I am curious whether this summer will show more than the usual tragedies or just dumb stunts by tourists in national parks. It seems like it would. After all, You Tube is full of videos of wild animals acting like cutesie-wootsie pets, or acting friendly to different species. Videos also promote tourists getting stuck on rough roads they have no business being on.
We are all prone to anthropomorphizing wildlife. But I fight it unless it seems harmless. I was camped on a road that had short and sharp hills on it -- just high enough to block your view of what might be on the other side.
Once an adult deer came into view. I tried as hard as possible to freeze my motion. The Little Cute One was silent and stationary, so she apparently didn't see the deer. I'll be damned: it worked. The deer just stood there and stared at me for the longest time.
On another day we crested a hill and saw a fawn about 30 feet away. He seemed a little startled of course, but to me he seemed indignant and put-upon. Then he ran off.
We were doing a big climb on the mountain bike one day. As I went around a corner, there seemed to be a large class-A motorhome on a ridge ahead of us. I was appalled. How did he drive up this road? But as we approached, it morphed into some weathered mining structures. I can't believe how fooled I was.
On the last day, as we drove away from camp, we got within 100 feet of two mostly-grown black bears. They needn't be pure black, of course, but these two were. Both were skedaddling as fast as they could. But it is surprising that they didn't hear the van and trailer much earlier. Come to think of it, that was true of all of the bear sightings I've had.
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| from animalencyclopedia |
Comments
I have had the same sort of wildlife experiences on the coastal part of Texas and on the West Texas public lands. But in the eastern Texas Piney Woods as they are called, there is too much city folk and wildlife intermingling.