GABIT attendees thread

[halfbloodme]

Reading Gabit's wild kingdom as EH-T called it makes me feel a little jealous in all honesty. Living in a city in the UK the most I see are crows, pigeons and the dogs that people train to attack, oh and a few cats. But that doesn't make the animals any the less dangerous. When I lived back in Jersey (and that's the island in the English Channel, not NJ), our biggest problem was seagulls. They have become so unafraid of humans and large in numbers that they will literally swoop down and take sandwiches out of people's hands. One year I was with a friend babysitting her cousin who couldn't have been more than two, a seagull swooped down as we we changing him out of his swim suit in the park and clamped on in a rather unfortunate place. Luckily we were just across the road from the hospital. It took 6 doctors and 4 nurses to remove the seagull.

[Celandine]

it happens a lot, especially when food is scarce. they wander into towns looking for food and the bears break into houses and eat from the garbage. in churchill ca. they have to deal with polar bears as they migrate. that has to be scary. we have deer, possums, fox , coyotes,racoons and skunks here. the only one i'm wary of are the skunks. if a car hits one a few miles away, you can still smell it.

Growing up, we lived near a huge forest/prairie (which the State now has taken over as a Preserve) which was awesome for finding just the right tree to build a fort in, but also for the many different wild animals we would have visit us. Wild turkeys, possum, raccoons, etc.. There is also a huge deer population, but they are understandably too shy to venture out of their safe habitat for any reason.

My folks also raised many different types of orphaned animals as well. Whenever Animal Control received a call about babies found near a residency when it was plain that the parent had been killed, they would receive the new babies to raise. As far back as I could remember, I never thought it strange to feed baby squirrels or even a baby raccoon from a bottle. We have some very awesome pictures too as when these babies would get older, they would be released back into the Preserve, but always somehow knew the way back to my parents home. I have pics of squirrels sitting on my shoulder as I pet and fed them and raccoon siblings mingling betwixt our feet as we sat on the back porch with them during the summer.

Here in the Central Valley of CA you can have rattlesnakes on your front porch. I had a friend whose cat was killed by a rattler just yesterday in their yard. When I was a kid in Fl I was bitten by a rattler, which is why I have a very healthy fear of snakes now.

Yikes. Rattlesnakes I could do without.

Once when I was camping in Texas, I made my way to the bathroom and just when I closed the stall door I looked down and saw two scorpions on the floor at my feet. Let's just say I suddenly didn't have to use the facilities any more as I high-tailed it out of there. I was very anal about checking through our sleeping bags/tent and belongings after that for any stray visitors.

[lame moose (mocha)]

i have nightmares about snakes, even tho i've never had any wild encounters. when i go to the pet shop i have to take the round about way to the cash register because they have containers in one aisle with tarantulas and aquariums with snakes. we only have little garter snakes in the forest preserves here and i haven't seen one since i was a little kid. thank goodness.

[rderoch]

here, we have deer and hitting htem is the biggest issue. 2-300 pound animal hitting a car going 60-70 mph, someone cna do the math on the force, but it's a lot.

If you're lucky, it bounces off, if you're not, it goes through your windshield and kills you.

we also have badgers, but we rarely see them. possums and coyotes, but they are rather shy and the biggest danger is hitting them with your car. we do have mountain lions (officially their existence is denied, but people see tracks and shot on in KC a couple of years ago), but they want nothing to do with people and are just feasting on the deer.

we do have rattlesnakes and tarantulas and scorpions, but you really need to be out in the bush to run into them...although there are some rattlers around the trail on the west side of town, but I don't think anyone has been bitten.

by and large, unless they're rabid or diseased, the biggest threat from wildlife is hitting them with your car and the wrecks caused by that

Here in the southern part of the state, our biggest critters are deer and foxes. Lots of the folks I work with have salt licks in their yards and wandering deer. All I get in my yard is squirrels and bunnies. Where my mom lives in the north country, they have black bears which wander into town. The only place I've seen a bear is in the upper peninsula when I was camping. A bear wandered in front of our car at a state park. I was bummed because it was too dark for pictures. At least my close up of a porcupine on a tree came out. I didn't even know porcupines climbed trees!

Here in the Central Valley of CA you can have rattlesnakes on your front porch. I had a friend whose cat was killed by a rattler just yesterday in their yard. When I was a kid in Fl I was bitten by a rattler, which is why I have a very healthy fear of snakes now.

