Tag: mammal

Spying on the hunter

Posted on by Allison J. Gong

This afternoon I was hanging some laundry to dry on the back deck, when something reddish caught my eye. I grabbed the binoculars, peered down into the bushes, and saw a pair of ears emerging from behind a bush. Soon a very handsome coyote came out to bask in the sun. Just in case it did anything interesting I fetched the camera, which was fortunately already wearing the 400mm lens, and settled down to watch for a while.

After a few more moments enjoying the sun, the coyote got up and went on alert. It had clearly heard something. A late lunch, maybe?

Reddish-brown doglike animal with large ears standing on hillside and looking off to its right
Coyote (Canis latrans)
2025-01-15
© Allison J. Gong

Yes indeed, the hunt was on!

Reddish-brown doglike animal facing to the right with its head at ground level behind some tall grass
Coyote (Canis latrans)
2025-01-15
© Allison J. Gong

It didn’t take long for the hunter to make its catch.

Reddish-brown doglike animal with large ears turning to face left and carrying a gray object in its mouth
Coyote (Canis latrans) carrying a rodent in its mouth
2025-01-15
© Allison J. Gong
Reddish-brown doglike animal with large ears facing the left and carrying a gray object in its mouth
Coyote (Canis latrans) carrying a rodent in its mouth
2025-01-15
© Allison J. Gong

But in the manner of a cat, the coyote dropped the rodent and played with it for a while.

Once the rodent (which I think was a rat of some kind) was captured, it took more chomping than I had anticipated for the coyote to actually eat it. I kept thinking, “Okay, it must be done now,” and the coyote would turn its head to show me the rodent sticking out of the side of its mouth.

The entire event, from when the coyote first heard the rustling of the rodent to when it stood up and walked away, lasted about five minutes. Shortly after finishing its meal the coyote stood up, threw a glance down the hill, and disappeared into the bushes.

Reddish-brown doglike animal with large ears standing on hillside and looking off to its right
Coyote (Canis latrans)
2025-01-15
© Allison J. Gong

We often hear coyotes yipping at night, which inevitably riles up all the neighborhood dogs, and occasionally we capture one on the critter cam. It’s not unusual to see coyotes in the daylight, but this is the first time I’ve gotten to see one hunting and making a kill. This coyote looked very healthy. And this is why we keep the cats indoors!

Meow!

Posted on by Allison J. Gong

For years now we’ve known that the world just beyond our back deck was owned by a variety of wildlife. We’ve seen coyotes and bobcats often enough to think “Good to know you guys are still there!” and of course we hear coyotes a lot more often than we see them. We’ve also known the arroyo behind our house to be in the territory of a mountain lion—a collared female had been tracked there. She, however, has proven to be much more elusive, hiding from people just like the cat she is.

In late November I bought a critter camera for my husband’s birthday, and it arrived on the slow boat from China about two weeks later. We joked that it would be really cool if we caught a mountain lion some time, ha ha ha. But we honestly had no great expectations. I mean, once you set up the camera you have to hope that it’s pointing in the right direction and that something interesting walks in front of it. Alex set up the critter camera in the afternoon of Sunday 10 December, and then we forgot about it until the next day. . .

. . . when we saw that the camera had captured both photos and videos of something, and it was a big something! It was a big cat!

Funny how even a mountain lion (Felis concolor) is still a cat. The posture and behavior is not at all different from the feline tasty morsels that live inside the house with us. We thought that someone we know should buy a new refrigerator, so we can give the big kitty a box.

Look at the size of these paws!

Mountain lion (Felis concolor) caught on our critter camera
2023-12-10

Note the time stamps on the photos and video. This cat was prowling around after dinner time. Of course, being mid-December-ish it was already full dark, but this is hardly the middle of the night. So the camera caught its first big animal just a few hours after it went live. Call it beginner’s luck.

A week later we caught another mountain lion! Or maybe it was the same mountain lion. This one was also uncollared and, from what we can see of the footage, has about the same build. Given that mountain lions tend to be territorial, I think this is the same cat, and this path above our beehives is a regular thoroughfare for it and other wildlife.

Mountain lion (Felis concolor) caught on our critter camera
2023-12-17

In a related coincidental matter, the first mountain lion was filmed using the new wildlife crossing that goes underneath Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz mountains!

A final prickly surprise

Posted on by Allison J. Gong

On our last afternoon at the Schoodic Institute we were dealing with laundry for our upcoming several days touring in New England. On the way back from the laundry room we came across this little creature waddling towards us. It was a porcupine! It kept coming towards us, even as we were backing away. Clearly it had some place to be.

Small brown mammal walking along a paved pathway towards the camera
Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatus) at the Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park
2022-06-17
@ Allison J. Gong

I don’t know whether or not porcupines are always this nonchalant around humans. This one crossed the road in front of us and headed off into the woods. And look, it’s plantigrade!

And then it nibbled on a few leaves and climbed a tree! Note how it uses the tail as a brace, the way woodpeckers do when they’re hopping up and down trees.

We had to meet up with the rest of the Earthwatchers for a celebration event in the classroom and didn’t get to keep watching this porcupine. However, on our way to the dining hall for dinner, we saw the same animal, on the ground again. And this time she was accompanied by a baby! It was getting dark by then and I didn’t want to bother either mama or baby, so didn’t take any additional photos or video.

We never did see any moose in New England, despite all the road signs promising “Moose X-ing next <insert positive integer> miles”, but seeing a porcupine was pretty dang cool. What a terrific send-off from the Schoodic Institute wildlife!