Mystery Animal on Game Camera

[j44ke]

There is a pretty interesting article about the history of mammals (including predatory species) in NYS from the same people who did our ecological survey at the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program. One of the things the article shows is how important the Adirondack park is to lingering populations of species that are otherwise gone from New York.

The game camera produced another series of bobcat shots where he is slinking through the background after some deer went through. The coat color is a very mountain-lion-esque color. Having been on the receiving end of a lot of wildlife reports from friends who know I know birds, etc., the eyewitness rule that "everything is larger when you see it" holds true. Most people don't notice animals, so when they do notice an animal - especially an exciting animal like a scarlet tanager or a bobcat - their brain magnifies the event. The other principle is that no one looks at tails. They all see the overall color and the head and if the animal looks at them, the eyes.

"That woodpecker was huge! Like a goose on a tree. I've never seen one like that before." Then they go on to describe a pileated woodpecker, which is our largest woodpecker but is smaller than a crow. No goose on a tree. But size exaggeration is an innocent product of suddenly heightened awareness of a spectacle and the resultant jolt of adrenalin.

At the same time, sightings made by farmers, hunters, hikers, etc. - people who spend a lot of time outside but are not scientists - have been elemental to establishing the presence of animals in regions where they have been thought to be extinct. Fishers are one of those animals.

[j44ke]

Here in NH, what really divides people, more than red v. blue even, is the question of whether mountain lions are in the state. Despite the complete and utter lack of any evidence whatsoever (a body, a kill, scat, a print), despite the fact that everyone has a high-definition camera in their pocket these days, so many people here really really really want to believe that lions are everywhere and the state department of fish & wildlife (for some completely incomprehensible reason) is part of a conspiracy to cover it up.

A friend of a friend states that he sees them all the time. Like, every few days. They kill his llamas all the time. So odd that he never can seem to get one on camera.

These stories are always interesting. If he is seeing mountain lions all the time, that is not typical mountain lion behavior. Even in areas where they are not uncommon, you rarely see them. Their whole mode of operation is stealth. So something is wrong if he is seeing them all the time. And obviously something is killing his llamas, but I wonder what.

The biggest risks to a house cat outside are great horned owls and raccoons. Great horned owls are famous for grabbing house cats out after dark, and raccoons actually use group tactics to surround and kill cats because they view cats as a threat to their young.

[monadnocky]

There is a pretty interesting article about the history of mammals (including predatory species) in NYS from the same people who did our ecological survey at the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program. One of the things the article shows is how important the Adirondack park is to lingering populations of species that are otherwise gone from New York.

The game camera produced another series of bobcat shots where he is slinking through the background after some deer went through. The coat color is a very mountain-lion-esque color. Having been on the receiving end of a lot of wildlife reports from friends who know I know birds, etc., the eyewitness rule that "everything is larger when you see it" holds true. Most people don't notice animals, so when they do notice an animal - especially an exciting animal like a scarlet tanager or a bobcat - their brain magnifies the event. The other principle is that no one looks at tails. They all see the overall color and the head and if the animal looks at them, the eyes.

"That woodpecker was huge! Like a goose on a tree. I've never seen one like that before." Then they go on to describe a pileated woodpecker, which is our largest woodpecker but is smaller than a crow. No goose on a tree. But size exaggeration is an innocent product of suddenly heightened awareness of a spectacle and the resultant jolt of adrenalin.

At the same time, sightings made by farmers, hunters, hikers, etc. - people who spend a lot of time outside but are not scientists - have been elemental to establishing the presence of animals in regions where they have been thought to be extinct. Fishers are one of those animals.

Seeing how many sightings of mountain lions have turned out to be ... wait for it... common house cats, I can see how it's a common phenomenon.

[monadnocky]

These stories are always interesting. If he is seeing mountain lions all the time, that is not typical mountain lion behavior. Even in areas where they are not uncommon, you rarely see them. Their whole mode of operation is stealth. So something is wrong if he is seeing them all the time. And obviously something is killing his llamas, but I wonder what.

The biggest risks to a house cat outside are great horned owls and raccoons. Great horned owls are famous for grabbing house cats out after dark, and raccoons actually use group tactics to surround and kill cats because they view cats as a threat to their young.

A few years back I went to a lecture at a local library organized by a "mountain lion expert" who was really trying to convince his audience that they were everywhere in New Hampshire - even in the southwest corner (Cheshire county). He presented an odd combination of "they are everywhere and I see them all the time" and "they are so secretive, that's why you can't get them on camera or find any other evidence of them." It was nonsensical in terms of logic, but the audience was absolutely eating it up. His presentation consisted of a lot of pictures of lions (as the true believers call them) that were obviously taken in the West, but the presenter never mentioned that the pictures were not taken locally. I think he was just really good at implying, without outright lying, that the pictures were taken by him, in the state.

All skeptical questions were answered by framing them in the conspiracy theory that Fish and Game was trying to cover it up because... well, reasons. By the end of the presentation, he had, it seemed, almost everyone convinced that they were going to see one on their drive home, all they needed to do was look.

I have no idea what his motivation was.

As for the llamas - yeah, something was killing them (my friend had some pretty gruesome pictures). I have no idea what might have been doing it. Bobcat? Oddball black bear? Coyotes? Dogs? Pack of rabid chipmunks? But I mean, come on man - set up a few game cameras, or something.

