Wild(life) Party

There were twelve turkeys outside our windows this morning, two hens guarding eight no-longer-chicks. They scratched, and then moved on down the hill toward the creekbed and the blackberry... patch, we will call it.

It is remarkable how much more medium-sized wildlife we see on a daily basis here in edge suburbia as opposed to, say, up high in Kings Canyon. The reason appears clear: We irrigate. We irrigate up the wazoo. If the deer had species memories of what this area looked like 250 years ago, they would be amazed at the change. We have changed the land to provide much more food sources for opossums, turkeys, raccoons, skunks, deer, and like critters. Roadkill is an incredible bonanza for cathartes aura(1).

By contrast, we do not like their predators: the larger members of felis, canis, and ursus. There has not been a member of ursus americanus(2) up here by Little Grizzly Creek in a century, and the same goes (fortunately) for ursus arctos horribilis(3). Felis concolor(4) is occasionally seen by the mail carrier resting in the blackberry patch (though, somehow, nobody ever sees felis rufus(5)). I don't think this was ever part of the range of canis lupus(6) (although we hear canis latrans(7) once every couple of weeks.

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(1) Turkey vulture.
(2) Black bear.
(3) Grizzly bear.
(4) Mountain lion.
(5) Bobcat.
(6) Grey wolf.
(7) Coyote.

Comments

[dilbert dogbert]

Felis concolor is becoming a frequent visitor to our north Palo Alto neighborhood. The other critters are keeping a very low profile except for the possoms and racoons. Lots of raptors as there is an expansion of the tree squirrel population.
If felis ever takes a child in California I think his population will quickly return to the wilder reaches of the state. Hunting them with dogs is very efficient.
It is interesting how much wildlife is atracted to the urban-wildlands interface. In our jaunts in the backcountry felis has not been seen. Black bears are fairly common in the outback and becoming more visible near the urban areas. Our park rangers say the black is moving into the old ursus arctos horribilis habitat which was a lowland habitat.
Enjoy them critters.

[Cardinal Fang]

Felis concolor has had a lot of opportunities to take kids in the areas where felis has always lived (think of the very busy Rancho San Antonio Park near you, dilbert) but he has never done so.

As far as I remember, the last couple of mountain lion attacks in California were by hungry mothers with cubs to feed. The lions being seen in places like Palo Alto, on the other hand, are most likely young males chased out of territories already held by older males. Maybe those adolescent male lions can survive nicely on squirrels and dogs, and don't need to eat children.

[MTC]

As for the expansive blackberry patch, its days may be numbered: blackberry rust has established itself in Oregon.

http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/BUSINESS/507230331/1040

[Brian S.]

I've thought it would be a great idea to reintroduce a small population of u. arctos to parts of the eastern Sierras, WITH HUNTING. Hunting is a good way to keep them scarce and wary of people, and would provide some local economic benefits. It's the only compromise possible between enviros and Sierra residents, but I doubt either side would accept it.

Here in the South Bay, naturalists tell people not to hike alone because of f. concolor - instead they should ride a bicycle next to fast-moving traffic, or stay home and eat junk food.

[Pacific John]

I don't know about that, Brad. There is a lot of wildlife in the Sunol/Del Valle wilderness, miles from homes or agriculture. Down here on the Central Coast, we have a lot of turkeys in county parks like Dairy Creek and San Antonio. Although we have a lot of ag and mixed suburbs/country, we have few turkeys outside of the parks - I'm not sure I understand why. We have a lot of deer, and quite a few coyotes and foxes. Maybe turkeys need parks for protection from random hunters/property owners.

[Pacific John]

On the lion thing, a kid got mauled in an OC park back in the mid-80s. The kid was severely injured, having her head clamped in the cat's jaws, while the father endlessly beat the cat with a piece of wood. The cat turned out to be sick and under-weight. There was not a large backlash - in fact, a mountain lion hunting initiative in the '90s lost. The people who live and play around the urban/wildland interface know the risks, and since they tend to be well-off, don't earn the public's sympathy.

[John Owens]

"There were twelve turkeys outside our windows this morning, two hens guarding eight no-longer-chicks."

You being an economics professor and all that, I should hope your math skills weren't this rusty. Did you leave out a description of the other two, or what?

[jml]

"(though, somehow, nobody ever sees felis rufus(5)"

Are they supposed to be in the East Bay? In my limited experience backpacking, I've never really seen a bobcat. I've seen largish gray blurs of about the right size speeding from nearby underbrush and outta sight into the younder that by a process of elimination I figured must've been a bobcat. But I've never actually seen one in the usual sense.

[radek]

Personally I'm still amazed that there are Vulpes in (well, at least near) central London.

[dilbert dogbert]

jml,
Lots of rufus in the urban/wildlands interface around here. Palo Alto's Arastadero Preserve has em. We used to board our horses just across the street and would see them all the time when riding in the park. Maybe our elevation allowed a better sight line, plus, not seeming to be a threat made it easier to see them. Sometimes they would sit just off the trail and watch us go by.
Now that we don't just shoot everything that moves, the wildlife is moving in closer.

[bcinaz]

I would imagine, coyotes, mountian lions, bears, bobcats, turkeys, deer, and elk are wondering why whenever the ancestors of Lucy show up another migrataion path, breeding area, water hole, or shady tree disapprears.

And by all means terrorize the wildlife with dogs. jeesus.

[Auros]

"Felis concolor has had a lot of opportunities to take kids in the areas where felis has always lived (think of the very busy Rancho San Antonio Park near you, dilbert) but he has never done so."

This hasn't stopped the P.A. cops from following a "shoot to kill" policy. A while back, they killed a mountain lion that was sleeping in a tree. It had been prowling around for hours -- it was first reported by early morning commuters, and they shot it in the afternoon. Evidently they felt that shooting it with a tranq dart would give it too much time to run (and potentially hurt somebody). As the kids say, "what-EVER." I was peeved.

[Cardinal Fang]

I'm surprised that you guys haven't seen bobcats. Around Palo Alto and Los Altos, they're pretty common and not shy. I've seen them at Foothills Park and Rancho San Antonio; I've even seen mothers with bobkittens. They've seemed unfazed by me.

[Dano]

It's much easier to observe wildlife on your property when the life knows your schedule and knows its safe from predation. You can go to Sunol or Arastradero and sit quietly for a time and see lots of critters, likely almost as many as in Berkeley backyards (different species though). But blasting thru, say, Arastradero on your Klein or Lightspeed full suspension usu. results in seeing less wildlife than when you are sitting on the patio with the paper and a cuppa joe.

Also, there's plenty of evidence rich suburbs have higher biodiversity because they can pay for it - e.g. the greater preponderance of ornamentals creates more canopy layers and more food sources (berries, seeds, new yummy bugs for tweety birds). I bet the turkeys enjoy finding the grubs of rose chafers (Brad should enjoy the turkeys finding them too - less expense for chemicals).

D

[JRossi]

The crazy woman that lives next to us feeds the wild turkeys and the deer. Good wildlife is wildlife that lives in the wild, not in my yard. Also, spiders in the house have a low life expectancy.