Category Archives: Mammals

Zebra Update

Mammals, Musings & News
These are NOT the Maryland zebras! (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

16 November 2021, Pittsburgh, PA

It’s hard to keep track of wild zebras in Maryland from 200 miles away, but I couldn’t help wondering if the two escapees are still roaming Prince George’s County. As of this morning, Google cannot find any news that the zebras have been captured — yes, it would have been big news — so it’s safe to assume they are still at large.

Even if you live near them it’s hard to keep track of the zebras. A lot has happened since they escaped in August.

For now two zebras are still in the “wild” in Maryland. Meanwhile I leave you with this historical note from @MarylandZebras:

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the originals)

COVID Deer

Deer, Mammals, Musings & News
Deer approaches human in Markham ON, May 2020 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

14 November 2021

In case you missed it.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic scientists wondered if other species could catch the virus and transmit it back to humans. Fortunately, so far no COVID-infected animals have transmitted the virus back to us. However white-tailed deer easily catch COVID from humans and spread it deer-to-deer.

NPR reports that a study of deer in Iowa last year found that deer are very susceptible to COVID. During most of the year 30% of tested deer had COVID, but during hunting season with more human contact 80% of deer showed signs of infection. Deer also spread it easily among themselves so that the prevalence of COVID in deer is now 50 times that of humans.

Deer are lucky. COVID doesn’t make them sick and it doesn’t kill them. But the fact that the virus that causes COVID, SARS-COV-2, circulates so widely among a common North American mammal may come back to bite us.

If deer become a reservoir for SARS-COV-2 and eventually transmit it back to us or to our livestock or companion animals (dogs and cats), then it has a good chance of mutating into something more unpleasant. At the very least it will never disappear.

The fact that deer catch COVID should not surprise us. SARS-COV-2 jumped from bats to humans and then spread easily from human-to-human. Here are some other viruses that cross species.

As deer have shown, virus jumping is more common than we thought.

Read more or listen to the podcast at NPR: How SARS-CoV-2 in American deer could alter the course of the global pandemic.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons)

The Wild Zebras of Maryland

Mammals, Musings & News
Zebras sneezing, Lake Naivasha, Kenya, 2007 (photo by Eric Brelsford via Flickr Creative Commons license)

15 October 2021

The saga of Kodiak the Steller’s sea eagle who escaped from Pittsburgh’s National Aviary on 25 September ended when he was captured on 3 October. Not so for the wild zebras of Maryland. No one thought they would still be roaming in October and yet …

On 31 August, three (*not five) zebras escaped from an 80-acre farm off Duley Station Road in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. One was found dead in an illegal snare trap on 16 September. Now more than seven weeks later two are still on the loose in Prince George’s County. It’s not for lack of trying.

Zebras are genetically programmed to escape lions, hyenas and cheetahs so they’re naturally wary and very fast. They can’t be caught by chasing, they have to be corralled. Caretakers and Prince George’s County Animal Control have been trying to lure them into a pen. The zebras are having none of it.

At first there were many reports including this 7 September news story from NBC Washington. Click here to read the details. (Note: With six zebras in camera view, I believe this footage was taken above the farm.)

Plus this nighttime sighting reported by WUSA9.com on 24 September.

But the news is quieter now. The zebras have plenty of grass to eat and lots of places to go. They’re winter-hardy and can be out there indefinitely.

Despite every attempt to domesticate them, zebras are forever wild.

p.s. For weeks the media reported that 5 zebras had escaped but on 14 October the Washington Post reported it was only three. At first three traveled together, then one died and it was two. Three + two = five? Not in this case.

UPDATE on 18 October: The latest plan for capturing the two zebras is to use more zebras!

UPDATE on 16 November: The zebras are still on the loose but there’s lots of news.

(photo by Eric Brelsford via Flickr, embedded videos and tweet from NBC Washington, WUSA9. Check @MarylandZebras for updates)

The Black Walnut Challenge

Mammals
Black walnuts just fallen from the tree (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

10 October 2021

Black walnuts are ripe now and falling from the trees. Guarded by a black-staining husk and a very hard shell, getting to the walnut meat is a challenge for humans and squirrels alike.

Humans gather and process in bulk. Squirrels gather and eat one at a time. Humans use tools, squirrels use teeth.

