News, York County, Isle of Wight, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, according to Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries. On the Peninsula, the bulk of the population is believed to be around the nature park at Sandy Bottom. Despite being a scary encounter for people who might see one sunning on a patio, it is a misdemeanor to harm or move the snakes. 

Residents are asked to call state Game and Inland Fisheries Biologist J.D. Kleopfer at 804-829-6703, or local animal control authorities. 

The biggest challenge facing the reptiles is loss of habitat, according to researchers at Old Dominion University and state game officials. 

In 2000, researchers tracked canebrakes by placing small radio transmitters underneath the scales. They found canebrakes in the Oyster Point area, around Big Bethel Road, in the Michael Woods area and in Kiln Creek–all areas that underwent rapid development. 

Last year, canebrake habitat was cited as one of the reasons Hampton had to wait years to get state and federal permits to extend Commander Shepard Boulevard. The new road will cut a 200-foot-wide path through the woods, about 1.8 miles long. 

Canebrakes need a large area to roam for food, and have been tracked wandering as much as 757 acres in a year, according to the ODU researchers. 

For people interested in seeing a canebrake behind the safety of Plexiglas, Sandy Bottom Nature Center has one in a terrarium as part of an educational display. 

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Poisonous snakes in town

By Kevin Davis

KOSSE – They hide in the grass, in garbage, and they’re very poisonous. They’re Copperhead snakes, and with recent floods pushing them out into the open, they are dangerously multiplying in Kosse.

Residents of Kosse say they’ve seen a lot of snakes recently….and they’re getting brave — slithering down the main part of town.

But the county has no animal control official, meaning the residents of Kosse will have to take care of the mess. According to James Kays, a resident of Kosse, “the city has asked everybody to clean up their property… even help people clean property adjacent to their own to try to keep the snakes out.”The city has started issuing citations to people who aren’t clearing their land of potential snake havens.

But for James Kays, he has one message for the snakes — bring it on.

“A snake’s a snake to me. If he’s green, yellow, brown, whatever color, I’ll kill him if i can.”

The first round of citations for not removing snake havens are going out next week.

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Rare, but not unexpected.

Rattlesnake roundup in Chicago area

The last known rattlesnakes still living in the Chicago area are being rounded up in an emergency species survival rescue effort.

A massasauga rattlesnake, caught last week, is checked by staff of Lincoln Park Zoo on Tuesday. (Tribune / Kuni Takahashi)
   

Jointly conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Lincoln Park Zoo, the roundup is sending snakes to the zoo and an eventual captive breeding program likely to take a decade or more. The idea is to breed the reptiles, eastern massasauga rattlesnakes, back to a large and healthy enough population so they can be restored to area wilderness locations, including forest and nature preserves.

The native species is so shy and retiring that it has managed to remain here from the city’s frontier beginnings through today.

“They aren’t a very rattling rattlesnake,” said Joanne Earnhardt, a population biologist at Lincoln Park Zoo who chairs the North American species survival plan for the snake. She said there are few recorded instances of them biting humans. 

“They only grow up to 2 feet long and are very shy, something you don’t expect in a rattlesnake,” Earnhardt said. “They have a behavior of being very quiet and still, even if you are within inches of them, hoping you will go away.”

In Cook, DuPage, Will and Lake Counties over the next month and in springtime over the next several years, biologists will systematically search for the rattlesnake at sites where it was known to live in the past.

The massasauga (pronounced massa-SAW-guh) was relatively common in the four counties until a few decades ago, but annual searches for them that began in 2005 found them in only one isolated wetland area. Fearing pet collectors or vandals might descend on that location and remove or destroy the snakes, officials decline to identify where it is.

“We have been studying them for years and have watched their dramatic decline,” said Joe Kath, the state Natural Resources Department’s endangered species project manager. “We came to the difficult realization that we had two choices: We either watch them completely disappear from northeastern Illinois, or we take this action and bring them back to a healthy, viable population.”

On Friday, biologists conducting the rescue search found an adult female massasauga at the single isolated area, and on Monday, they found an adult male there.

“It is a beautiful snake,” Earnhardt said. “It is beige, black and gray with large dark splotches on its skin that are different on each snake.”

In long summer grass in the wetlands, ponds, swamps, fens and grasslands where they normally live, their camouflage is so perfect they are extremely difficult to spot, she said. Springtime, while wild grasses are still short, is the easiest time to spot them when they are leaving the  crawfish burrows where they have spent the winter.

“If you are bitten by one, it is serious, but their venom is not extremely potent and life-threatening, as it can be from more dangerous venomous snakes,” Earnhardt said, “In fact, massasaugas can control when they do and don’t use venom as they bite, and they might not use it biting a human because they would recognize humans are not prey, just something they want to scare away.”

In nature, they are crucial to their habitats, working as ambush hunters popping out of long grass to kill and eat mice, voles, shrews and rats, keeping down their populations.

Robert Kennicott, the most important early naturalist in Chicago, collected and preserved many massasauga specimens in the 1850s that can be found in natural history collections, said Michael Redmer, a staff biologist at the  Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional office.

