eyes on wild animals

C

curioucity

Unbelievable and odd
Registered Senior Member
Hi
First off, this has 'few' to do with my "hands on wild animals" thread which has gone inactive, so don't flame me.

Have you ever examine wild animals' behaviours? I have, and here's a few of em:
1) stray cats: They'll run away when they are approached. Simple, most small wild animals do that...
2) little birds: a little different from cats, they may fly away when they're being watched constantly..... feeling uneasy of sights, maybe?
3) lake turtles (not the big ones in the shores): Now I find this one interesting. There's a turtle-infested lake in my university, and one funny thing (maybe not too funny) about the turtles is that they often 'sunbathe' (wonders, lol) near the lake. Most of the time when they are approached, they'll plunge into the water even when I'm still a few yards away, but in one case, I even had to provoke one long enough (in close distance using tree-branch) before it went diving.....
I had a conclusion on that: you know, reptiles need external heat source to warm themselves, right? After enough heating they may decide to cool themselves off again. In my case, the turtles that plunge 'earlier' have been very dry, while the one I provoked seems to have just left the water.

Any experiences to share, anyone?
 
I remember that after a rainstorm I sometimes found lizards on the wet sidewalk. Either they hadn't been able to find proper shelter or the rain had knocked them off trees. In any case, they were very easy to trap (low body temperature led to slow reflexes, probably). We would put them under a lightbulb and after a while they would run away.
 
I was feeding a brush turkey at uni yesterday, they are hard to explain in terms of looks. I got about a foot away from a possum a couple of days ago, it ran a short distance away a few times then just got curious. Last week black cockatoos were all feeding on some seeds on the ground and let me come within a few metres untill a car scared them away.

The beach near me house is great because stingrays come right up to the shore, you can almost step on them. Last year small reef sharks were swimming the shallows and you could wade out and they would swim within a couple of metres.
 
Oh, and Konek, sorry for this late response: what you wrote seems to support my findings (the wet turtle which was reluctant to go underwater)
And sky, about curiosity, I forgot to mention that the turtles I explained earlier sometimes look curious too to human; I once stand close enough to the lake only to be watched by some turtles, but when I go any closer, they run away.... And about sea-creatures..... I really wonder about the stingray part...... 'almost step on them'?
 
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Don't ever step on one... they really sting.

* The victim feels immediate, sharp, excruciating pain and bleeding that peaks in 1-2 hours.

* The wound may become red, swollen, pale, and blue.

* Lymph nodes may become swollen.

* Generalized symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, muscle cramps, tremors, paralysis, fainting, seizures, elevated heart rate, and decreased blood pressure may develop. Death may occur.

I've never stepped on one, but I've seen it happen. I believe this is a bit exaggerated, I don't remember the wounds bleeding that much. However, they seemed painful.
 
curioucity said:
Have you ever examine wild animals' behaviours? I have, and here's a few of em:
1) stray cats: They'll run away when they are approached. Simple, most small wild animals do that...
2) little birds: a little different from cats, they may fly away when they're being watched constantly..... feeling uneasy of sights, maybe?
Any experiences to share, anyone?
Click to expand...


Animals tend to have a natural comfort zone particular to their species. Some animals will be OK with you coming to within 3 feet or closer before they skitter off. Others may run or fly away if they sense you're within 30 feet or more. (This can change depedning upon environment. Deer or elk and other animals in national parks will have comfort zones that are closer than truly wild ones. They're used to people and cars being around.)

As for provoking with sticks....don't mess with them. They want to be in the sun for a reason. If they're frightened by someone poking them and they have to go into the water before they're good and ready, it's not good for them. This kind of stuff bugs the piss out of me, like when the Croc Hunter picks up and pokes and generally harasses animals. Observation, fine. Just observe them doing what they are doing. Don't make them do something they weren't intending to do. Sometimes just observing them can affect their behavior, which is why it's important to understand the comfort zones of different animals. If you want to watch deer, give them at least 100 feet or more. As you get closer, they become more alerted to your presence and will be uneased. This is one reason why they make binoculars and telephoto lenses.

As for personal experiences with wild animals: I was hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains one day about a year and a half ago. After seeing the usual wild turkeys and deer and grouse, I started to hear hound dogs barking. For about 2 or 3 miles I kept hearing them off in the distance. Then, I came to a bit of a clearing and I saw a Ranger out of the corner of my eye. Just then, a very large grey canine with a radio collar leapt across the trail. Grey wolf. Supposed to have been gone from the park. Apparently the rangers had tracked her down.

On that same trail, about 2 or 3 miles further up, I heard a rustling and then saw a fawn running for her life straight at me down the hill. She saw me, quickly changed directions, stumbled down an embankment, got up and ran by about 5 feet in front of me, into the woods. I knew something had spooked her. I hiked onward about 100 yards and came face to face with the hungry bear who had just missed his lunch. There was a bit of a standoff while he was apparently deciding whether or not 180lbs of relatively lean meat (with additional snacky foods in the backpack) might be a suitable substitution for the scrawny little deerlet that just got away. He grumbled off after I started pounding my trekking pole on a tree. I'd seen plenty of bears in the tourist sections of the park...camp grounds and motor trails and such (they like the people food - a completely different issue I won't get into here), but in all my years of hiking the Smokies, I'd never seen one in the backcountry. Pretty cool.

All in all, a pretty damn fine day for animal observation in the Park. Well worth the 13 mile hike.
 
looks like the word "... on wild animals" seem to attract problems to me..... duh
And chunky, geez..... what a scary experience......
 
Curiocity: U know WHY they love the sun right? The ones who have been out in the sun scamper off not just because they feel they might as well now that they have warmed up, but because they CAN! The colder ones are literally paralised (remember reptiles are cold-blooded) and so they can't generate enough energy to escape. This happened once with a lizard I found in a toilet at my research station. The lizard couldn't move at all poor thing although I'm sure it was under immense stress. probably knocked a few years off its life just observing it!
 
Hmm... okay, John... such a reminder.... thanks. By the way, I once also observe a lizard (iguana-shaped lizard to be more exact... it's rather tiny to be an iguana.... or is it?) which was having a meal. Naturally, it was rather unhappy when I tried to approach it, so I left it for awhile, after that, I revisit it, and easily forced it to ride my hand. Looks like reptiles are pretty prone to everything everytime, don't you agree?
 
greek-australians talk like that
"aye mate, how bout I give you a fucking kick in the head mate?"
I guess you need the tone changes to fully experience it.
 
a bag of "ha"s for that.......


oh, back to the main thread..... about the stray cat, there's something else I may have discovered (a little related to what chunky said). I compared the 'comfort zone' of an adult stray cat and a juvenile one, and it seems that adult cats cannot tolerate interrupion more than the juvenile one. And there's another thing. I can only stand like, say, a few yards away from an adult cat before it flees without doing anything else, while I can practically stand right in front of a juvenile one (okay, it wasn't that face-to-face, that is, I was standing on a higher ledge compared to where it was) and what it does is merely purring (uh, is it a word?) and standing still.
Boggles....
 
Yes that is almost certainly related to the fact that young kittens are still learning about their world and are very curious (u know what they say right?!). Once they learn about humans they will usually scamper away. Also depends on their upbringing (were they wild or domestic etc...?).
 
Yeah, the kittens haven't learned yet the first lesson of being an animal: "Beware the hand of man."
 
It is true though. Far more people hate cats than hate dogs. I myself much prefer cats. They're 'better' in almost every dept! I always hear stories every Halloween about people tying cats and kittens onto rockets and blowing them up! Terrible to witness I'd imagine.
 
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