Archive for the 'Animals' Category

Big bear fight.

Alligator versus Python.  I don’t like either one of them.

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An Alaskan island of feral cattle.

F&S.

On the other hand, every horse is an individual, strong or weak, stupid or smart, slow or fast, placid or panicky. Moreover, horses respond to how well or poorly you ride them. If you saw at the reins, yank on the bit, flop around in the saddle, or kick constantly, you will soon be riding a very unhappy horse who will be thrilled to scrape you off its back by way of a low tree limb.

Horses are flesh and blood, and wear out. The average elk-hunt cayuse will probably be close to exhaustion by the time you get him, leg-weary and suffering from weeks of a poor diet. Have a heart and don’t beat on him. On the other hand, many horses loaf when they can get away with it, and a tap with a Field Expedient Equine Motivational Device (a switch, which you cut) will remind him of where his duty lies.

Horses are subject to panic attacks. For much of their history, they were what was for dinner, and so if something spooks them, they react instantly, either by kicking, or bucking, or stampeding. If you’re in the saddle when this happens, you’re in trouble. I’ve never known anyone who spent a lot of time with horses and did not get bashed, but good, at some point. Getting bashed is part of the mule vs horse equation no matter which side you take, but in my experience, horses employ a wider variety of ways to bash you.

The mule is a hybrid, produced by mating a male donkey, or jack, with a lady horse. Mules were familiar 3,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, and were originally imported and bred in America by George Washington, who was first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, and first to ask “Why don’t we have mules?”, and do something about it.

Most mules weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds. They come in all colors and can range way above or below those weights depending on the size of their dams. The creatures benefit from a phenomenon known as hybrid vigor; they inherit the best qualities of both the horse and the donkey. The list of ways in which mules outshine horses is so long as to be embarrassing.

Mules are stronger than horses. They can carry more weight and carry it farther without breaking down. During World War II, pack mules served the U.S. Army in Sicily, Italy, and the China-Burma-India Theatre, wherever there were mountains that Jeeps could not navigate and heavy loads that had to be carried over them. In Korea, the U.S. Army ignored mules, but the Chinese Army did not, and our G.I.s used captured mules, feeding them the cereal packets from their own rations. Special Forces used mules in Afghanistan, and at one point SF troopers could take a course in mule management at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

There are reasons for all this.

• Mules are smarter than horses (which is not all that difficult) and have better memories.
• They can subsist on less feed than a horse, and poorer feed.
• Their hooves are smaller, and harder, than a horse’s, and mules are much surer-footed.
• They can work in heat that would founder a horse.
• Mules live longer than horses and are more resistant to disease.
• If you treat them with kindness, they’ll bond with you in a way that horses won’t.

Mules don’t react to the world in the way that horses do. In the face of perceived peril, a mule will not panic and go thundering over a cliff. He will stop and think about the situation, and if he decides that whatever is afoot might be dangerous he will go no further. Mules, I’ve been told, will never do anything that might hurt them, and their legendary stubbornness is actually a form of self-preservation. (Mules will also balk if they’re confused or have no idea what you want them to do.)

I love horses, but I’ve ridden a mule before at the Grand Canyon (horses were too skittish to use near the big drops), and let me tell you, they are much bigger and stronger than horses.  Yea, a bit slow to react to neck reigning, but still mine was responsive to me because of my time training quarter horses, and there isn’t any situation where I had heavy weight to carry out West or up North where I wouldn’t rather have a mule with me.

That is one huge black bear.

This is an utterly fascinating video, and may be the first of a kind.  I spend time finding fascinating things for you that enable learning about nature, and machines and their operation, especially firearms. I hope you appreciate it. This apparently is a recent encounter in Yellowstone.

Believe it or not, the black bear backed down the grizzly, with the grizzly even running from the black bear.  For a while.  The grizzly eventually came in for the food, with the black bear wandering off (probably when he figured out that there would be a fight and someone would get hurt – which incidentally is probably the reason the grizzly ran from the black bear to begin with).  They were both wise bears that day.

This is cool.  A dog with four prosthetic legs takes a walk with a girl with one prosthetic leg.

Who would do something like this to a dog?  I suggest that we do the same thing to the jerk who had this idea.  It has a nice ending.

@waldosrescue The story of Braveheart is a good one ❤️ #adoptdontshop #petsoftiktok #rescue #rescuedog ♬ Little Bit More – Suriel Hess

That reader The Alaskan is always talking about how dangerous bears are.  He just needs to get a grip and brush those gentle giants like this lady.