“Up to the early 1990s, the [massasauga] snake was fairly easy to observe if you knew the places to look for them,”  Redmer said.

The snake is on the Illinois endangered species list and is a strong candidate to go on the federal endangered or threatened species list, he said. 

There are three distinct genetic groups of the species, one that resides in Ontario, New York and Pennsylvania; another in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio; and a third in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.

The causes of their dwindling numbers are human-related — destruction of their habitat as it is converted to farmland or urban uses, deterioration of their ecosystems and hunting.

“Up until the late 1960s, you would see newspaper ads announcing organized ‘Rattlesnake Roundups’ in which people  would bring them in from forest preserves for bounties,” Redmer said. “That was the prevailing attitude then — they are venomous and no good, so get them out. It is a sad thing. The snake can’t help that it is venomous.”

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It would be so crazy to have a mountain lion circling your house as described in this story.

San Benancio resident recounts close call with mountain lion

PHOTO BY JOEL ERICKSON

A mountain lion perches on the wall of Joel Erickson’s patio about three years ago. 

“It started when the mountain lion tried to get my house cat,” Erickson writes. “I knew that the [mountain lion] was in the area because I had seen his tracks in the mud.

“One evening when I was working in the garage, my cat was sitting outside the door enjoying the evening. I heard a loud bang and thought the cat had knocked something down. Later I was able to reconstruct what happened: The mountain lion had come around the corner of the house and caught my cat sitting outside. Seeing a snack there, he jumped at the cat, missing it and hitting the garage door, which was the bang I heard.”My cat must have used up a couple of its lives that evening, because she was able to get away and climb to the top of a tree, where she stayed all night. I thought she was gone because of the cat fur I saw and the lion’s tracks. I found her the next day in my shed, unhurt but scared.

“It was about a month later when I was having coffee about 4 in the afternoon that I saw the mountain lion come past my house.

“He was probably looking for another snack because he went all the way around the house and looked in the French doors to see what was inside.

“My cat got one look and went under the bed. I got my camera and went to another window to get a picture. When the mountain lion heard the noise he came across the top of the retaining wall to see what was inside. He came right up to the window, so I was only 3-4 feet from him when I took the one picture. It wasn’t a telephoto lens.

“I have seen him, or one like him, cross San Benancio Road early in the morning and have seen one at a small pond I have late in the evening, but this was the only time I got a good look in the day.”

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It’s almost like an animal revolution is going on.

Possible rabid animal attacks reported in Winchester area

WINCHESTER – At least three incidents of possible rabid animal attacks have been reported to Animal Control this month, according to a press release issued today by Winchester police.

On Wednesday, a woman reported that she and a child had been attacked by a red fox on Battery Drive.

“The female reported that after leaving a business on Battery Drive with a male child that she was caring for, a red fox came out from underneath a vehicle and bit the child’s shoe. When the female intervened, the fox bit the female several times. The female then drove to seek treatment at the Winchester Medical Center, ” the release states.

“The parent of the child decided she would seek treatment the following day at the child’s pediatrician, since the fox bite did not penetrate the child’s skin. The female described the fox as having a mangy coat, wet and bloody mouth.”

Animal Control has set traps in the Battery Drive area where the incident occurred. Area neighbors reported seeing the fox under cars througout the day. 

On Sunday, a homeowner in the 100 block of Linden Drive reported her dog had been attacked by a groundhog, and that when she tried to scare the animal away, it charged at her.

“The homeowner, who was not bitten, went back into her residence and called the dog inside. The groundhog was not on the property when Animal Control arrived. Several traps have been set in the area in an attempt to catch the groundhog. The homeowner’s dog was up to date on his rabies vaccination; however, the 45-day hold was placed on the dog. It cannot be confirmed that the groundhog is rabid until the groundhog has been caught,” the release states.

On April 15, a homeowner in the 700 block of Merriman’s Lane reported that his dog was attacked by a raccoon.

“During the attack, the homeowner was able to kill the raccoon. The Virginia Department of Health confirmed the raccoon was infected with rabies. The homeowner’s dog was up to date on his rabies vaccination; however, the Virginia Department of Health requires a 45-day hold on the dog, which is monitored by the Department of Health,” the release states.

Winchester police are asking area residents to report any wildlife or animals that exhibit signs of rabies, or if a bat enters a residence. Call police at 540-662-4131.

Signs of rabies include dingy or mangy coat, wounded appearance, bleeding or wet mouth, and/or aggressive or confused actions.

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Considering just how rare Mountain Lion attacks are, it seems like lately officials are euthanizing way too quickly.

Cougar killed after
entering courtyards

Updated: Thursday, 23 Apr 2009, 4:23 PM MDT
Published : Thursday, 23 Apr 2009, 3:35 PM MDT

• Web Producer: Todd Dukart

ELDORADO AT SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – Game wardens have killed a cougar who entered the courtyards of two Santa Fe-area homes.

The 100-pound female cougar was captured and euthanized after she was found Monday at the homes in the Eldorado subdivision.

Game warden Desi Ortiz said the cougar showed no fear when he arrived at the first home. The animal stared back at him as he positioned himself with a tranquilizer gun.

