Procyon lotor*

[prashantsingh]

What a story Briha Sir. Once a crow died (a natural death) in my backyard and it looked like all the crows in town had gathered for the funeral.

It just takes a few experiences like that to reinforce how puny we humans really are.

Absolutely .
It is also these close experiences with nature which make me appreciate the value of life and to try and live it to the fullest.
After the herd had moved away ....far away. I heard my PH make a call to the landowner on his walky talky.He spoke in Afrikaans so I really could not make out what he said.
We would spend the day hunting and would have a packed lunch. Breakfast and dinner were the main meals.
We got our Springbok later that day and when we sat down for dinner there was some fantastic shepards pie to gulp down with my scotch.
I found the meat rather "gamey".
"What meat is it?" I asked.
"Black wilderbeast" my PH told me.
After our close shave with the wilderbeast my PH had called up the Landowner and asked his wife to cook wilderbeast pie for the evening.
Perhaps some sort of REVENGE.

[xl_target]

Great Stories, Prashant and Briha,

Briha, I have seen that behavior from Crows when one of their number has been shot. They are also rather intelligent and soon recognize a gun when they have been shot. One of the places that I lived in the '70's had an infestation of crows. They would peck out the foil tops on the milk bottles (delivered to each house) and eat the cream off the top This usually meant that you had to throw the milk away as crows eat carrion and garbage. They would root in the garbage cans and spread the garbage all over. They would cover practically every flat surface with their excrement.

When one was shot, all the other crows gathered around squawking and landed in the nearby trees. After they found that this activity got more of them shot, they soon ceased doing that. Soon, coming out of the house with a gun would cause them to evacuate the area. One time I came out of the house with a hockey stick and they all took off.

In my part of the US crows were once regarded as serious pests. There were so many at one time that they could cause significant crop damage in certain area. Some localities even offered bounties on crows. This lowered the population of crows significantly. They are coming back now as no one really shoots them anymore and no bounties are offered for them anymore. Starlings were also considered worthy of a bounty at one time.

[ckkalyan]

@ xl_target, prashantsingh, brihacharan

Interesting stories, gentlemen.....thank you for sharing!

[airgun_novice]

Good one XL and timmy. Had a hearty laugh. One animal I miss from USA is the skunk.

[timmy]

Starlings were also considered worthy of a bounty at one time.

As well they should have! I wish that starlings could be completely eradicated from North America. The story is, back in the 1800s, some idiot decided that Central Park in New York City should have every bird mentioned in all of Shakespeare's works, so starlings were imported from Britain to establish them in New York City. Before that time, there were no starlings in North America; they are an Old World species. Once introduced, starlings were very effective in competing against indigenous species and the native bird populations declined considerably. Now, supposedly, we know better. At least, one can hope so.

[xl_target]

airgun_novice,
While Flower, on Bambi was cute; you really don't want to tangle with a skunk. Being sprayed by a skunk is a singularly unpleasant experience. When we lived out in the country, we had a dog who tangled with a skunk, once. He was miserable for days and we didn't want him near us for about a week. Even bathing him and pouring tomato juice on him didn't alleviate the smell. He never messed with skunks after that.

When I was in college, on the way home from a road trip, we hit a skunk. We were riding in an old 1970's Ford LTD and those thing were known for rusting out very badly. When we hit the skunk, it got thrown into the trunk because the rear quarters were so rusted. Our clothes and stuff was in the the trunk. Multiple washings didn't remove the smell from some of the items and I ended up throwing away almost all of it.

I'm sure some of our US members can come up with some more Skunk stories for you.

Starlings were also considered worthy of a bounty at one time.

As well they should have! I wish that starlings could be completely eradicated from North America. The story is, back in the 1800s, some idiot decided that Central Park in New York City should have every bird mentioned in all of Shakespeare's works, so starlings were imported from Britain to establish them in New York City. Before that time, there were no starlings in North America; they are an Old World species. Once introduced, starlings were very effective in competing against indigenous species and the native bird populations declined considerably. Now, supposedly, we know better. At least, one can hope so.

Ha, learn something new every day. i didn't know that Starlings were not native to the US

[essdee1972]

Thanks guys! Nice stories on small animals! Reminded me of the time when I was surrounded by some 10 of our simian cousins (the common Indian monkey - the ones with the red rear end), and bitten in the leg by one! Seven shots in the tummy!!!

By the way, Timmy, THAT was one real Shakespeare fan!! The ol' bard would have been spinning in his grave!

[airgun_novice]

Dear XL - had similar exp with the skunk (hence miss it for good). Friend ran over a skunk while driving through PA and all of us ended up puking the Burger King drive-throughs. While in the Princeton area one particular couple decided to go for it on our apartment lawns and within minutes all of the 2-3 buildings were wide awake and a few even going down to the lawn to shoo the lovers off. My mom who was visiting us then since wife was pregnant wanted to know if our gutter line was choked up or burst! How typically Mumbaikar!!!