Critter Geek

I’m fascinated by animals who work as guardians to livestock. Here’s a post from Cat Urbigkit about her beautiful Akbash dogs who share duties with some guard burros.

Livestock guardian play: All this commotion caused pains to our guard animals, especially to the older pair of burros, which don’t like any change at all. But the fun part to watch was the introduction of new sheep into the herd and how the guardians respond to that.

Read more and see more photos of Livestock guardian play (From Stephen Bodio’s Querencia.)

Here’s some amazing road-cam footage of a dog helping to save another dog who had been hit on the highway. (Hard to watch that footage of the first dog being hit, but amazing to see the other dog helping.)

I know it’s evil of me to spoil the good feeling, but I can think of another reason why a dog would pull something off the road.

Via @dalepd

Observers are wondering where the acorns are in parts of Northern Virginia, according to this Washington Post article, Acorn Watchers Wonder What Happened to Crop:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they’re not worried yet. “What’s there to worry about?” said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. “If you’re a squirrel, it’s a big worry. But it’s no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They’ll produce acorns again when they’re ready to.”

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

“This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it’ll go away,” Zimmer said. “But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what’s going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger.”

Rumors abound about hungry squirrels. For lots of discussion about the topic, see the comments thread on this Boing Boing post, Bizarre absence of acorns in parts of the United States, where I first heard about this.

How about some strange critters? Check out WebEcoist’s list of “20 Strange and Exotic Endangered Species:

“The bladder-chewing guppy not enough for you? Can’t stop thinking about exploding ants, boyfriend-devouring she-monsters of the sea and blood-spurting lizards? Don’t worry - terrifying oneself is a common ailment of the intertubes. Unfortunately, there is no cure…but there is more to learn! Reader, prepare thyself. Your eyeballs are about to be flooded with some of the strangest, creepiest, crawliest endangered creatures on the planet. Warning: content best consumed as far away from bedtime as possible.”

(Via Boing Boing.)

Especially for our friends over on Spotty Horse News, here’s some amazing dressage work…on camel…

via Stephen Bodio’s Querencia

Duncan, in Victoria, Australia, writes the Ben Cruachan - natural history weblog, and posts some beautiful photos for Macro Monday.:

“I put the moth light out last night, first time for a while, the weather just hasn’t been suitable and I’ve been busy. Very little in the way of moths came in before I pulled the pin, but I got dozens of assorted beetles including the first two ‘Christmas Beetles’.”

Link

Today Steve and I spent the morning touring…chicken coops!

Generous members of the California Wine Country Chicken Chat group opened their coops to others in the group for an informal tour of member coops. It was a great chance to see how other build their coops and manage their flocks of chickens. And we saw lots of beautiful chickens!

I was happy to see that everyone had mixed flocks and not just one breed. We also got to see several “mutts”, chickens of no particular breed that turn out in a nice variety of shapes, patterns and colors.

Two things stood out from what coop owners told us: their hens have plenty of nest boxes, but fight over one favorite, sometimes crowding themselves three at a time on top of one another, laying all their eggs in one box. And many started with a chicken tractor (a movable chicken pen), but found it to be too much trouble and converted to a regular coop.

Click on the thumnails below to browse photos of the tour, or head on over to the photo set on Flickr.

I’m a strong believer in raising your own flock of backyard chickens. It’s enormously rewarding, and it brings a yard to life like nothing else. And you can bet your eggs will be a lot better (and better for you) than the ones from a place like this that describes themselves as a “family farm.”

If you’ve been thinking of getting your own chickens, don’t forget the Critter Geek backyard chicken resources page, with lots of links to tips and information.

Thanks again to everyone who showed us their coops this morning!

Here’s a beautiful thing…a family in Japan taught their African Grey parrot to say his name and address. When the parrot was lost and came into the care of a local veterinarian, he eventually began talking and gave them the information that lead to his return home. From the SFGate story, Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address:

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

“I’m Mr. Yosuke Nakamura,” the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

“We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we’ve found Yosuke,” Uemura said.

Teaching your parrot and address or phone number could be a really great hack for helping your bird get home in the unfortunate event of an escape.

Photo by wanderingone.

Yesterday I hiked one of my all-time favorite trails, the Tomales Point Trail at Point Reyes Nationals seashore. It’s always a great hike for viewing wildlife, and yesterday I got to watch Tule Elk, Northern Harriers, and even a big Striped Skunk foraging in a canyon. But my favorite was a close encounter with a Short-tailed Weasel (also known as ermine or stoat). Click on the photo to watch a short video:

I’ve seen them on the trails at Ragle before…sometimes a woman is with the dog, sometimes a man. If they see another dog coming, they pull off the trail and hold the dogs head, bent over, telling the dog to be quiet as it growls because of us. I wondered about this training method…it seems like it’s adding energy to the situation, perhaps even unintentionally rewarding the dog with the focus and attention of its owners. But I figured it wasn’t my problem.

Recently, I’ve seen the dog off-leash, twice. In both cases, the owner saw us and called the dog back, leashing it and going through the same head-holding ritual. I wondered about this, too. Why would a dog like that be off-leash on a leash-only trail? They seemed to have reasonable voice command, but it seemed like risky behavior. But I figured it wasn’t my problem.

Today it became my problem.

Laika and I were doing our normal loop around the trails. I heard a voice around a bend ahead of us, then saw the dog and one of its owners. The owner had seen us and was calling the unleashed dog back, but it was too late. The dog saw Laika, and tore after us, attacking my dog.

I know you’re not supposed to get in the middle of a dog altercation, but Laika and I have a deal, and nothing goes after my dog without me doing something. So I got into the mix. At the same time I managed to grab the other dog’s harness, I dropped Laika’s leash, which let her escape. I’d been afraid to drop it earlier, worried that the dogs would take off and I wouldn’t be able to do anything to help her. The owner also got hold of the harness and got the leash attached.

Both of us holding the dog’s harness, I yelled at her, “What is a dog like that doing off leash?!” She apologized, over and over again, but I did some more yelling anyhow. Laika seemed fine, but I got the woman’s name and phone number anyhow, and thanked her for trying to do the right thing by giving me that.

I’m still angry, though. I’m so sick of hearing dog owners expound, sometimes at length, about why their dogs aren’t leashed on public property where a leash is required. I’ve heard endless inane excuses for this (in this case, “I just wanted to let him get a drink of water in the creek.”) But the fact is, they’re just excuses. If you want your dog to be off-leash, then you’re going to have to find a place to do that; they do exist. Unleashing your dog in a leash-only area is ruining it for the rest of us. That’s why dogs get banned entirely….”We tried allowing dogs on leash, but owners wouldn’t abide by the leash rule, so we had to ban them altogether.” The rules and laws end up getting made for the lowest common denominator, and I’m sick to death of being regulated for the sake of idiot dog owners.

An aggressive dog needs to be restrained while on public property, period. And even a typically non-aggressive dog needs to be on a leash where the regulations require it.

Don’t make your dog my problem.