Ortiz said he hit the mountain lion in the hind leg with a tranquilizer dart. She jumped over the wall to the courtyard and went missing.

A short time later, Ortiz was called to another home where a cougar was seen staggering into the courtyard.

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish officials said the original plan was to move the animal to the Jemez Mountains, but she was euthanized after officials determined she was too dangerous to people.

Dan Williams with Game and Fish said in a news release the cougar appeared to have lost its fear of humans.

Tips to avoid encounters with mountain lions and other large predators, according to Game and Fish:

• Do not feed wildlife. Use native plants, not non-natives, so as to not attract deer, which are the primary prey of lions. Remember, predators follow prey.
• Do not let your pets roam around outside. Bring them in at night. If you keep pets outside, provide a kennel with a secure top. Do not feed pets outside where the food can attract lions or other smaller animals which lions prey upon. Store and dispose of all garbage securely.
• Closely supervise children. Make sure they are home before dusk and not outside before dawn. Make lots of noise if you come or go during times when mountain lions are most active — dusk to dawn. Teach your children about lions and what they should do if they encounter one.
• Landscape or remove vegetation to eliminate hiding cover for lions, especially around areas where children play. Make it difficult for a lion to approach unseen.
• Install outdoor lighting, especially in areas where you walk, so you can see a lion if one were present.
• Close off open spaces below porches or decks.
• Place all livestock in enclosed sheds or barns at night. Close the doors to all outbuildings so that an inquisitive lion is prevented from going inside to look around.
• Also, if you encounter a mountain lion:

Stop or back away slowly if you can do so safely.

• Stay calm when you come upon a lion talk calmly yet firmly to it and move slowly.
• Immediately pick up all children off the ground and tell them to stay calm.
• Do not run from a lion as fleeing behavior may trigger the instinct of the lion to attack.
• Face the lion — do not turn your back — remain in an upright position and look as large as possible (raise your arms, open up your coat, if your wearing one).
• Carry a walking stick and use it to defend yourself by keeping it between you and the lion. If the lion approaches closer or behaves aggressively, arm yourself with the stick, throw rocks or sticks at the lion, and speak louder and more firmly to the lion. Convince the lion you are dominant and a danger to it.
• Fight back if a lion attacks you. Use any possible object within reach as a weapon, such as rocks, sticks, jackets, a backpack or your bare hands. Lions have been driven away by prey that fights back. Stay standing and if you fall down try to get back up on your feet.
• Call police if you feel you are in danger.

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7-Foot Gator Loose In Orleans Parish Park

Nuisance Hunter Captures 2 Of 3 Gators Reported At Brechtel Park

POSTED: 6:15 pm CDT April 23, 2009
UPDATED: 6:54 pm CDT April 23, 2009

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Park workers on Thursday tried to oust an unwelcome visitor inside a popular Algiers park.

 

A 7-foot alligator was still on the loose in Brechtel Park as of Thursday evening. 

“It’s very much a common problem,” said park attendee Perrier Sanchez. “They’ve got alligators at Audubon Park, City Park, Brechtel Park.” 

At Brechtel Park, three large alligators recently tried turning a lagoon into their summer home. 

“The park spotted them and was concerned for safety, so they asked us to try and get rid of them,” said Shane Granier, of Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries. 

Lt. Edward Skena with Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries said agents were first notified about the problem in February and hired a nuisance hunter to capture the trespassers. But so far, the hunter has only caught two. 

“The two he caught were between 6 and 7 feet, and he has been unable to locate the third,” Skena said. “It’s between 7 and 8 feet, and he’s still trying to catch it.” 

Skena said that’s just two of about 20 gators they’ve captured this year in Orleans Parish, but park-like settings make the job much more difficult. 

Wildlife and Fisheries employees said they have to catch the alligator by hand. They’re unable to set traps because they want to protect other wildlife and small children. 

“You can’t leave those things unattended, those lines,” Skena said. “There’s a large, sharp hook, and you don’t want children to come in contact with that.” 

Instead, the hunter will fish for the gator. But Skena said, until the gator is captured, guests should use common sense. Don’t feed the alligator and keep children and small pets away from the water’s edge. 

“Basically, if you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you — that’s the way I see it,” Sanchez said. 

Wildlife and Fisheries agents said they will continue to receive gator sightings as the temperatures rise, but they have had no reports of gator attacks in Orleans Parish.

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It’s not really clear whether if the bear was even chasing the woman, but it got put to sleep. Why couldn’t they just relocate it?

Pregnant Woman Hit By Car Running From Bear

Posted: 1:46 PM Apr 23, 2009 Last Updated: 8:29 PM Apr 23, 2009 Reporter: McKenzie Martin  PLAY VIDEO: Pregnant Woman Chased By Bear RAW VIDEO: DOW Tranquilizes Bear

Police say the woman was walking when she saw a bear and she thought the bear was coming after her. The woman reportedly screamed and ran into the street. “I heard a rustle behind me and a bear came out of the creek, I was about 2 feet away from the bear,” Ashley Swendsen said. She says when the bear started following her she screamed and ran away. “I went up a gravel hill and you have to cross a bridge, there’s no pedestrian walk and I was trying to cross the bridge and this lady hit me.” Police say Swendsen, ran into the street near 6700 Vincent Drive, three blocks away from Dublin and Vincent. The driver of the car reportedly took off. Swendsen was taken to Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for a bruised leg. She is 5 months along in her pregnancy and the baby was unharmed. Police say they found a bear a while later in the area, at 1443 Rock Ridge, near Rock Ridge and Turret. The Division of Wildlife euthanized the bear after Swendsen identified her in a picture. The DOW says the bear had become a danger to the area, becoming too comfortable around humans.