I have that feeling about bees after being swarmed by them once. Let me just say, owwie. I now run if they're buzzing around me.

I once came across a Black Widow in my yard. Had no clue we could even have them around here.

Oooo, today's episode of Gabit's Wild Kingdom is getting scary.

Apologies to those who have heard this story but I love to tell it. Churchill, Manitoba (Polar Bear Capital of the World and a place where you can swim with beluga whales) often has polar bears wander into town in the late fall. The bears gather waiting for ice to form on Hudson's Bay so they can go out hunting for seal. They even have a bear jail where they will hold wandering bears until the ice freezes and then they can be set free. At Halloween, when the kids go trick or treating the parents go along with guns in case they have to scare the polar bears away! I'm not sure I would be that desperate for candy.

In a Gabit related note for those travelling to Whistler when in Vancouver for TSE and/or MTM, today on the news they had pictures of a couple of black bears on the golf course at the Fairmont Whistler Hotel. Now that's what I call a hazard! Sorry, lame moose, no moose sightings on the course ....yet.

Depends on the candy.

[Tittamiire]

Bambi? o_0

In NZ the only thing that will kill you are pet dogs that have been specifically bred to be vicious, you know the ones. We have one poisonous spider but they are terrified of humans and the anti-venom is readily available (no reported deaths since the 18th centuary). Possums can be pretty terrifying if they make it into your tent and hiss into your face, but they aren't going to kill you. Maybe someone could be allergic to bees? I dunno.

The idea that something as big as a moose or a bear can just wander up to your door is just crazy to me

Apart from humans there's nowt dangerous here (dangerous dogs...one extremely paranoid and shy species of poisonous snake, we are beginning to get malaria carrying mosquitoes back interestingly). Though having had to cross fields of cows with calves and sheep with lambs I can attest that they're very dangerous (and scary!) Though they can't generally wander up to your door despite what TV adverts say.

[clairec007]

Scottish midqies ...not even going to try and explain!!

[Mandysg1]

Wild Kindgdom it is...where I live (in the heart of the very populated southern Ontario Canada) we've never had bears in the area, they are usually a lot further north, but the police actually had to shoot a black bear in the city and the other day there was a report of another one being spotted

[EH-T]

Oh, look, Mandy's here ^ Must have seen "polar bears" and "jail" and thought she better she if we were talking about her (or Jan).

Here's the link for bears golfing at Whistler:

http://www.ctv.ca/canadaam


click on Jeff's videos: Bear hazard on BC golf course.


PS just noticed, after that click on tasty summer drinks!

[lame moose (mocha)]

Scottish midqies ...not even going to try and explain!!

please try. i googled, wikipediad and dictionary'd that but no results. what is it , or them?

[lame moose (mocha)]

good video. definitely have to stake out the golf course if i drive to whistler. in vermont, they have trouble with the moose on their golf courses.

[Skydiver]

midges are little flying insects, smaller than flies. in large enough numbers they can swam you and just drive you batty

sometimes they even bite

[lame moose (mocha)]

they are a problem in the new england coastal areas too. they have a very technical name for them there..."those darn little black flies"

the bees get pretty pesky late sept and october here. as soon as you get out of your car they come and inspect anything you might be carrying. they don't sting as long as you don't swat at them, thank goodness.

[Tittamiire]

Scottish midqies ...not even going to try and explain!!

Aye...nasty bitey things.

midges are little flying insects, smaller than flies. in large enough numbers they can swam you and just drive you batty

sometimes they even bite

And the scottish ones seem to always bite...

[rderoch]

they are a problem in the new england coastal areas too. they have a very technical name for them there..."those darn little black flies"

the bees get pretty pesky late sept and october here. as soon as you get out of your car they come and inspect anything you might be carrying. they don't sting as long as you don't swat at them, thank goodness.

Are those like "no see ums", the itty bitty gnat things? Those are so annoying.

Horse/deer flies are the ones that I can't stand. They're persistent buggers and love to bite.

[Chelle DB]

midges are little flying insects, smaller than flies. in large enough numbers they can swam you and just drive you batty
sometimes they even bite

For a moment there Sky, I thought I read "midgets are little flying insects" and I was gonna pull you up on that then I re read the line - just as well.
Still no luck with the lottery so still no AT5 for me...is it sold out yet? Going to get a new money tin tomorrow - the AT6 Tin! WooHoo!