Odd Wildlife....

[Blink Bonny]

..... well for the English Midlands anyway.

Manna, is Oz wreaking revenge for your importing a Yorkshire Wallet?

I'm having a lot of trouble with sciatica at the moment so spend the wee small hours at my workbench doing something useful most nights rather than keeping Mrs BB awake with my groaning.

Last night I thought at first I was seeing a lame fox. Except that it hopped along on its back legs. I know there are wallabies on the North York Moors and that they've learned that when the trains are running folks chuch 'em scraps out of the window but in Wolverhampton? And are wallabies nocturnal?

I'll have me camera ready next time. Mrs BB doesn't beleive me......

[richard]

I thought it was the Peak District (Dark Peak) where there were meant to be wild wallabies although my understanding is that they were "probably extinct". They escaped in the 50s. Gradbach Youth Hostel has (or had) a stuffed one they found at Lud's Church in the early 90s.

A more common possibility would be a hare.

[owd sweedy]

Yes, when I lived in Staffordshire I heard of the Wallabies on Leek Moor. The story was they were part of a collection of animals belonging to an army officer who was killed in the second world war, and they were released onto the moor near the Roaches. Although they were supposed to have died out because of harsh winters, there are still claims of sightings by fell walkers. Never heard of one in Wolverhampton, "Wolves" yes, but not Wallabies

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

This was definitley NOT a hare. If they were on the moors, its possible. At the back of the gardens is a "green corridor" leading to Penn Common so possible.

Cheers, lads.

I'll have the camera ready for the blighter if I see it again!

[52D]

Ay up BB ive heard of Wallabies in the Chase so that may be your answer. I have a book which i will check for you entitled Naturalised Animals in the UK. Although the book is quite out of date and doesnt list newcomers like the Signal Crayfish it does list Wallabies and when and where they were seen. Hope you manage to get a pic.
Manna is not a peeping tom is he? Trying to pinch building tips from you.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

That's a point. It could have had a video camera hidden about its person somewhere.

[Autocar Publicity]

It's amazing what shapes familiar objects make at night. That's not to say there aren't 'odd' creatures out there. A friend of mine actually shot a big cat (in the Yorkshire Dales, a well known habitat of pumas) after a raft of sightings. Mind you, some sightings cannot be relied on, I will always remember an article followed by a letter in the local newspaper when I was at university in Wales. First week: An article reporting several sightings of a big cat in a particular location at around the same times (dawn/dusk). Second week: A letter from a local dog owner, saying he had noted the article and gently pointing out that his dog (a large black labrador) had a fondness for rummaging about in the bushes at those times... I think you can see where this is going... It quite destroyed my confidence in eye-witness evidence!

[richard]

Yes most of the big cats on the moors are not that at all. Large dogs, domestic cats, hoaxes. There are a remarkable lack of bones and when cat bones are found, they often turn out to have been imported from the tropics (a particularly infamous example from the SW had tropical chrysalis still on it!).
It doesn't matter who the reporter is either - police, military, etc they all make these mistakes. A future US president with US Naval Observer training (ie. should know better!) is on record as reporting Venus as a UFO!

But then again sometimes these things are real! Shooting a puma and finding the body is a good way
This time last year I was very surprised to saw a bald eagle whilst driving about an hour east of Dallas - north Texas not being known for them, but it turns out a few hang out in the lakes about 10 miles to the north of where I saw it.
We're beginning to get a lot of bobcat in the city, although I've only seen one so far (gangly looking thing in silhouette). In reality these are lot more common than people realize (like urban foxes in the UK in the 1980s). We're still at the stage where local TV loses all sense of proportion with "bobcat ate my chihuahua" stories (no, it was almost certainly run over).

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

A few years ago we had reports of a black panther in north Bradford. I had a job at the time delivering leaflets - you could join a gyn for £5 per week to get fit - I got paid £5 an hour for the same thing!

