Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-worst-shark-attac...
Quint, the old shark hunter from the movie Jaws was said to have survived the USS Indianapolis (the character not the actor)
“Black eyes... dolls eyes”
Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
261–270 of 318 posts
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, wow! For anyone that can't see the picture - the historical range shows grizzly bears past Texas and well into Mexico
And Jaguars were one time to be found with in territory that is presently USA.
I hear they are starting to come back in southern Texas.
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Native Americans arrived less than 80,000 years ago. That's a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. They were not the natural predators.
I think the phrase natural predator just means the predator in the environment that keeps some other species in check. 80,000 years may be a blink in an eye in evolutionary terms but it does not take that long for a predator to come into an environment and become entrenched as the natural check on some other species. I would say https://science.sciencemag.org/content/314/5802/1111 for example of introduction of speci…
@nroets, Humans (the Europeans in this case) made the Dodo bird extinct quite fast, closer to 80 years than 80 000.
One doesn't need to be someone's long time natural predator to have an impact
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was walking around the Marina in SF about 15 years ago at night. I heard a rustling in a front yard and stopped to look. It took me a second to focus on what I was looking at in the dark. It was a skunk in a defensive posture with it's tail raised. I slowly backed away, and fortunately didn't get sprayed, although that would have made for a better story.
I had a similar encounter 10 years ago around 24th street and Mission. Was a raccoon though. Very cute one too and quite fat.
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Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#265Perhaps appropriate: The famous poem by Sara Teasdale, about a different context, which also lent its name to a short story by Ray Bradbury: There will come soft rains -------------------------- There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows calling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum-trees in tremulous white; Robins will wear their feathery fire W…
Let's not romanticize this too much. Coyotes are literally all over North America, so it's not like they've suddenly reappeared or something. We also accidentally let them overpopulate by exterminating so much of the wolf population.
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#266Do not coyotes bring in ticks and all the tick-borne diseases as well? perhaps public health priority #2 is to humanely remove these animals sooner than later.
I thought that was deer.
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coyotes have already done an excellent job of coexisting with humans. They are one of the most successful species at adapting to human civilization. Pigeons, rats, roaches, etc. also quite successful.
> Coyotes have already done an excellent job of coexisting with humans I have only seen them being 'successful' if are large tracts of land around the cities that they can live at. Would they be able to live in, say, Manhattan? If not, as we expand the urban sprawl, they might become less successful... And coyotes are not the only species we should be worried about.
> Would they be able to live in, say, Manhattan?
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Idaho. There hasn't been a confirmed grizzly bear sighting in Washington since the late 90s. They're presumed to be extinct in WA.
They're there, though. https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/gri... EDIT: Also https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/grizzly-bear-distribut...
Probably. "Confirmed" just means that, if someone saw one, nobody was able to officially corroborate the sighting.
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Idaho. There hasn't been a confirmed grizzly bear sighting in Washington since the late 90s. They're presumed to be extinct in WA.
They're there, though. https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/gri... EDIT: Also https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/grizzly-bear-distribut...
I hadn't seen that news about someone seeing a grizzly in the Cascades. I've been to the North Cascades several times. Ranger guidance has always been "There aren't really any meaningful populations of grizzlies here. We're pretty sure that, if there is one here, it's a transient from Canada."
You still have to take bear precautions there because of black bears, though.
Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco
#270What we think of wild nature is nothing compared to what used to exist. Schools of fish so dense they would bring boats to a halt in the middle of the Atlantic. North America had more large wildlife than Africa. Whales as far as the eye could see all day long. Walruses in the Thames in London. I did a couple video essays on what I learned from a wonderful book The Once and Future World : My video essays: https://yout…
This is an npr article on the size of fish caught by tour boats. You can see the size reduce over the years. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/02/05/257046530/b...
Also, the amount of fish a ship caught decreased tremendously once steam powered ships were introduced https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1013 (scroll down to figure 2)