Well, now we have another type of reintroduced wildlife on our farm and in our farming area–first we have the kit fox, and we do not have any more pheasants or quail, now we have the Lynx.
(This is not my photo but the DOWs)
And of course they are not staying on the plateau and have moved down to the farmland.
Our kitty, Sammy-Sam, had a horrible run in with one of the Lynx. Yes, we know it was a Lynx. Sammy is starting to recover but what a mess he was for some time.
I am so not for these recovery programs…If the wild animal wasn’t hungry and wouldn’t migrate to find food, then okay. But they do migrate and they do so when they are hungry!!!!
The DOW guy that manages the Fat Man’s Misery area said they brought in several and put them in the Roubideau (which Fat Man’s is part of), but the cats have not been seen in the area for several weeks now. OF COURSE NOT THEY ARE ON THE FARMS…there are chickens, cats, mice, lots of smaller animals to eat! Shish! A Golden Corral is ever so much easier to eat from then some place where you have to really HUNT for food!!!!!
We have let them know that we have had the cat in our yard, in our tree, and saved our kitty from it, so let’s see if they come to take it someplace else. I hope it moves on, but really I hope it goes back to the canyon or better yet to the Plateau!
(I took this at Cabelas in Grand Junction)
I know now what I saw for sure was a wolverine….
For I saw one again – on the other side of our field. (Of course they are not real until a DOW person confirms it). The second I fill out the form for the DOW to come out and see if what I saw is real, the animal will move on and I will look like a ‘faker’ (a person who makes up stuff). —So some of the neighbors are on the lookout also. If there are at least two or three of us who see these animals then it will be reason to call in the DOW.
I sure am wondering why they are here….possibly too many people have moved into their area and game is hard to come by. Maybe this one is sick (?)
Anyway, I don’t know, but I am on the look out.
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
My grandfather was old enough to remember the efforts to exterminate the wolf from the lower 48 states. He thought that it was ridiculous to re-introduce them after all the millions of dollars spent to get rid of them and all the millions of dollars of damage they caused. I tend to agree with grandpa.
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We are seeing more sign of Bear and Wolves and Mountain Lions and Bobcats..too many people are living in their areas disturbing them..and they come out looking for easy food. A bear got a dog on a chain 10 miles from us..the dog could not escape…sad. I don’t know what the solution is..and I know the feeling..our DNR does not believe there are any Mountain Lions either..idiots…someday I will get a photo. I am scared to walk outside of the yard at night..who knows what is out there..and up until this year I never worried about it. Be careful of the Wolverine they are MEAN:(
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It is the same all over.
There are NO cougars in NY.
Just ask the DEC.
Of course you might get a different answer from the large assortment of folks who have seen and photographed them.
I am so sorry about your poor kitty’s lynx encounter. Fishers take our cats, as do coyotes and foxes. We used to have a lot of barn cats and not so many rodents. Now we are lucky if we can keep four or five cats alive.
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Isn’t that how it always works! No one believes you then until more than one person has the sighting. I agree with the reintroduction! Just like up north with the wolves! Save them but let our cattle get mauled and killed!
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I am so tired of people that have no idea what they are doing running things. Ideas look good on paper but don’t have a chance of working in real life. Educated people make these decisions and people with experience should be making them.
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Got all kinds of question about this. What I have to do with your posts Linda is draw correlations from what I’ve seen elsewhere.
I’d rather see the pheasants and quail.
Are kit fox native?
Before you saw this wolverine where do you think the nearest one may have been found. I don’t recall of people I’ve spoken to ever mentioning seeing one and for readers we’re talking NW Colorado. I find stuff like this interesting.
I was after a porcupine today and if I would have had a chance it would have been history. I really didn’t know they could move that fast. They have devastated our trees and we have lost so many because of wind and beetle kill anyway.
20 but you always add more so maybe 30 years ago when guys back home in north central Iowa started trapping more one guy took 60 fox off one section. And this is an area that has some of the highest pheasant populations in the nation. For a while I lived south of there in a county that did have the highest population of pheasants in the nation and I can tell you at times this something to see. I bullshit no one here.
My point is that I understand how a introduced species of fox could devastate these birds because of the area. Big numbers of these birds because of several reasons cannot be attained.
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Pretty distressing all that Linda and also the comments so far up to 6.04pm. ( 5 good
replies – I think).
We don’t have that problem here as far as I am aware of re-introducing wild animals
from area A to area B. When there are too many kangaroos, wild pigs, feral buffaloes
( introduced for reason unknown to mankind from Indonesia in the Top End) and
feral camels ( let loose after their useage in the old exploring days – these from
Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia), the department concerned does aerial culling.
Of course the “do gooders” scream bloody hell, but they don’t have a clue. Sometimes
I think they should be ‘culled’ also.
I don’t think I’d like to come face to face with a wolverine. They look awful.
Great report as usual Linda – congratulations.
Colin (HB)
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I am glad to see Sammy Sam looking good. I agree with all the above…and here, we just have too many coyotes. First they broke into the rooster pen and got them and now today I have not seen my one black kitty, Midnight. Think they may have gotten her, too. It just makes me sooooo mad that they are not safe on my own farm. Hope you see the wolverine again to prove they are there, but from a distance as they are so very mean.
