Pseudobears and whiskers. (798 hits)
Category: Science & EnvironmentalRating: 1.2 on 11 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Martes pennanti <fisher.at.go.com> (View user info) at 2002-07-18 01:08:53 EDT
The other night I decided to ask my girlfriend if she wanted to go out with me on my night shifts. I usually don't mind the company and it's not boring. Right now, I'm tracking and getting locations on wolves. This evening, I had to make up some locations on early evening locations and she was able to see a wolf pup today, so she was all happy. But on to my to my story.
Today is what? Well, now it's Thursday, so it was Monday night and Tuesday morning that I had her out with me. Well, we have poachers out here. Not so much poaching the wolves, although it does happen but the poaching of black bears and white-tails. When I come across black bear trails that look worn or have tire tracks or ATV tracks that aren't ours I jump out and check the bear trails for bait or traps. Tuesday morning (about 2am) there was ATV tracks that I noticed up this refuge road I use. I decided to jump out and check the trail to see if I could find anything out of the ordinary. So I follow the trail 30 meters or so, and it's pitch black. All I have is this little head light that I use to take compass bearings of my antenna when I can't use the beacon. While I'm looking around, I start to hear twigs cracking, shrubs moving, and something coming my way. I look up and point my little light ahead of me and I see this huge black thing barrelling towards me. Before I split, I notice two red eyes. Then the claws and fangs. So, I turn and I sprint. I'm leaping over downed trees, running through shrubs, dodging branches, and running from this thing that I can still hear behind me tearing shit down. I bust out the treeline and see my truck. The lights are on and my girlfriend is in there doing something with the data sheets. I open up the door and jump in. I'm rolling up the window as I'm starting the truck up, so the damn thing doesn't sucker punch me through it. And my girlfriend says, "What the hell are you crazy about?"
"Bear, fucking, bear!!" is all I could get out. As I get the truck started, out of the trail and right in front of my headlights it stops. A fucking 60lb white-tail doe. "Nice fucking bear, dumbass," she says. Then the damn thing leaps off before I ready to run it over. Moral of this story is that whenever there is an opportunity to make and ass out of myself, I just leap on it.
Another thing I wanted to mention if anyone really cares is why cats have whiskers. The other day at the bar with a couple buddies, one of the girls mention about cats getting stuck and dying if you cut their whiskers off. I didn't say anything to her because I'm drinking, not looking for a debate. But cats don't have whiskers to know if they can fit into some dark space. The reason why cats have whiskers is because they are solitary predators that take down prey much larger than themselves. I makes sense if you think about it. When the cat pulls down something heavier than itself, it needs to put it out of commission quickly before it can overpower the cat. By doing so, it could roll over and trample the cat as it flees, or manage to bite it and cause other injury. So whiskers are used to proximate the bite in the must vulnerable area of the neck and thus killing the prey quickly before it could roll over on the cat. A bite to high and a bite to low could mean death to a wild cat. So pressure on the whiskers tells the cat to bite now. Other than that, whiskers are used to tell wind direction, temperature, and other secondary uses. But not for slipping through a tight space, that's what they have vision for. You wouldn't get stuck if I cut your figure tips off, but you'd act crazy if someone did. Well, that's why cats act crazy when you cut whiskers off.
The above is why I think women with mustaches are vampires.
I hate nights when I can't sleep. I'm in a cabin about 20 miles from a small town, with no T.V. But they gave me a shitty computer with internet access. So now, when I get really bored and have off and nothing to do you guys get to read my dribble. Have fun.
User Reviews
Submitted by Fisher (user info) at 2003-06-05 11:47:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
what corners do wild cats worry about in the wild?
Submitted by Istaros (user info) at 2003-03-13 01:27:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
er... don't cats use their whiskers to detect the minute air currents that get all crazy and fucked up when they hit corners?
Submitted by Random Joe at 2003-03-12 20:33:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
funny stuff
Submitted by Fisher (user info) at 2002-07-22 00:49:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"I have a couple of questions. First, you're a pussy for running. I killed a Grizzly bear last week with a plastic knife. Gutted the fucker and ate its heart in front of my girlfriend."
~You're a badass.
"What's the point of you tracking wolves? Sounds like it's tons of fucking fun. Ever see them kill something, like fat little kids? I hate fat little kids."
