OT But Deja Vu ( ish )

Very Cool! Where's this?

I've seen Lots of coyotes and some big enough to be wolf, but never a fershure wolf.

=============================== George, When I was working in Maine, I was suprised to see signs on the Interstate warning "Beware of moose on roadway"!

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

No cougars? Since you're in my neck of the woods I'll relate my big cat story:

Last Spring, perhaps, I was driving down I-5, past Wilsonville and the Willamette bridge. At the exit for Canby/Woodburn I saw an animal to the side of the road... I immediately thought coyote - nope, too big and wrong color. Small deer - nope, tail's way too long. Cougar! Damn, I just saw a cougar!

Then last winter, on our way back from Nevada after Thanksgiving, we took the long way home and came back into the state by way of Klamath Falls then jumped west to I-5. On the way to crossing the Cascades it was snowing, night-time, and, I believe, we were the only car for quite a while. (I was a little nervous about the drive as I figured if we got stuck or slid off the road, it could be quite some time until someone came along.) Anyway, we rounded a curve and in our high-beams I clearly saw a white bobcat or lynx jumping from the road into the forest. Very cool too.

George,

Can't relate to the wild sighting but have to share a story from my days volunteering at The Lichterman Nature Center in Memphis, TN over twenty years ago.

Seems a lady bought a guard dog. After awhile, for some reason, she began to question just what animal she had and phoned the Center. They talked her into bringing the animal in. Turned out it was a purebred male wolf. I say purebred because the Center sent it to a halfway house kind of place to return it to the wild and they kept him for breed stock instead. They took pictures of him and his mate, one of which was given to me as a going away present and is hanging over the office doorway as I write this.

The impressive part of all this was the face-to-face meeting with him where I actually touched him. Those eyes would make anyone wonder what kind of "dog" is this! By the way, all of this was a big deal because you have to be Federally licensed to handle/have wolves.

TomNie

Michigan, the Upper. Talk of delisting old Canis lupus because of the growing population. As to cougars, been rumors and unsubstantiated sightings for years. DNR did recently confirm some scat was from a big feline, and the woods make noise down by the river....

While Wolves are unknown here (west of Seattle), cats aren't. A couple years ago there was a sign in one of the buildings a work in (inside Sub Base Bangor) that people should not do their noon walks alone. Seems that a Cougar had been noticed following people doing their walks. Of course this was not in the part of the base with homes and lots of people (it's a largish base). I've never seen cat sign on my property: coyote, fox, deer, racoon and #*$&$ Possum yes (one of the three people I would love to have an up close and personal conversation with is the moron that imported Possum)

Ken, One year a moose fell into a swimming pool in our town in Maine. Stirred up things. Ayup! Another time a bull moose fell in love with a heifer and wouldn't leave her, but there was no progeny. These can't be legends because I read them in the paper. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Umpteen years ago I spent part of a morning feeding a male timber wolf raw meat by hand ... 1" cube at a time. A friend had a pair of 'em in the house.

No, he wasn't overly bright. But then, neither was I.

A couple years ago, while camping at Sleeping Bear Dune Nat'l Forest in Benzie County, MI, my wife and I spotted a cougar crossing the road just at twilight.

I don't know what it takes to have a 'confirmed sighting' ... but I am certain of what I saw and the person sitting next to me was terrified.

Bill

Did you see the news story about the guy sighting a cougar in the Greenway along Fanno Creek in Tigard. Had the cops, F&W, and the TeeVee crew all out to search. Turned out it was a house cat. A very perturbed cat due to the commotion.

Haven't been in the UP in many a moon. Knew there were wolf on Isle Royale, but didn't know they were back on the mainland.

Possum were imported? I had to relocate a whole family of them a couple years back.

Ralph,

Well, I can say that a bit south of you along I-5, in Thurston county, out by Tenino, you can go see some wolves at a "Half-Way House" place called Wolf Haven. Used to ride out there when I was a kid and riding with our local bicycle group. Deffinately liked heading over towards St. Helens and getting a better view of some of the more wild forms of life though. :-) Now on the other hand. Don't go have an up close and personal conversation with the opossum on base, they are a federal game reserve. We had a kid down here in Florida decide that an Opossum scared him enough that he needed to beat it. Needless to say the Animal control officer on base and security were deffinately involved.

Mike

To work with wood is heaven, to turn divine.

Where did they import the possum from Ralph, you know ??

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo.

:)

Me thinks someone needs to put Morris on a diet.

When I was about 8 years old, my dad, who worked at a cement plant in northern Virginia, came home one day with a hurt possum. Seems my dad was driving through the quarry area and noticed this guy had been hit or injured, probably by the machinery. My dad was a softy for anything on 4 legs. Anyway, we kept that beady, red-eyed devil on our sun porch in a wood airline kennel for a few weeks. The thin smelled unique, to say the least; hissed and just made a terrible racket whenever us kids'd poke our noses near the wire screen. Dad took him/her back to the quarry and let 'im go near where he found him. Every now and then dad would come home and say, "Well, I spotted the posssum today - he looks like he's doing fine."

Or the guy who reported the 'cougar' needs a visit to Dr. Jahnke!

They wander a lot. The mainland moose population wasn't growing as rapidly, so the "let's restore the _balance_ of nature" types imported some from Canada.

They've also favored us with the "return" of the Fisher, which obligingly ate porkies, but also decimated the grouse and woodcock.

I have seen one road-kill possum down south of here. Has to have been a case of someone's pets being released, as there aren't enough rednecks to make hunting them an objective. The Finns don't even hunt the turkey that some idjit turned loose up here.

The article I read said they were first "imported" into California, back in the 30's

....

I've nailed two in the yard in the last year. It seems that, unlike Raccoons they don't run from the dogs (when I turn them out in the morning). On base, well, they RIFed the Forester (that also did game and animal control) 10 years ago and never replaced him. Part of that result is they haven't done any logging in 10 years.