We'll do it the way we always did, Ginny!

We'll begin by educating ourselves about the idigenous wildlife... how THEY live and exist. We'll RE-learn how THEY live and we'll arm ourselves with the knowledge that will keep us safe during the moose rut, the fall feeding frenzy of bears, and we'll be aware to keep small pets close to the house or indoors at dawn and dusk.

Wild animals are the consummate "survivors". They've adapted to US for centuries, and still they've found a way to "make a living". WE'VE given up NOTHING! we simply complain and worry about "them". Give me a break!

Inform yourselves. Make choices. Stop whining about the inconvenience. And start revelling in the wonder that such elusive creatures are once more making themselves known.

Sure, there are risks, inconveniences, and there will be tragedies with pets. But overall? I'm cool with wildlife. (lost a cat to fox 2 yrs. ago). But it was a beautiful fox... I looked him in the eyes from 3', with his "prey" in my arms).

Chelone, you've said it so well. I spent a few of my childhood years living in Ely, Nevada which is about 250 miles due north of Las Vegas (mostly by dirt road even today). There are mountain lions there. As 9-12 year old kids, we were taught about the cats and warned of their danger. We were not, however, kept locked up indoors or not allowed to play outside in the hills. My best friend & I built a tree house in the foothills behind our house. I'll always remember the mountain lion that strolled under "our" tree, looked up at us, and casually flopped down at the base of the tree. He could have had us in a flash. We sat there, huddled together frozen in fear for what seemed like an eternity! In reality, it was probably about 30 minutes or so & the cat lazily got up & wandered up without an upward glance at us. We waited about another 30 minutes and then ran home like the scared kids we were. What I remember most vividly about the experience was the SMELL of that cat! Yikes, he needed a bath really BAD! lol

It is us that are encroaching on THEIR territory. Living with them isn't that hard as long as we accept their right to be here and their right to survive.

There were also wild horses around Ely. I'll also always remember hearing them thundering over the ridge behind our house. It was so exciting as a little girl. As an adult, I've taken my DH & DS to Ely to show them the 1880's Gunsmoke type house we lived in and to walk up the still present (though weed covered) packed earth path to where our tree house was. We stopped along the way several times to watch and take pictures of the wild horses.

I love the wildlife and will share a few hostas if I have to to co-exist. I just hope that these animals will still be around for my grandchildren to experience in the wild.

Those of us closer to Concord, NH than Concord, MA have been living with deer, moose, foxes, fisher cats, bears, coyotes, snapping turtles, beavers, turkeys and even prep school kids for lots of years and we're all doing okay. The mosquitoes and ticks can be a bit of a hazard though!

Bears are easy. Be careful of pet food, dirty grills, and bird seed. You'll be just fine.

I was remembering a time when I was out riding; my horse got spooky (head up, ears pricked forward, mincing along with a rounded back... ready to "bolt"). Then the wind shifted and I smelled the unmistakeable scent of decay... BIG DECAY. I heard rustling and turned the horse around; I didn't see it, but I'm quite certain it was bear feeding on a dead deer or moose. Discretion is the better part of valor, and leaving the area seemed the most prudent choice.

In our modern society we have "forgotten" so many of the simple ways to keep ourselves safe. We are naturally curious and often that gets us into trouble with wild things. A racoon is a fascinating creature and we don't see them very often because we "work opposite shifts". We want to see them and often forget that they are potentially quite formidable and can carry disease.

It's hard to convince people that simple practices (as Nasson. outlined) will remove the attraction because they want to see them! Until they realize how dangerous it can be to a pet or how destructive they can be to property.

If you live in a rural area or wilderness, these methods are useful and appropriate. If you live in a densely populated suburb or city, I do not see how human beings can coexist with potentially dangerous animals.

My first reaction is that the populations of these animals should be restricted to rural and wild areas. Those that head into densely populated areas should be removed humanely, if possible. Otherwise, they will have to be put down, again as humanely as possible. When they are not, they die cruelly, often by being hit by a car. Almost every fall, a young moose appears in our area. Every single one has died within months by being hit by a car or truck. Not a fun way to go.

While deer are very rarely dangerous themselves, look at the Lyme disease nightmare they have visited upon us--never mind the garden destruction. No doubt city and suburbs can support a limited deer population but the over-population has become a major health hazard.

