Those Bothersome Burros!

 Occasionally you can see videos made from Go-Pro cameras attached to the heads of animals.  A coyote would be a good animal to choose for this kind of reality TV show.  What a life those animals barely manage to live!

Here in the Yuma area, not to0 many coyotes are heard or seen.  That is not a great endorsement of a geographical area.  But this year I see several wild burros per day.  They would also be a great choice for mounting a Go-Pro camera on their heads.  How do they make a living around here?  Water is not a problem, with the Colorado River and irrigation canals nearby.  But there is no vegetation around here -- not even cholla.  Those burros must be sneaking off in the middle of the night to raid lettuce fields!

Cute animals, these burros.  But I worry about how my little dog would behave around them if she were off-leash.  They can kick pretty good and their hooves are sharp.

There is an gravel pit next to my campsite that appears somewhat contained, so I let my little dog off-leash.  Animals become a different animal when they run, and dogs are better than most animals at expressing sheer joy when they run off-leash.  But I was worried about those burros.

Then I heard a strange snorting sound.  Sure enough, my little dog was chasing a burro.  What a relief it was to discover that she would not get closer than 10 feet to them!  It was strange the way the burro usually held its ground and studied her, while she barked at it.  Once she stood on a small hill and stared at the burro while the burro returned the stare.  It was starting to resemble the climactic shoot-outs at the end of the Spaghetti Westerns, especially with the suspense, scenery, and a confined circle or arena of battle.  I laughed out loud just thinking about which one would win the shoot-out.

I've lost the source of this internet photo, but it might be https://americanwildhorsecampaign.org/

It was more than just a (hockey) face-off between two animals.  It was an ideological contest between two lifestyles: the thoroughly domesticated dog versus the once-domesticated, but now feral, burro.  And where does a dispersed camper fit in, on that spectrum?