[j44ke]

A few years back I went to a lecture at a local library organized by a "mountain lion expert" who was really trying to convince his audience that they were everywhere in New Hampshire - even in the southwest corner (Cheshire county). He presented an odd combination of "they are everywhere and I see them all the time" and "they are so secretive, that's why you can't get them on camera or find any other evidence of them." It was nonsensical in terms of logic, but the audience was absolutely eating it up. His presentation consisted of a lot of pictures of lions (as the true believers call them) that were obviously taken in the West, but the presenter never mentioned that the pictures were not taken locally. I think he was just really good at implying, without outright lying, that the pictures were taken by him, in the state.

All skeptical questions were answered by framing them in the conspiracy theory that Fish and Game was trying to cover it up because... well, reasons. By the end of the presentation, he had, it seemed, almost everyone convinced that they were going to see one on their drive home, all they needed to do was look.

I have no idea what his motivation was.

As for the llamas - yeah, something was killing them (my friend had some pretty gruesome pictures). I have no idea what might have been doing it. Bobcat? Oddball black bear? Coyotes? Dogs? Pack of rabid chipmunks? But I mean, come on man - set up a few game cameras, or something.

Just ask him if he makes insurance claims on livestock deaths.

[rwsaunders]

I made a “coyote shaker” from a pop can and some coins the other day as a joke, as our recent borough newsletter had a piece about increased coyote sightings and how to deal with them. Well, late yesterday afternoon I heard a shriek from my wife and when I ran around the back of house to investigate, low and behold, she spotted a coyote trotting through the backyard into the woods. I have a .177 air rifle that will take out squirrels and groundhogs, but I don’t think that’s enough firepower for a coyote and the likelihood of me sighting one and having the time to grab a rifle and shoot, is highly unlikely. Now if a coyote would take out one of our resident rabbits or turkeys, I can see my wife declaring war, as she did when the groundhogs started taking bites out of the tomatoes last year.

[mnoble485]

Hell hath no fury like a women who has lost a rabbit or a tomato! Seeing wildlife around is always a neat thing.

Mike

[j44ke]

Garbage is easier prey. Coyotes have been dumpster diving for centuries.

Careful with the air rifle.

[j44ke]

No mystery here. I visited this spot about 1.5 hours earlier.









Now I know why I haven't seen any bear tracks.

[rwsaunders]

A new rug for you and your wife...

[j44ke]

Who gets the big one?

No wait, nevermind....

[happycampyer]

“That’s a big chicken!”

[j44ke]

Our landscapers have been building trails - I estimate we have about 4 miles of them at this point - and ALL of the animals are using them. Deer coyote squirrels rabbit (rarely seen on our property) turkey skunk lots of raccoons and this one, what appears to me to be fisher tracks. The snow was getting a bit melted but five toe pads visible nails steady pace and tendency for rear feet to step into front feet prints but basically a two-and-two pattern. This is a right front paw. The only break was when the animal appeared to chase a squirrel around and around a big old rotten trunk about 10' tall. What to do when you run up the tree and find the limbs missing? No blood or anything and after doing some laps, the fisher or whatever continued on its way. Eventually they disappeared crossing a boundary wall that runs through a stand of hemlocks.

I don't know why I haven't seen a rabbit except on my neighbor's lawn one evening last August. Everywhere else I've lived they are all over the place. And I really want to find porcupine tracks, but even when they've shown up on the game camera, I haven't been able to find any tracks in the mud anywhere.

[Too Tall]

That is really neat Jorn. Do you hear Barred Owls? Might explain the rabbit situation.

[Tom]

One of the very best bike rides of my life was in an otherwise unexceptional route I crossed paths with and then rode next to a fisher cat for a few seconds as it went about its rounds.

[j44ke]

That is really neat Jorn. Do you hear Barred Owls? Might explain the rabbit situation.

Yes! And Great Horned Owls - just the other night on the full moon actually. So you're right - a very likely reason.

One of the very best bike rides of my life was in an otherwise unexceptional route I crossed paths with and then rode next to a fisher cat for a few seconds as it went about its rounds.

That would definitely up the quality of the ride.

[djg21]

Not too far south for Fishers. I’m not far away, in Saratoga County, NY, and Fishers are common here.

[j44ke]

Not too far south for Fishers. I’m not far away, in Saratoga County, NY, and Fishers are common here.

One of the people at the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program studies mammals and has been tracking fisher numbers by way of sightings and road-kill. He says they have been increasing steadily in this area over the last 10 years, starting from almost zero to now being an effective presence in the predator population.

This thread started because I thought maybe I caught a fisher on our game camera, but I am not convinced it wasn't a mink (which I have seen near our property) or a house cat (there are enough houses around that this is possible.) I spend most of my time in the woods looking for marks. I also look for porcupines after being told that in winter they get into the upper limbs of some deciduous trees for a snack & you could walk right underneath and never know they were there.

[ides1056]

Porcupine poop looks like Deer poop with one exception: it's light, not dark roast. They are especially fond of Hemlock trees.

[darkmother]

My humble contribution to this thread:

I watched a very heathy coyote trot across the front yard of multiple houses near to where I live. At noon no less.


It made me happy for some reason.