I think the greater issue is our IGNORANCE, Ginny. Our "modern" society has overwhelmed and supeceded our age old "wisdom" with respect to native wildlife. Once it was no longer important to keep marauding wildlife out of the domestic livestock's feed we "forgot" how to do it. We've grown increasingly ignorant of how to CO-exist with native species.

We are incredibly wasteful... witness the garbage bags at the end of driveways on "trash day". We feed birds. We do all sorts of things that have the cumulative effect of "ringing the dinner bell" for wildlife that scavanges for a living! They are variable, adaptable creatures. All they really need is a nice, private spot to den up for the busy part of the day. They work the "night shift"! and encountering humans is predictable. They've adapted, they've improvised, and they've overcome (just like the Marines!). They're absolute marvels and wonders, to my way of thinking.

I truly believe, we have to "think better". You don't want 'coons/bears in your yard? keep the garbage in your house! cover your compost pile with the layer of dirt! DON'T feed the birds! keep your cats in at night.

Start thinkin' smaHt, and don't waste your time screaming into the wind. Your voice will never be heard that way.

Bears are easy. Be careful of pet food, dirty grills, and bird seed. You'll be just fine.

What about the prep school kids? ;)

Chelone is so right. I've lost many of my chickens, all pets of which I was fond, to foxes, even seeing one grab and make off with one right in the pen. I responded by reinforcing the pen and barn. Another time I was chatting with a neighbor at the bottom of my driveway, when one of my hens came dashing by. I scooped her up just in time to turn and see a fox on its taiil. It stopped only a few feet a way and glared balefully at me, like "Hey! I saw it first! It's mine!"

The responsibility is ours to secure our beloved pets, not to punish the wildlife doing what it must to live. I the next 50 years, the human population is calculated to explode from the current 50+ billion to 9 billion. We will burgeon out more into the rainforest, plains, mountains, deserts and tundra. The planet will be a very odd place if its main residents are humans, our domestic food and pet animals, and the organisms that have adapted to urban settings (rats, roaches, pigeons, starlings, skunks, coyotes, etc.) as the only variety.

Here in Orlando we have been having the bear problems also. However, our bears have made the news for various reasons. One bear was captured and taken to the Ocala National forest, about 50 miles north, only to return to the same neighborhood garbage cans. They then transported him to the National forest in the Panhandle, 100's of miles away. But the best one is the female bear who brought her cubs to play on the slide and swings while she got the covers off the garbage cans and investigated the bags. The homeowners video taped this and it was played on the news, hysterical. They had to trap her and lure the cubs, since a mother could get very agressive. They are up in the panhandle also!!

"Relocation" of wild animals rarely works. Their sense is to head home and if our backyard is home, there they are.

We've brought this on, ourselves. Let's face it, wild animals have been pretty darn accomodating as we've eaten up their domains and dessicrated their food supplies. Suburban wildlife sightings are becoming more common not because the critters haven't been there, but because they're getting used to us. We're squeezing the heck out've them and if I were a bear, I'd want to let my presence be known, too.

Now, we have to get used to them. If you're afraid of letting your kids play outside, teach them what to do and what not to do. If they're too young to understand or respond well, then know there's far more chance of them getting kidnapped from the backyard when left alone than eaten by a bear.

Martie

This thread flashed across my mind this afternoon while on my way to get some wine to accompany tonight's dinner. Monday is trash day for our part of town. And, you guessed it! all the garbage bags are appearing kerbside this afternoon.

What that means is that they will be plundered by dawn, trash will be strewn all over the road (and no one will bother to clean it up). Tomorrow morning, any unmolested bags will have several crows atop them pecking away.

Right there is a perfect example of what NOT to do! I'd bet a nickel that inside several of those bags are lobster bodies left over from the Friday/Saturday/Sunday feed. Why can't those bags be kept inside and put kerbside tomorrow morning? This is commonsense stuff, but still it escapes people... this is precisely what I mean when I point out that we've lost our ability to keep ourselves safe and stop the nuisance behavior before it really gets started.

