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Today's News-Miner has an interesting article on wolves killing other wolves. I'd been under the impression for a lot of years that fights between wild animals over territory or mating were unlikely to result in death, but that's actually very much not the case; even herbivores often fight to the death. Of course, even a small wound can mean "death" in the wilderness. It does interest me, a lot, that wolf packs pick fights with each other and go straight for the kill, not fighting to wound. We've obviously bred a lot of the aggression out of domestic dogs (most breeds, anyway).
I find wild animal behavior fascinating. Of course, animal behavior is so politicized that it's difficult to get information that just reports what animals do without drawing political conclusions about it (and I'm under no illusions that the News-Miner article isn't editorializing, either).
Wildlife yard report: Moose, hares, foxes. The moose, a cow and calf, seem to have moved on. The hares are everywhere; we are obviously at the apex of the lepine population cycle. There is a little flock of ptarmigan hanging around, too, though I haven't seen them lately.
Heavy snow today. Big fluffy flakes.
I find wild animal behavior fascinating. Of course, animal behavior is so politicized that it's difficult to get information that just reports what animals do without drawing political conclusions about it (and I'm under no illusions that the News-Miner article isn't editorializing, either).
Wildlife yard report: Moose, hares, foxes. The moose, a cow and calf, seem to have moved on. The hares are everywhere; we are obviously at the apex of the lepine population cycle. There is a little flock of ptarmigan hanging around, too, though I haven't seen them lately.
Heavy snow today. Big fluffy flakes.
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Hares! They're EVERYWHERE!
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Yeah, I know. They're ALL OVER THE PLACE. We haven't actually had them in the yard, probably because the dogs are out there all the time, but there are beaten rabbit trails in the driveway.
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Humans tend to idealize animals, but chimpanzees go to war, wolves have gangwars and cannibalism, and male mallard ducks rape other mallards (...well, lots of animals rape, but I actually saw one mallard raping another (male) duck - it was on the other duck's back while swimming, and kept trying to push its head down into the water. According to my big book o' gay animals (http://www.amazon.com/Biological-Exuberance-Homosexuality-Diversity-Stonewall/dp/031225377X/) that's fairly typical mallard behavior, but it was still kinda shocking to witness.) It's a jungle out there!
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Granted they are southern birds which are complaining of temperatures in the mere 30s.