Animals The Animal Kingdom: wild or domestic!

[will focus]

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[MiguelATF]

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A truly awesome squirrel portrait, Lucien!

 

[MiguelATF]

A sand crab, busily scuttling from Point A to Point B on the sandy beach alongside Cape Blanco.

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At moments, when it stops moving, it resembles another (of the many) sandy rocks, along the beach.

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[Phil.H]

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[lucien]

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[John King]

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What is that creature, Lucien? Looks like a wombat with a tail!

 

[lucien]

Sorry late response, it's a ground hog, I guess our equivalent

Groundhog - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I haven't visited in awhile

 

[lucien]

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[jederick]

A

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Grizzly mom and her cubs crossing a boulder ridge in Yellowstone N.P.

 

[Phil.H]

I came across these Highland Cattle while visiting Lyme Park in Cheshire.

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[Phil.H]

Plenty of these in the Park also.

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[lucien]

Phil are the cattle domesticated? Who owns/runs the park?

 

[Phil.H]

Phil are the cattle domesticated? Who owns/runs the park?

They are domesticated @lucien . They have a large area to roam in that visitors have access to. The Park and Stately Home is run by the National Trust.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I am fortunate to live in an area that offers all the conveniences of a modern city, yet boasts vistas of lakes and forests populated by a wide range of animals and waterfowl. I am even luckier to be able to drive most mornings for work through the surrounding eco tour. Usually my drive starts about 4 am and ends about 8 or 9 am. Beautiful sunrises and abundant wildlife are common. What I hate, what I absolutely hate seeing is the amount of carnage on the road as a result of car/animal accidents. I figure I drive about 150-300 miles each morning and on average I see 10-15 dead deer on the side of the road. It's a huge problem here. The number of dead smaller animals, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, possums, etc. are too numerous to count. Most lay along the side of the road wasting away, rotting, a heartbreaking and senseless loss of innocent animal's lives.

Today I saw a deer, probaly hit by a car this morning, and a fox that was at least making the deer's sacrifice worthwhile. I watched for about 20 minutes while the fox would take chunks of meat, run across the road and seemingly drop it off at a den hidden in the woods. He made several trips. I took alot of photos, many are pretty graphic and there isn't any reason to go overboard posting most of them here. But here is a short sequence from this morning's food windfall for the fox...

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The Fox spots me, but will not be deterred from the free meal that awaits for him or her, and it's kits.

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You can see this fox is in the process of losing it's winter coat in favor of more seasonable wear.

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The fox licks it's chops in anticipation of a free venison breakfast.

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The fox gave the deer carcass a pretty good once over before settling in to eat.


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The back end of the deer seemed to have been opened up pretty good, probably by coyotes.

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Once the fox engaged in tearing away at the deer, he was unfazed by any noises or traffic in the area. Semi Trucks passed within feet of him and he didn't even flinch.

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I had to leave, I was on my way back to the office for a second run and this was the last shot I took of the fox. As sad as it is to see animals killed on the road, I left at least a little comforted knowing that the meat from that animal wasn't going to waste.


A footnote: On my second trip of the morning I watched a coyote chase a deer into the road in front of me. I came to a complete stop and layed on my horn. The sound of the horn managed to separate them to opposite sides of the road where they both disappeared into the woods. Fortunately it was daylight. When those coyote/deer chases happen before dawn it usually doesn't end well. That's usually when deer aren't thinking about traffic, they're just trying to get away and drivers can't see them in the dark.

You need to start thinking of the 'carnage' as population control. If that many are being killed by cars it probably means the predators are too far and few between. I have no doubts that the coyotes have learned it is easier to chase a deer into the path of a car than it is to take one down by themselves.

 

[Mike7]

I came across these Highland Cattle while visiting Lyme Park in Cheshire.
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Great work @Phil.H, excellent light and DOF.

 

[BruceRH]

A rare moment of cooperation at the squirrel table. I have never seen 3 at once before. Sometimes 2 siblings will share but this is unusual. Today they are back to chasing each other off

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[BruceRH]

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[Irene McC]

Albino squirrel /s

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[DM Larson]

Albino squirrel /s

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Did they escape a lab?

 

[Irene McC]

Did they escape a lab?

Not to my knowledge. There was always one - for the past ten-fifteen years, and it was regarded as an anomaly.
Then some time ago people thought they were seeing double - there were two. This morning we saw three!
I thought it was a recessive gene? Maybe they are interbreeding?