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It’s amazing how often wild animals show up in non-wild areas.

Black bear living on I-5 median

10:29 PM PDT on Wednesday, April 22, 2009

By ROB PIERCY and JIM FORMAN / KING 5 News 

Video: Bear makes itself at home in freeway median

STANWOOD, Wash. – Of all the places to call home, a black bear near Stanwood has chosen, perhaps, the noisiest.

Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Randy Lambert says an adult black bear appears to be living in the median of Interstate 5, near Exit 215 in the Stanwood area, a few miles north of Smokey Point.

“He’s foraging on the fresh spring grass and plants growing in the median,” Lambert said.

Video

SkyKING video of bear on median

Bears showing up in unusual places

Since the weekend, hundreds of drivers have called the State Patrol, reporting sightings of the bear. He’s described as an adult weighing between 200 and 250 pounds.

“Very exciting to see on the side of the freeway for sure,” said Liane Johnson, who saw the bear. “My boyfriend slammed on the brakes. We’re going 60 and I’m thinking, what the heck – we’re gonna crash!”

Johnson got out and snapped two grainy pictures of the bear munching on spring grass.

“I didn’t think I was getting very close, but my boyfriend was very stressed that the bear was gonna attack me,” she said.

There were reported bear sightings in the same area last year. Lambert believes the one spotted this year is the same bear.

Fish and Wildlife agents set a trap last year, but were unsuccessful. They’re hoping for better luck this year.

Lambert set up a trap along the interstate Monday evening.

“So far it’s bear 1, Fish and Wildlife, zero,” Lambert said.

Fish and Wildlife experts just want to trap the bear so they can move it to a more bear-friendly environment – away from the busy freeway.

Wednesday evening the trap was reset with an odiferous concoction of pickled herring, bacon grease, honey and doughnuts – sure to please the average bear.

The State Patrol hopes the trap is sprung sooner than later. They are so concerned the bear could wander into traffic causing a horrible accident, airborne troopers are conducting aerial surveillance.

And while the bear doesn’t seem to mind hanging out alongside the busy, noisy freeway, biologists say it is time for the bear to go.

 

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Great write up by a blogger who had an unexpected visitor in her neighborhood backyard – a very large Black Bear! Imagine looking out the window of your apartment and seeing that!

Please note that I live in a city of 85,000, nowhere near the edge of town or even near any woodsy places bigger than half a block or so, and that my apartment is sandwiched between three very busy streets. All the same, there’s a freakin’ bear in the yard.

This photo was taken on Thursday evening, and when I woke up that day I saw that the birdfeeder had been pulled down, but the prospect of a bear in the yard was so absurd that I didn’t seriously consider it, and i figured that the ground was soft from thawing and freezing, and maybe a really fat racoon tried to climb the shepherd’s hook or something and it tipped over. But then Mr. Bear made his presence known that evening while I was making dinner. My dinner companion called 911, but apparently the authorities don’t care about bears unless they become threatening, and are, like, actively mauling babies or something. It’s great that they’re respecting the bear’s bearness and all, but I also don’t think this is the greatest place for a very large black bear to be hanging out.

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Snakes Alive! Watch Where You’re Walking!

Snake Expert Explains Which Snakes Are Harmful, Which Aren’t

JACKSON, Miss. – There have been reports recently of snakes popping up all across Mississippi.

 

Just this week, several snakes were found in a Hattiesburg middle school. One even bit a teacher. 

Snake expert Terry Vandeventer explained that people don’t have to look very far in Mississippi to find snakes. 

Terry Vandeventer found this snake hiding under some old tin.

 

There’s no such thing as a snake repellent, Vandeventer said. Mothballs and commercial repellants don’t repel snakes. So homeowners should keep areas mowed and clean. 

Along the edge of a building that hasn’t been mowed is a good place for rats and mice, which also makes it a good place for snakes to pursue their favorite foods. Snakes are good because they destroy rats and mice, but they’re a nuisance around the house where there’s children and pets. 

“If I’m available, I’ll go remove a snake,” Vandeventer said. “I don’t charge for it or anything like that, but I would rather take away and release it where it would do some good than have it killed. I’m not snake busters.” 

Roofing materials, which Vandeventer said he calls “Katrina Tin,” that have been blown off old buildings are prime hiding places for snakes. In fact, Vandeventer found a copperhead under some roofing material with 16 WAPT cameras rolling. 

This copperhead was found hiding under old tin in Terry.

 

“Now, that is not a deadly snake, but he will ruin your day,” he said. “This is a snake found in urban areas.” 

