Last Friday, on my way to bowling in town, around 5:30 PM on Fairgrounds Road, a coyote crossed in front of me; a small one, ~30 lb. Last evening, coming home from bowling around 9:30 PM, I saw what was probably a fisher on County Road and certainly a fox in my back yard. The beasties are mingling with us, I think, because there is little danger in doing so. No dogs running free anymore, certainly no humans going about armed – we aren’t free either. Bob, the Bucolic Philosopher
A few years ago I saw a Lynx rufus that was much larger than they are supposed to be. After I looked up a fisher I came across the scientific name for bobcat so I used it. They are all over the place down here. At my brother in law's ranch someone saw a mountain lion (very rare in these parts) so I went out looking for it. Don't tell my in laws but I have never seen a mountain lion in the wild so I was not about to shoot it if I was lucky enough to see one. No lions but I did get a real good look at a coyote about 50 ft away. He was on the other side of some bushes and never knew I was there. Turned my scope down and watched him for about 8~10 min. When he yawned I couldn't believe the rack of teeth that critter had. Not gonna eat it so........... And I think coyotes get a bad rap about eating cattle, I leave em be. Different story if you have chickens to protect. :machinegun:
We don't worry so much about the 'yotes taking cattle, but they can devastate the small game and fowl, plus people get tired of feeding them. They come right up to farm houses and eat the food put out for dogs and barn cats. Also they eat the dogs and cats. They're the jerks of the animal world so blast away. It saves the more desirable wildlife.
Yeah, I was just jabbering about the biggest bobcat I ever saw or heard of. Most of the ones we see are small in comparison. Just could not get over the size of this one. It was BIG for a bob. spikedriver, Come to think of it, in law's have lost a pet or two out there. Maybe I should blast them yotes.
Fishers were reintroduced to Vermont several decades back, to control/reduce the porcupine population. They did that well enough, but 'porkies'/'hedgehogs' aren't their preferred diet. I think their preferred diet is anything they can kill. House/barn cats are mostly in that category, so they come looking. Fishers (and weasels in general) have a reputation for 'personality'. Several years ago, my upstream neighbor George was deer hunting when he met a fisher. The fisher retreated by climbing a pine tree. My neighbor, being a man with a sense of humor, sat down using the tree trunk as a backrest, just part of the stillhunting process he told me. After a few minutes he heard the fisher moving down the tree, muttering. The mutters turned into growls; he looked up to see the growler about 10 feet above him, "just a-snarling away". "Well", George told me, "I decided it was time to move along. Damn fisher was making too much noise."