~Locations, understanding their movements, how they adapt to the landscape, when packs break up and reform, night and day movements, finding dens of whelping females, and tons of other data use. Telemetry is how we acquire all of our basic understanding of species ecology now a days.
~I have seen the aftermath of kills, but never the actually take down. Friday night I got a visual of a female after she bagged herself an barn owl on a grassy road. She saw me coming up and she was standing over her kill. She grabbed it and took off. Then earlier today I got a visual on a young male chasing some fawns in a tobacco field. He was shut out. Predator (all predators) have a small success, something like 10-15% chance of success on attempts. It's a hard life.
"I don't get the Lymes disease thing. You talked about hunting. How does hunting get rid of Lymes disease. Wouldn't the ticks go on deer and not humans if there is more of them."
~Most people don't. The deer really have nothing to do with lymes but they contribute to a high tick population. Ticks get the lymes microbe from white-footed mice. Females live a 2nd cycle, so they have a 2nd feeding. Males don't, they die after breeding. So a female tick that feeds off a deer it's first cycle won't have lymes and can't pass it to you. But if she feeds off a white-footed mouse, then she can pass it on to you. A deer can hold thousands of ticks, so a large population of deer provide ticks a breeding habitat. So lots of deer with lots of contact with each other support high tick densities.
"How much of my tax dollars go on wildlife bills?"
~Less than one cent a year.
"Do you support the attempts to open the Artic to drilling?"
~No.
"What do you think of that AMERICAN DOWNFALL post that says Americans are ignorant of "land ethics" and we (Americans) put a price on ecosystems?"
~I read it a while ago and responded to it the Canada/America debate. He misunderstood Leopold and probably doesn't understand what Leopold's essay on land ethics was about. Leopold was a utilitarian conservationist. What he was saying about "land ethic" was essay's in Leopold's A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC. He should have read Leopold's (1933) GAME MANAGEMENT. He would have understood Leopold's philosophy a little better.
~Ecosystems need prices on them. How else can they compete in any society that allows competition for land allocation. You have to justify why we should set this land aside. I agree that to much land is swallowed for development, land is abuse too much, and environmental laws don't have sharp teeth. It is also not an American thing, either. But environmentalists need to know how to compete for that land. And a good private organization to look at is the Nature Conservancy, not Greenpeace. The Nature Conservancy is non-political, they simply buy land. And then if they turn the land over to developers, they sell it at very low prices under the conditions that the development is done environmentally sound. Most of the time, they simply set land aside as a refuge for wildlife and research. Anyway, I could go on all night but I have to work in the morning.
Submitted by yeah (user info) at 2002-07-20 23:17:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have a couple of questions. First, you're a pussy for running. I killed a Grizzly bear last week with a plastic knife. Gutted the fucker and ate its heart in front of my girlfriend.
What's the point of you tracking wolves? Sounds like it's tons of fucking fun. Ever see them kill something, like fat little kids? I hate fat little kids.
I don't get the Lymes disease thing. You talked about hunting. How does hunting get rid of Lymes disease. Wouldn't the ticks go on deer and not humans if there is more of them.
How much of my tax dollars go on wildlife bills?
Do you support the attempts to open the Artic to drilling?
What do you think of that AMERICAN DOWNFALL post that says Americans are ignorant of "land ethics" and we (Americans) put a price on ecosystems?
Submitted by JP <jean15paul.at.hotmail.com> at 2002-07-18 16:16:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
The only reason I'm rating to this is to compliment you on your use of the word "Pseudobears" in the title.
Very creative.
Submitted by dumbass at 2002-07-18 11:14:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
uhhhh
This site has become increasingly interesting this week!
Submitted by ISuck (user info) at 2002-07-18 11:11:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
yeah's comment really kind of turned me on...
Submitted by yeah (user info) at 2002-07-18 10:49:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hey, dumbass, that's my girlfriend that sending shivers up your spine. She's about 400lb, trunks for legs, and her nostrils are so wide and big, when she puts her head back you can see what she's thinking. It's great when I want to stick it in her hole. It's like playing hiding-go-seek, I just throw powder on her and look for the wet spot.
The mustache is a bonus, sometimes there's a snack there waiting for me. It's great I love every ton of her.
Submitted by dumbass at 2002-07-18 08:59:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Fat chicks with thick black mustaches...uhhhhhh sends a sshiver down my sspine!
Submitted by poodz (user info) at 2002-07-18 04:14:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
made me chuckle, but mostly a sympathy vote