Vandeventer said copperheads are potentially dangerous because they are venomous and they bite a fair number of people in Mississippi, but they are not considered a lethal species. In other words, he said, copperheads rarely, if ever, cause a human fatality. 

However, Vandeventer said, there have been some very close calls in the U.S. 

“It’s an animal that’s secretive, that wants to be left alone,” he said. “But when people seem them, they always make an effort to kill them. And as a result, we have a lot of bites in Mississippi from copperheads.” 

He also found a bigger snake, which was a chicken or rat snake. Both snakes were found near rodent burrow holes. 

The timber rattlesnake was once common in Mississippi, but is now rare.

 

Vandeventer showed 16 WAPT News a timber rattlesnake, or a kind brake rattlesnake. 

“This is a snake that was once common in Mississippi but is now somewhat rare,” he said. “They’ve been destroyed on a wholesale manner. This is the snake that was on the first American flag — don’t tread on me, the timber rattlesnake.” 

The Mississippi corn snake is often mistaken for the venomous copperhead and killed. In the end, Vandeventer said, the best idea is to use common sense and leave snakes alone.

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Coyote Still Roaming East End Neighbourhood

Tuesday April 14, 2009

CityNews.ca Staff

A clever coyote continues to prowl an east end neighbourhood, though city officials have been trying for weeks to capture it.

The coyote was first spotted last February when it jumped a fence in the Neville Park Blvd. and Queen St. East area. It attacked and killed a chihuahua, Zoe, after jumping into the yard of a residence backing out onto a ravine.

The pet’s owners said they spotted the predator back in their yard over the weekend, and they’re not the only ones. Residents have been taking photos of and even painting the coyote, who some have taken to calling Neville.

“I would be happy to co-exist with him,” one local artist suggested. “I love having him in my back garden.”Officials warn homeowners who’ve taken a shine to the creature that he does pose a threat, as evidenced by what happened to Zoe. They say the coyote is too tame and must be moved.

Though there was talk that the coyote might have to be euthanized, the city is now reportedly trying to capture the animal in a box trap so it can be moved to a zoo or wildlife refuge.

“We’re focused on the box traps, because the best thing about the box trap is you not only catch it but it’s movable,” noted Rob Andrusevich with the City of Toronto. “That’s our number one option.”

If you see a coyote near your home, give Toronto Animal Services a call at 416-338-7297.

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Another Wild Animal Attack in North Tonawanda

Originally printed at http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/43078107.html

A North Tonawanda man was attacked by a fox on Monday night, according to Niagara County health officials.

The man was walking home from the store on Niagara Falls Boulevard near Erie Avenue when the fox approached him and bit him in the leg.

It’s the third attack by a wild animal in the city during the past few weeks.

Health officials say it’s important for residents to protect themselves. The advise people against approaching or feeding animals.

North Tonawanda police are searching for the coyote and have instructions to shoot and kill it if it’s safe to do so. Health officials want to test the animal for rabies.

In all three attacks, the victims are undergoing rabies vaccinations.

In early March, a fox was captured and killed in the Town of Wilson. It tested positive for rabies, which is a potentially fatal disease in humans if left untreated.

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This is a truly tragic story from Louisiana.  It’s always best to remember that, especially around children, dogs can quickly revert back to their wild past.

3 dogs kill 4-year-old boy in his Pointe Coupee Parish yard

by The Associated Press  

Saturday April 11, 2009, 2:19 PM

MORGANZA, La. — Pointe Coupee Parish sheriff’s deputies say three dogs killed a 4-year-old boy who was playing in his own yard, and injured a man who tried to rescue the child.

Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Juge said Michael Landry was airlifted to a hospital in New Roads, nine miles away, but died there from his injuries. Morganza is about 40 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.

Landry did not identify the man, who was hospitalized.

Juge said at least one of the dogs belonged to a next-door neighbor who had let it out of a kennel to eat. Animal control officers took all three dogs.

Juge said deputies would turn over their report to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office for review.

Link

Mountain lion spotted near Washington Fields
BY PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
patrices@thespectrum.com

ST. GEORGE – Conservation officers with the Division of Wildlife Resources, along with St. George police, responded to the East Ridge Mall Thursday morning after receiving a telephone call that a mountain lion was seen in the area.

Chris Schulze, conservation officer with the division, said he interviewed a woman who said she spotted the animal walking in a wash about 100 yards behind the businesses located in the strip mall at approximately 200 North Mall Drive.

Based on information received, Schulze said the mountain lion weighed about 40 to 50 pounds, which is the size of a juvenile. Generally, mountain lions of that size still have spots, but Schulze said the woman was unable to see any spots.

A search of the area was conducted, but no tracks were found and the animal wasn’t located.

Sgt. Brian Shearer, a conservation officer with the DWR, said the division gets about a half dozen phone calls a year from the St. George area concerning mountain lion sightings.

The lion was spotted Thursday in a wash in an area of thick brush that is a natural corridor between the Washington Fields area and the turkey farm located across the highway, Shearer said.

“There are a fair number of deer in that area between Washington Fields and up above the turkey farm,” he said. “The mountain lions mostly travel at night and a lot of people who live in the area may not have any idea there is wildlife right on the edge of these communities.”

