Sunday, June 1, 2014

Coyotes and other animals in this western states drought

This incident happened in San Diego County. A family let their dog out in their back yard and then they went out to get it (this is a small dog) and all they found was it's head later. This, I believe is likely the work of coyotes (even though raccoons might do something like this at night as well). The breed of dog was a

Bichon Frise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bichon_Frise
Wikipedia
A Bichon Frisé (/ˈbiʃɒn ˈfriz/ or /ˈbiʃɒn frɪˈzeɪ/; French, meaning curly lap dog), is a small breed of dog of the Bichon type. They are popular pets, similar in ...
So, I think this summer and fall smaller dog owners especially need to be aware that because of the drought more animals and birds are going to be coming into suburbia and eating dogs, especially smaller ones if they can get at them.
The main cause of this is the drought. For example, I have a bird bath that I fill daily with water where I live and birds will drink between a quart to almost a gallon now every day of water out of our bird bath. We also leave an outdoor dog dish full of water and likely smaller animals in the night (when our dogs are inside sleeping) might drink from the dog dish as well.
When it is a drought like this and water is harder to come by for animals and birds, animals and birds of all kinds are going to come around people more to get a sip of water so they don't die. So, be aware of this around your pets. The closer you live to nature the more true this is.
Where I live it is in a forest but there are deer everywhere and raccoons come out at night but there are also some nights the howling now of Coyotes. One of the favorite tricks of coyotes is to howl and to entice especially male dogs by a female coyote bitch and then the pack devours the male dog. This is very common in southern California but almost always happens after sundown. So, one of the best ways to keep your dog alive is to bring them in at night and to be with them at night if they aren't very big while you put them out to relieve themselves before going to sleep.
During a drought many less animals can survive. Only the wiliest and craftiest of animals and birds survive. This means the ones that do survive are more of a threat to their kind and other kinds of creatures. But, it also makes their species stronger in it's genetics too.
For nature, in the long run this might be a good thing. But, if you want your non-wild pets to survive you need to protect them because otherwise they will be gone like the dog I'm blogging about here.


  1. Coyote - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote
    Wikipedia
    The coyote (US /kaɪˈoʊtiː/ or /ˈkaɪ.oʊt/, UK /kɔɪˈjoʊteɪ/, or /kɔɪˈjoʊt/; Canis latrans), also known as the American jackal, brush wolf, or the prairie wolf, ...


Kitty vs Raccoon - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJZMunpgOtI
YouTube
Oct 20, 2007 - Uploaded by alduris
Our cat argues with our friendly raccoon over food. ... Raccoon Destroys Kitchen by Raccoon Willie 1,639 ...

 

Raccoon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon
Wikipedia
The raccoon sometimes spelled racoon, also known as the common raccoon, North American raccoon, northern raccoon and colloquially as coon, is a ...
Procyonidae - ‎Procyon - ‎Striped skunk - ‎The Raccoons


What I'm writing about above is also true of Mountain lions in California especially. To give you pause I want you to hear a true story of something that happened within 20 miles of where I live. Since mountain lions in California are top of the food chain animals with no enemies like bears there are many fewer of them as well which is sort of a relief in some ways.

However, an adult mountain lion grabbed a 125 pound German Shepard  dog and jumped over a 7 foot fence with him in it's mouth. Unfortunately, the dog was on a chain at the time which hung the dog the other side of a fence and killed him if he wasn't already dead.

For me, just the fact that a mountain lion could even jump a fence with a 125 pound dog in the first place in it's mouth sort of gives me pause to think about something like this.

Cougar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar
Wikipedia
The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as the mountain lion, puma, panther, painter, mountain cat, or catamount, is a large cat of the family Felidae native to ...
 Then there is always cat versus deer which is interesting to watch their behaviors too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NA-ccJ1BpM

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