Anyway, I'd completed the round and was heading back to me car, a Citroen BX, when I saw a black cat heading my way. I like cats, especially black ones, so I made ready to call to the moggie and hope he or she wanted a fuss. When the cat turned its head to look into the side windows of my car WITHOUT rearing up ( ) I retreated into the local shop, rather pale. The Indian gentleman behind the counter asked me what was wrong. When I told him, he beamed and said that when he told most people about this they told him he was seeing things and he wasn't in India any more!

Most of these big cat sightings seem to fade away when cold weather comes - do they freeze to death? And, as Richard says, where are the bones?

However, I know what I saw - a big cat glancing sideways into my car's interior.

[giner]

As Richard mentioned earlier, wildlife is making inroads into city areas. Edmonton has a large green river valley running through the centre of the city, and coyotes are regularly seen. Moose also come into town from time to time, as does the occasional bear. I can only recall two instances of cougars being encountered, though. I've lived in Alberta for nigh on 30 years and have never seen a cougar here. Only once have I seen one, on a drive though southern B.C. and, I'm glad to say, from the inside of my car. You certainly don't want to come across one of those if your out and about on foot.

I remember once reading a brochure in a B.C. tourist office where it said how to react if faced with a bear, moose or a cougar. It went on at some length about bears and moose, but after reading though it I realised it hadn't said anything further about cougars. Tells you a lot, that.

Mind you, most of the wildlife around here is when the bars close for the night.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

To answer BB's earlier question.........yes Wallabies are nocturnal (so are 'roos) but not in the sense that they only come out at night, they will often be seen in broad day light, happily eating the grass (even had a couple of 'roos in my back garden eating the grass at 9 o'clock in the morning) Wallabies and 'roos like to sit/lay on roads at night, because the road surface stay warm overnight, which can lead to some scary moments, when traveling at night here.

There have also been reports of a very large 'cat' living in the 'Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, for many years, even seen some video, on the news, but it was taken on bare ground so had nothing to scale it against, but it did look big. The 'Blue Mountains' are very remote in places, and they are finding rare plants and animals every so often, a few years back they found a tree, that was thought extinct for 60 million years !! Wallowye pine or something like that, so there could be a large cat living in that area

We also have the 'Bunyip' which is Australia's answer to 'Bigfoot' mostly seen by patrons of late night drinking holes !!!

manna

[richard]

manna: You're not the only one with marsupials. We have a lot living in the Dallas Metroplex!
Not the bouncy kind but the vicious-looking teeth kind. At the old house we did have a possum nesting in the roof space. Attempts to trap it for relocation were unsuccessful but during the attempt I must have caught 4-5 different adolescents in the garden - none of them ours (the joeys were still gremlin sized). So short story, we have a lot of them around even if you don't see them very often. Usually seen when out walking the dog at night, or if the dog has found one up a tree in the garden (when lots of howling commences).

Haven't seen anything really unusual at the new house yet. Lots of bird life but the typical garden stuff. Bird feeders will go up properly later today. Saw two green anoles a couple of days ago - good to see we have some lizards, even if the dog was puzzled by them

[manna]

G'Day Gents and Possums

Oh yes, Possums, they can be a right pain in the proverbial to get rid of, if they've taken a fancy to your roof space, you have to block the entrance at night after they've gone out to feed, then you have to put up with all the noise a 5.30am when they come back to nest and can't get back in.

We get a few house fires every so often, with all the bedding they bring back, there cute in the bush, but not in you roof

manna

[richard]

Yes the roof space opened up into the top of the garage, so the trick was to close up the holes in the eaves, and then to leave the garage door open at night. Somewhere I read you were meant to put flour across the open space so that you could see the footprints going out. We got footprints, problem was you couldn't tell if it was going in, out, or having a tango!

Luckily no noise when it tried to get back.

I don't know if you've seen this "lost cat" poster (there are a few variations online):

http://my.opera.com/cakkleberrylane/blo ... cat-poster

Richard

[manna]

G'day Gents

Just looked at the lost 'Cat' advert, our possums are slightly different, the 'face' is the same color as there body and there quite bushy, I have stayed on a couple of caravan parks, were possums hang around near the vans looking cute and waiting to be fed, even to the point of coming up to you begging !

manna