Shearer said police talked to another person who said they spotted the mountain lion as it walked down the wash.

Depending on the time of year and the sex, mountain lions have a range of about 20 square miles. Shearer said it isn’t uncommon for lions to travel five to 10 miles a day.

In the winter when deer herds congregate Shearer said it’s possible to have several lions working a herd in a smaller area.

Because the area is mountain lion country, Shearer said the division has a policy with different levels of how to deal with mountain lions depending on if the animal is aggressive or not.

The mountain lion spotted Thursday wasn’t aggressive. A mountain lion may look at a person before walking off, but may not run away or show fear unless you are close to the animal.

“A deer is always fearful of you, but a mountain lion is at the top of the food chain and is the top predator,” Shearer said.

Because the lion is the top predator, Shearer said aggressive behavior would be if the animal was hunched down and coming towards you.

Shearer said in the last 16 years, he is only aware of a few encounters with mountain lions – one with a rancher and several others with hunters in camouflage, but there have been no attacks or injuries in the state.

Schulze said he has also received several telephone calls in the last few days of a mountain lion sighted in the Toquerville area, which he attributes to the time of year with the deer moving into higher elevations with the warmer weather.

Whenever there is a sighting, Schulze said information about mountain lions is distributed in those areas to help people understand the mountain lion and its habits and behaviors.

“Any animal – wild or domestic – has the potential for being aggressive,” he said.

Additional Facts

For more information about mountain lions, read the Division of Wildlife Resources handout at

http://wildlife.utah.gov/publications/pdf/newlion.pdf.

Link

Another example of the truth that as long as you’re in an animal’s range, you could be attacked even in a non-wilderness area.

Hawk Attacks Miami College Student

Though Uncommon, Hawk Attacks Pose a Danger to People and Pets

April 9, 2009—

Hannah King, a sophomore at the University of Miami, was walking across a field on campus to her part-time job as an elementary school tutor last week when she felt a sudden knock to the back of her head.

King said she assumed she had been hit “with a log or something really hard and heavy.”

It wasn’t until she heard a swoosh by her ear that King saw the culprit, a hawk nesting in a nearby tree.

The attack left King, 19, with a concussion, she said. When she told the student health center what happened, “at first, no one believed me.”

But for the past three years, hawks nesting in the area have attacked a few students a year in what Campus Police Deputy Chief Russell Clusman calls “one of the unique safety issues we have to deal with.” Last year, there were crocodiles on campus, too, he said.

University spokeswoman Margot Winnick said, “It’s the tropics. It’s part of living in Miami.”

Because hawks are protected under federal law, campus police have now set up a security escort armed with an umbrella to walk students across the field: the “hawk walk,” as Lt. William Gerlach calls it.

Lynne Flannery of the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Fla., said umbrellas appear less threatening to hawks and dissuade them from attacking.

Flannery said the group gets a handful of calls a year about hawk attacks, during nesting season, usually around March and April.

Hawks ‘Very Territorial’ During Nesting Season

“During nesting season, they’re very territorial,” Flannery said. “They’re basically trying to defend their nest and their young.”

Hawk attacks are relatively rare; it’s much more common to hear of mockingbirds harassing passersby, according to Alicia King of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of Migratory Bird Management in Arlington, Va.

Last year, three Federal Emergency Management Agency employees in Lake Mary, Fla., were attacked by hawks, sending all three to the hospital with minor injuries, said Josh Wilson, an agency spokesman.

As a precaution, FEMA closed the portion of the parking lot near where the bird was thought to be nesting and has been hawk-incident free so far this year, Wilson said.

The birds also have been known to attack small animals, which can be mistaken for squirrels or rodents.

Hawks Can Attack Small Pets

Tyler Tornello said a hawk attacked his two Chihuahuas, Paco and Vinny, which weigh 3 pounds and 10 pounds, respectively.

The dogs survived with deep claw marks to their necks after Vinny came to Paco’s rescue, Tornello said.

“He was at the front door covered in blood and mud,” he said of the larger dog. “You could tell he was in a very intense battle.”

King, who plans to major in political science at the University of Miami, said the attack left her dizzy and nauseated for several days.

But she’s satisfied that the school was taking steps to protect other students, she said.

Link

This attack certainly seems unprovoked.

Control of Hong Kong boar population urged after man savaged

Hong Kong – A 77-year-old Hong Kong man was savaged by a wild boar that pinned him to the ground and bit his groin, police said Wednesday.

The 70-kilogram animal went on a rampage, knocking the man down and sinking its teeth into him, after it strayed into a village in Hong Kong’s New Territories.

Witnesses said the boar attacked Tuesday after it jumped a fence and charged at the man who was playing cards with friends outside.

The animal then ran off. The man was taken to hospital bleeding and was in stable condition Wednesday.

The attack is the latest in a series involving wild boars, which have lead to calls on the government to control the population, which is believed to have grown in recent years in Hong Kong’s rural areas, which cover more than 70 per cent of the territory’s 1,078 square kilometres.