Mountain lions have been seen in the South Plains of West Texas, also. About 35 miles from me. I’m like Far Side… a bit leery of going out after dark!
Blessings!
CottonLady
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They introduced elk here on a large tracked of land and said they hoped they’d stay in that allotment…….psssfffft like they can’t jump a barbwire fence 😦
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What a dilemma! Your animals are in danger and nothing you can do about it because the predatory animals are ‘endangered.’ Hopefully they will migrate back to the unpopulated places.
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That is scary
of course you have more wierd animals there…than you use to…we have foxes and a Moose walked through the town…bears in our town and Boulder. Hope you get yours taken care of…and other people report them too.
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Yipes —your poor kitty…. I’ve read that coyotes have eaten small dogs and cats near Nashville some time ago… My blog tomorrow talks about wild hogs as predators in the Smokies… The wild hogs were brought to the USA from Europe to a place in NC… They now are in the Smokies and have done alot of damage.
Hope they get your predators —and take them FAR FAR away….
Hugs,
Betsy
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I’m sorry about your kitty. We have coyotes and bocats here. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but if the lynx is in YOUR yard and attacking YOUR animals, as well as being a potential threat to you – why can’t it be shot? Good luck and hopefully he goes far away.
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So sorry about your kitty. 😦
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It’s so frustrating isn’t it?
Back home in WI people kept tell the DNR (sort of a DOW) that wolves were back in our neck of the woods. The DNR just wouldn’t hear of it. Maybe further north but not near us, blah, blah, blah.
So a local set up a game camera to catch it on tape. A wolf was taped hauling deer back to her den. Over 30 deer over the course of 2 months!!
When the DNR agent was shown the tape he said, “oh, we’ve suspected as much…”
Way to change their story! arghhhhh
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The “house cat” has been seen again in our area too. Well, there was a sighting about 2 miles further away and then in the paper today, it’s been seen about 6 miles further away – thankfully…for now. DFW.
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We have bobcats and coyotes and they don’t bother anything because we have a very lush riparian habitat surrounding us and they seem to have a good food supply. The coyotes eat a lot of produce (corn, watermelons, etc.) and both eat jackrabbits, which is appreciated. The coyotes will also catch cats, which is why I don’t let my cats outside (sigh). The only wildlife that drives me nuts is raccoons, and they’re in my area in abundance because wildlife rehab people have trapped them in town and relocated them to our area, and they are animals that are accustomed to eating from cat bowls and garbage cans and hanging around people’s yards. Mostly I’m just glad we don’t have bears because I don’t know how I’d make a chicken pen that would keep one of those out. When you live in a rural area, it’s a constant battle to live with some sort of problem.
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Do you have a small camera you can put in a pocket and take everywhere? If you miss taking a photo of the critter maybe you could get a photo of their footprints. If you have photos it would be proof to show the DOW person! I wonder if the DOW would set up a feeding station with a video camera so they could see what wildlife is around your farm. Bet they could if they wanted to. Very glad your kitty is ok.
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My goodness, a wolverine? Yikes. I do love the wild animals, but not when they are getting my pets! Glad you saved Sammy Sam – poor kitty. What a fright for him. Sorry you are having to deal with the Lynx now – hope they keep their distance. I almost stepped on one once when I was a teen. We were hiking in Northern CAL and I stepped over a log – and it darted out from right where my foot was heading! But they ARE pretty. 🙂
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That is not an animal I would want to encounter. Hope it moves on. Soon.
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Linda–
I have missed you! Just haven’t been able to blog much over the last six months or so. I always say I will do better, and then I don’t! So, I won’t say it this time….
I would have given my eye teeth to have seen a lynx or bobcat when we were living on the ranch in TX, but I never did. I saw plenty of deer, an owl, rabbits, fox, birds and plenty of coyotes, but no lynx. We never had any wildlife problems there, but I know that some people do. Still, I did manage to see a few things on my commute five miles from work over a country road. Once, I saw a very dead ring-tailed cat. It was a shame it wasn’t alive, but at least I saw one. I also saw a herd of black wild pigs (feral stray ones, I am certain). The most unusual thing I saw, though, I have never been able to identify. I thought for a second I was looking at an unusually large raccoon. It had it’s back to me and had the signature striped tail. But once it turned, and I saw it’s profile, I was shocked to see a very long pointed snout! After I looked online and in a few books, I thought maybe what I saw had been a coatimundi. Someone living within a couple of miles of my sighting said they heard howly-screamy sounds coming from a creature raiding their trash cans at night. Yep, that seemed to indicate the coatimundi. But then I realized that coatis don’t have distinctively striped tails, nor are they as large as the creature I saw. The only thing I could come up with was a report that UT had penned some anteaters to run some experiments, and though that was about 40 miles away, I thought maybe a couple had gotten loose. Exotics getting loose is not unusual in TX either….we also saw a ram and a African antelope on the ranch at two different times (now that’s startling! You look out your kitchen window and there’s an African animal in your “yard!”) But, I still wasn’t sure I had seen an anteater that day. I will never know for sure WHAT it was, I suppose, but it’s fun thinking about the possibilities!
Hope you are doing well!
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