It's refreshing to see that there are still some practical people left out there who have common sense, especially on the internet. Chelone hit the nail on the head. We've become so far removed from the natural world, that ignorance about it it widespread. Animals must be "removed" from inhabited areas because we don't know how to behave around them. Moose in my area are fairly frequently seen, and I go up to Moosehead Lake in Maine where it's uncommon not to see them. One shows up in suburban Massachusetts and they close down the roads and practically bring out the national guard. Saw it a few years back on the Lowell/Tyngsboro line. Almost looked like a Godzilla movie the way people and police were so overreacting. The police presence was such that the first thing that crossed my mind upon seeing it was a major murder or terrorist capture. Black bears strike fear into every soccer mom when they show up in town, yet some revel in feeding the cute little bandit raccoons. Little do they realize that black bears are probably one of the most timid animals out there, attacks being almost unheard of in the US, while raccoons commonly carry some of the most dangerous diseases and parasites known. Fishers become the mysterious "Fisher Cat", able to carry off small children. Most wouldn't know what one was if they saw it. I don't like deer in my garden either, but I still love to see them, and with a little bit of effort I can mitigate the damage that they do. I certainly don't blame them for bringing the nightmare of Lyme disease upon us, any more than I do the other two hosts, white-footed mice and ticks.

It's tragic how police and so-called "wildlife experts" botch up the tranquilizing and moving of moose and bear that happen to wander into thickly (human) settled areas in urban Massachusetts. When moose have had the misfortune to end up in Wellesley or Concord or Lowell, they usually are injured during the tranq-transportation process and likely don't survive.

It would probably be better just to shoo them away from the highway or neighborhood and back to the corridor they came from, usually a utility or phone company right-of-way that traverses the region.

Speaking of bears, did anyone catch "A Prairie Home Companion" last Saturday? There was a hilarious song about what to do if you encounter various species of bears, with the lyrics taken from actual park brochures.

There was a skunk assault directly under our open bedroom window last night. We have a call into professional cleaning people, already. Who knows what prompted them into the yard. We are incredibly wildlife concious as a bear lives in my sister's backyard woods where they all peacefully coexist.

One of my many non-publishable thoughts at 3am was -- I wish it had been a *@^%) bear .....

Martie

In central MA (Spencer) we see bears occasionally. I saw one cross the road right in front of us when riding my horse last summer. My horse didn't even blink an eye!! But the important thing to note is that bears will not naturally attack humans unless provoked and protecting their cubs. They are rather timid, and are mostly vegetarian (generally eat nuts and berries) although I think they may eat small animals if necessary.

Wildlife habitat loss is a real problem in Massachusetts and as others have said, we all need to educate ourselves about what dangers are real and what are mostly in our own heads. These are not grizzlies :-)

Oh Martie!

My sympathies, dear. I have never had a pet "skunked" but came face to face with one when calling my cat to come indoors on a sultry summer night in N. Conway, NH. I turned the corner of the barn and there was Mr. Skunkie, snuffling around for grubs. I backed away quickly and carefully. I have every belief that my luck is running out and the odds are becoming shorter for a scented encounter. :) Muy father's beloved orange kitty, Ollie, was skunked once. Dad heard him crying at the back door and let him in, the prevailing west wind was blowing out through the door where Ollie was crying. He landed in bed with Dad... only to wind up in the kitchen sink covered in tomato juice. Poor Ollie! he spent the rest of the night in the cellar, crying for mercy at the head of the stairs... right next to the bedroom. LOL, couldn't have been a pleasant night for anyone.

Skunks like grubs and worms... we frequently find little trenches in the lawn (about 1-2"w and about 2-3"l). They have been scraping up dinner. They also get a kick out of scratching around the compost pile, but I suspect it's more for worms than any remaining vegetable matter.

They sure put out a powerful stink, huh?

Ellen,
My good friends in Spencer have 9 acres of land that have played home to deer, coyotes and pretty much everything else that lives around there. But I don't think they've been host to bears yet. I'll have to ask.

My philosophy is that if they are minding their own business, I'll mind mine and we'll just pretend the other isn't there. ;)

Martie,
You have my total empathy. My house and garden have taken direct hits from skunks on numerous occasions. A neighborhood cat confronted a skunk next to my bedroom window, and the skunk sprayed at it, but hit the house. Thank goodness a deluge rainstorm happened along the next day and actually washed away most of the stench. Another time, one of my geese got skunked once when a polecat waddled into the pen during goose breeding season when waterfowl are a little testy. Of course, geese don't have a sense of smell, so they were oblivious. I got to enjoy a stinky goose for weeks. The feathers must have absorbed the skunk oil, because it wouldn't wash out.