Wild boars are common in rural parts of Hong Kong near its border with mainland China but are rarely seen in built-up urban parts of the city. But in February, police shot dead a wild boar when it strayed into a high-rise housing estate in the city’s built-up Tuen Mun district.

In September, a 120-kilogram boar was also shot dead by police after it fought with pet dogs and bit two residents in a rural village near the Hong Kong-China border. (dpa)

Link

This is why you definitely shouldn’t be walking around back behind Walmart. Especially if you have dogs with you. Apparently they have hired guard Moose. Just so you know, Moose consider wolves and coyotes to be their natural enemies, so having a dog with you when you encounter a Moose can really rile them up and make them angry. It’s discouraged.

A Prince George, B.C., man suffered only minor injuries when he was trampled by a moose on the weekend.

The middle-aged man was trying to call off his dogs when the moose attacked, according to conservation officer Todd Hunter.

The moose and her calf were roaming in a wooded residential area behind the Wal-Mart in the B.C. Interior city and had already fended off the two dogs.

When the dogs’ owner tried to catch up with his canines to call them off, the moose cow charged the man.

“He was kind of blindsided by it. I think it happened pretty quick and I think he obviously felt shocked,” said Hunter.

The man’s forearm, hip and calf were injured in the attack, but he didn’t need to be hospitalized.

“This person is lucky they didn’t receive serious or life-threatening injuries. They can inflict a lot of damage,” Hunter said about the moose attack.

Conservation officers were not able to track down the cow and calf after the incident.

Moose attacks are very uncommon, according to Hunter, but they do occur. In 2007, a Prince George woman was injured by a moose while walking her dog. In that incident, the moose killed the dog.

Conservation officers said moose are in the city looking for food, and advised people to keep their distance from the animals and keep dogs on a short leash.

Link

I think when you are walking down a street you really aren’t expected to get circled by a coyote and then bit on the knee. This had to be a crazy moment. Good thing children weren’t involved.

NIAGARA COUNTY: When wild animals attack

NT man claims coyote bit him in latest wild animal encounter report.

By Neale Gulley
Niagara Gazette
A North Tonawanda man reported that he was bitten by a coyote on Sweeney Street around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

The Niagara County Health Department’s Director of Environmental Health Jim Devald said it is the latest of three suspicious animal reports in as many weeks. In each case a bite was reported.

The man, who is in his 20s, refused immediate treatment for a single puncture wound below the knee, North Tonawanda Fire Department Assistant Chief Joseph Sikora said. 

“I guess he was just walking down the street,” he said, “He told us the coyote came out, circled him a couple of times and nipped him in the leg.”

Sikora, an avid gamesman, Devald and Mayor Larry Soos’ Secretary Gregg Schnitzer all said it is the first time they’ve ever heard of such a thing involving a coyote within city limits. Schnitzer sent a memo around City Hall Tuesday to inform officials of what had happened. The health department also issued a press release warning residents about rabies.

The coyote apparently attacked along the 1100 block of Sweeney St., ran off and has not been located.

Gina Browning of the SPCA said such events don’t usually involve her agency.

“Everything I’ve heard from our wildlife department is that coyotes are very highly unlikely to approach people,” she said.

Devald said the incident was reported to his department as required by law, and the man now must undergo post exposure treatment for rabies.

“The intent is to air on the side of caution,” he said. “Rabies is fatal, so you don’t want to make any assumptions.”

The first case of rabies in Niagara County was reported this past week on Ide Road in Wilson where a fox tangled with a man’s dog. The animal was captured, killed and tested positive for the disease.

Last weekend, health officials got word another man driving along Erie Avenue in North Tonawanda spotted a fox, “So he got out to pet it and the fox bit him and ran off,” Devald said, stressing it is never wise to approach a wild animal.

Similar to Tuesday’s coyote incident, treatment involving five shots over the course of 28 days will be required even thought the animal’s health status cannot be confirmed.

Link

I’m very glad to read that they didn’t kill the mountain lion, too. I really don’t consider it the mountain lion’s fault that it followed its natural instincts as a predator.

I’d also like to get more details on what exactly goes into the “hazing” process they put the mountain lion through… sounds strange.

By Amy Bounds 
Originally published 08:05 p.m., March 30, 2009
Updated 08:58 p.m., March 30, 2009

BOULDER, Colo. — A mountain lion was tranquilized and relocated by the state Division of Wildlife after killing a small dog in Boulder’s Highland Park neighborhood on Monday, according to Boulder police.

The lion killed a “white, fluffy dog” outside 2318 Dennison St. at about 4 p.m., police said.

Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said the lion, a 10-month-old male, was moved to a remote location. She said the lion had previously been tagged and is part of the division’s Front Range mountain study. The lion will be “hazed” to give it a negative association with humans and its movements tracked, she said.

The dog’s owner, who didn’t want to give her name, said her dog, an American Eskimo miniature, was attacked on their deck. She said she tried unsuccessfully to scare the lion to get it to drop her dog.

On Sunday, part of a Chautauqua Park trail was closed after hikers spotted a mountain lion in the trees. The female lion was monitored, but not tranquilized.