A gang of Baboons let a bit cat know what’s what.  Numbers were the great equalizer in this case as I suspect in many others.

Good guy with a leash takes a shelter dog on a day out.  Hey, I know that place very well.  The walk by the river is very beautiful.

@aguyandagolden

We broke this defeated dog out of the shelter for out weekly Shelter Dog Saturday series. You can find him st Anderson County Paws.

♬ Oceans – Instrumental – Marcelo Cacilias

Ape gets freaked out by a Hedge Hog.

Why haven’t you given him a pool party before now?

People can teach birds to do a lot of things.  Please, please don’t teach them to dance to rap.

Good boy.

Very well done video documentary.

An A&E video piece.

A few takeaways from this.

It’s difficult for me to tell, but I think this was a black bear.

Next, she said she deployed her bear spray and it was completely ineffective.  Yea, I’ll bet.

Retreating, she stumbled backwards and fell down.  This is a bad position to be in when the bear jumps on you.

The dog intervened, and was badly mauled, but still lives and looks good.  Dogs are man’s best friend.  Get yourself one or more.  Also, notice that the bear went after her, not the dog.  It only went after the dog when the dog intervened.

Finally, she should be carrying a large bore handgun.  If I’m out and about in the South, I never go into the bush without a firearm.  There are bears, Coyotes, snakes and two-legged threats, as well as feral hogs.  This holds doubly true for the Northwest.  If you go “walking” or “jogging” in the bush without a big bore handgun, you’re asking for what happens next.

News from Montana.

They awoke around 3 a.m. Thursday morning to their dog barking downstairs. When Bolkcom went to check out the commotion, he found a black bear in his living room.

Bolkcom grabbed his gun and shot the bear, chasing it from room to room before it finally collapsed after several shots.

The bear was 250-300 pounds, and F&S says he used a 10mm handgun.

Chalk up another win for the 10mm, but I still say that a 1911 shooting 450 SMC cartridges would be just as effective, if not more so.

I guess he’s pretty excited to get into the outdoors.  I am too when I’m couped up, as I am working behind a computer building physics models all day.

Ken likes to do a good morning post.  This can be my goodnight post.

Well that’s a big flock of chickens. I’m guessing that daddy coming home means feed time. Since these are free range chickens, I’m wondering how he keeps the hawks away unless there’s a few roosters in that flock (but more than one rooster will cause problems).

@chelseamyers613 #chicken #chickenarmy #tinyraptors ♬ original sound – Chelsea Myers

I don’t know how this guy got a cam attached to an eagle, but these views are amazing.

Okay, well now I do know how he got these shots.

Don’t worry, park staff quickly responded.

An eight-year-old girl was camping with her family at Olympic National Park in Port Angeles, Washington, over the weekend when she was attacked by a cougar, officials said.

The National Park Service said the attack happened at Lake Angeles about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. The cougar fled the area after the girl’s mother screamed at it, FOX Seattle reported.

Park staff quickly responded to the area and treated the girl for minor injuries. She was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation, the service said. The area was also temporarily closed to the public.

“Due to the extreme nature of this incident, we are closing the Lake Angeles area and several trails in the vicinity,” Olympic National Park Wildlife Biologist Tom Kay said in the release. “Out of an abundance of caution, the Lake Angeles Trail, Heather Park Trail, Switchback Trail, and the entire Klahhane Ridge Trail are closed until further notice.”

Wait for it…

If found, the cougar will be euthanized and removed from the park for a necropsy. Officials said this may provide clues for why the attack occurred since cougars are rarely seen and attacks against humans are rare.

Oh, yes, another rare instance of a wild animal attack. These rare instances sure do happen often.

And via Liberty Park Press.

It has been legal to carry firearms in national parks since 2010, though an advisory from the National Park Service notes, “In areas administered by the National Park Service, an individual can possess a firearm if that individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm and if the possession of the firearm complies with the laws of the state where the park area is located. 54 U.S.C. 104906.”

A supplemental note at the end of the advisory adds, “Visitors should not consider firearms as protection from wildlife.”

Work that one out, ugh.

I’ve told Wisco he needs to keep better control over his pets.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this dance Swans do before.  It’s seems well choreographed.

I guess if you’re shy, you’re shy.  Being around other shy dogs doesn’t suddenly make you not shy.

Dogs will be dogs.

@kimberlyclark78 #dukehasapooladdiction #everydayshouldbesaturday #iwasnothappy ♬ original sound – Kimberly Clark

This lion took on the wrong guys at the wrong time.