One night I went out with my cat to look at the full moon. On the way out to the viewing bench I thought I saw a black and white flash under the birdfeeder, but then it was gone. We sat on the bench for a while admiring the moon, then headed back to the house, only to find a skunk frozen in defense position under the feeder.

I walked by very very slowly, muttering to the cat, and the skunk kept its tail facing me. Once we were safely past,, I decided to sit on the steps to see what would happen. The skunk looked at me for a while, then went back to eating birdseed on the ground. It was soon joined by another skunk, and then a third skunk came by hissing and growling, as if to say Danger! Danger! there's a monster on the steps! Skunk#1 went over to skunk #3 and apparently told it to shut up, I wasn't a threat.

Soon all three of them were feeding on the ground - beautiful animals! I watched for a while and then went back into the house leaving them in peace.

Claire

I agree that it isn't the fault of the bears that they are emerging in suburban neighborhoods - - suburban sprawl and all that. But I do think it could be very dangerous to presume they will leave us alone if we leave them alone.

There have been several reports of black bears behaving in a predatory manner toward people. For example, remember the little girl in Tennesee last year? The bear attacked her brother first, and when mom rescued him it went after the older sister who had run away. It not only killed her, but fed on her. And a black bear took a sleeping baby from a carriage and killed it in a backyard in the Adirondacks, or was it the Catskills, several years back. There have been other cases I can't recall at the moment. Not frequent, but certainly not unheard of.

Oh, and we had one in West Hartford a year or two back. It strolled right through town, including an elementary school playground. The school went into lockdown. Quite the story among the kids!

I'll admit it - - I'm scared to death of bears. I have great admiration and respect for them, and loved seeing them when we went to Yellowstone (saw 11 in one day, including several grizzlies), but I'd rather see them when I'm looking for them and I've got my car parked near enough to get to it before the bear gets to me!

Paige,
There are instances of rogue bears... the ones that are bold and aggressive toward people and pets. They often develop like that because they were fed by people, or lived near dumps and habitations where they found food and associated it with humans. That's not the same as "natural" bears who come wandering down from the hills to search for berries, and stumble into the suburbs. Those bears would rather hightail it back to the woods.

The rogues usually get tagged and transported to the wilderness. If they come back to town, they are killed. While I wouldn't get close enough to a bear to figure out whether it was a rogue or a "natural," I do agree that caution is key all the time. People need to be educated that you don't mess with nature. And it wouldn't be a bad idea for communities sprawling to the edge of woods, to erect strong, high fences on the wooded borders.

If Bears are a problem then get yourself
Orange Tabby Cat

Haven't seen any in Concord myself, but last week at about 5 am on Rt 117 I saw what I believe was a Coyote. I didn't get a good look at it, but it was much larger than the Foxes I often see in that area.

let us face the truth. the real problem is too many people.

I remember when there was less than 3 billion people. now over 6 billion people.

there are not even 1 billion animal of any species. in fact there are not 1 billion of all the animal species combined.

lets call the police and wildlife people to come into concord and thin out the people. how about 1 person to 100 acres. or 1000 acres. I am positive there is less than 1 bear per 1000 acres and less than 1 moose per 1000 acres. so come on folks. 50-50. one person and one animal for every 1000 acres.

this world would be such a better place. and lets take the federal gov back to where it was when it started over 200 years ago.

I would guess in Concord mass there are 5000 people on 1000 acres and no animals. one comes along and they all want to shoot it. Oh My God. what is going on inside the mind.

There are instances of rogue people ... the ones that are bold and aggressive toward animals and pets and other people.

Wake up. You and the animals are ONE. you can not poison or kill an animal except that you are poisoning and killing yourself. you can not hate the animal unless you hate yourself. You can not love the animal unless you love yourself.

the real problem is that you do not love yourself.
the real solution is to love yourself and all living creatures.

Um, did anyone say anything about hating, poisoning or killing bears?

I can admire and respect bears and still be afraid of them. In fact, I should. To respect a bear is to fear it on some level. It is a wild animal and therefore it is unpredictable. I don't think anyone is advocating the killing of bears. We're just discussing how we feel about coexisting with them.