Amazingly enough, coyotes have not only survived but thrived in urban and suburban areas across North America, according to this article by the Associated Press.

Urban coyote attacks on rise, alarming residents

By JUDITH KOHLER – 20 hours ago

DENVER (AP) — A coyote ambling into a Chicago sandwich shop or taking up residence in New York’s Central Park understandably creates a stir. But even here on the high plains of Colorado, where the animals are part of the landscape and figure prominently in Western lore, people are being taken aback by rising coyote encounters.

Thanks to suburban sprawl and a growth in numbers of both people and animals, a rash of coyote encounters has alarmed residents.

Wildlife officials are working to educate the public: Coyotes have always been here, they’ve adapted to urban landscapes and they prefer to avoid humans.

“Ninety-five percent of this problem is a human problem, and we really need to focus on that 95 percent to solve it,” said Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director of the environmental group WildEarth Guardians.

Since December, four people in the Denver area have been nipped or bitten by coyotes. A fifth told police a coyote lunged at him.

State wildlife officers have killed seven coyotes. An eighth was killed by a sharpshooter hired by Greenwood Village, in Denver’s southern suburbs.

“These are coyotes that were born and raised in the ‘hood,” said Liza Hunholz, an area manager with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Colorado, says there are more people and less habitat along Colorado’s Front Range, bringing the animal and people populations into closer proximity and producing what he calls “an unprecedented scare response.”

“The communities seem to be really feeding one another,” said Bekoff. He has studied coyotes for 40 years and believes that in some cases dogs are mistaken for coyotes.

Coyotes once were found primarily on the Great Plains and in the Southwest, but have expanded their turf to most of North America. Populations of wolves, a fierce competitor, have shrunk, and swaths of forest have turned into coyote-friendly open spaces.

After generations of urban living, some coyotes navigate subdivisions as easily as the cactus and scrub oak of the high desert where their ancestors roamed. Experts won’t even try to guess how many coyotes there are nationwide.

Coyote sightings have skyrocketed in Greenwood Village. Last year, police received 186 reports, including 15 clashes with pets. Already this year, there have been 142.

“People are afraid to let their pets out or their children to walk to school,” said Greenwood Village City Manager Jim Sanderson.

Jacque Levitch, of south Denver, was bitten by one of three coyotes she said confronted her and her Labrador retriever, Taz, on Feb. 21. “I hit it with my right fist and right forearm,” Levitch said.

Taz was all right. Levitch had to endure rabies shots. She said her neighbors now carry big sticks and golf clubs.

“If nothing is done, I can only see the problem escalating,” Levitch said.

In New York City, a coyote pup was found in the Bronx last year, and in 2006 police captured a coyote in Central Park. In California’s San Bernardino County, two toddlers were reported injured in separate coyote incidents last year.

One toddler was killed in California in the 1980s in the country’s only known fatal coyote attack.

WildEarth Guardians’ Rosmarino thinks in most cases it’s people who need to change their behavior. She has organized volunteers in Greenwood Village and other cities to walk through parks to shoo coyotes and make them more wary of people.

Most coyotes do everything they can to avoid people, said Stan Gehrt (GURT), an assistant professor at Ohio State University’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. That’s true even in Chicago, where Gehrt has led a study since 2000. About 300 coyotes there have been radio-collared and tracked.

The coyote that walked into the Chicago sandwich shop in 2007 got a lot of attention. But Gehrt said few people are aware of how many have lived in Chicago for decades. One of his subjects has a hiding spot near the downtown post office and thousands of people pass within yards of it each day.

“Even though they live in urban areas and figure out how people work … it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily becoming more aggressive toward us,” Gehrt said.

They also haven’t changed their diet. Gehrt expected to find urban coyotes eating a lot of garbage and pets. But their scat shows rodents are still the meal of choice, followed by deer, rabbits and birds.

Coyotes view pets such as cats and dogs as competitors, not food, Gehrt said. Most coyotes are submissive toward dogs, though some will stand their ground — especially during breeding season, when they may see dogs as rivals for mates. Mating season peaked in February, when some of the Denver-area incidents occurred.

Residents are warned to not feed coyotes, to keep dogs on short leashes, and to yell or throw rocks at coyotes so they associate humans with bad things. Bird seed may attract mice and voles, which then can draw hungry coyotes. Don’t leave out pet food and garbage, and don’t leave pets alone.

A coyote that bit a boy snowboarding on a golf course in Erie, 26 miles north of Denver, had been fed by golfers.

Reducing the number of coyotes doesn’t work, Rosmarino said, because the animals breed more and have bigger litters when their population declines. The U.S. Agriculture Department’s Wildlife Services killed more than 90,000 in 2007 to stem livestock attacks.

Relocation also doesn’t work, Gehrt said. Coyotes moved from Chicago to the country headed back to the city.

“The coyotes are here, they’ve always been here and the only way to deal with them is to understand them and make them afraid of you,” said Ned Ingham, a Greenwood Village retiree and one of Rosmarino’s volunteers. “We live in an area with wildlife.”

Highlighting the point that even fairly urban areas can still provide wildlife encounters:

This story of a bobcat and a drinking establishment.