Both of us get walnut stains on our hands. Squirrels also get stains in their mouths.

Stains on the hands after hulling 500 black walnuts (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

For a squirrel, husking a single black walnut takes about 8 minutes (watch 8 minutes here).

Fox squirrel opening a black walnut (photo by Donna Foyle)
Fox squirrel gnawing a black walnut (photo by Donna Foyle)

Opening the shell can take 40 minutes. (See photos and description at How to Open a Black Walnut). While the squirrel is gnawing the shell, you can hear a scratchy sound. Have you heard this sound in the woods? Watch and listen in the video below.

For an individual human it takes 3-4 weeks to gather, husk, clean, dry (3 weeks), and shell black walnuts. It makes sense to do this in bulk as shown in the video below.

Black walnuts are a challenge … so I buy them at the grocery store.

p.s. Read more about black walnuts at the Phipps #bioPGH blog.

(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Donna Foyle)

Otter Have a Happy Friday

Mammals
“And that is the story of how otters made me late for dinner” — Ollie @whalefern

8 October 2021

A week ago Ollie @whalefern was sitting on a fishing dock in a state park in (I think) the Pacific Northwest when seven river otters showed up.

At first the otters played and groomed but soon they fell asleep in a heap. Ollie couldn’t leave the dock without disturbing them. No way!

See Ollie’s story — “How otters made me late for dinner” — and lots of otter antics at this link. Scroll to the top after you click to get to the beginning!

Happy Friday!

(embedded tweet from Ollie @whalefern)

Baby Weasels Play to Learn

Mammals
Short-tailed weasel adult, also called stoat (photo by USFW via Wikimedia Commons)

13 August 2021

Short-tailed weasels, also called stoats or ermine (Mustela erminea), are small fierce predators that can kill prey four times their size (photo of killing a rabbit here). As babies they learn to tackle and hold by playing with their siblings.

Orphaned stoats miss these important lessons if they remain alone. In the video below from the UK, two orphans meet for the first time, then play and play and play.

By the way, wild weasels are not good pets and it is illegal to keep them without a permit. If you want a pet weasel, get a ferret.

(photo from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original. YouTube video embedded from The Dodo)

A Bear Was There

Mammals
Black bear track with human hand and BOBCAT! pawprint for scale, 22 July 2021, Moraine State Park (photo by Kate St. John)

25 July 2021

When four of us walked the Muddy Creek Trail at Moraine State Park last week we found something we hadn’t expected. In the mud at our feet was a very large footprint. A bear was there.

None of us knew much about animal tracks but the footprint was unmistakably a large black bear (Ursus americanus), easy to identify because it’s the only bear species in Pennsylvania. Debbie hovered her hand nearby for scale.

Why is this bear track so narrow front-to-back? Black bears don’t roll their feet heel-to-toe like we do so their heels don’t always register. This illustration from the National Park Service shows front and hind tracks. I have shaded the heels that leave shallow or no prints. Bears step forward on their tiptoes. (*)

Track of a black bear, shaded to show registration (image originally from Yellowstone NPS.gov)

Immediately we wondered how recently the bear had been there. Was it hiding in a nearby thicket? The track tells a story, some of which I am too uninformed to decipher.

At first glance the bear print seems to show just palm pad, toes and claws, but a smaller print came later, superimposed on the bear’s shallow-registered heel. The smaller mammal walked by after the bear was gone, perhaps long gone.

Who was that smaller mammal? People walk their dogs on this trail. Was it a dog print? PROBABLY NOT! Expert tracker David Rohm says that pawprint looks good for bobcat.

The print is round and doesn’t show any claws (canines usually show claws). The fourth toe is lower than the others, the second toe is highest. My guess, before David Rohm told me the answer a feline too large for a house cat.

I did take more bear track photos. Here’s a hind foot. Notice the pointy heel.

Black bear track, hind foot, 22 July 2021, Moraine State Park (photo by Kate St. John)

And perhaps a front foot.

Black bear track, 22 July 2021, Moraine State Park Muddy Creek Trail (photo by Kate St. John)

In any case, both animals were gone before we arrived. Pennsylvania black bears avoid people unless habituated to our feed or garbage.

Why was the bear there? Bears use our trails and roads for the same reason we do. It’s easier than wading through the underbrush.

(*) Did you know that cats and dogs always walk on their tiptoes? A subject for another day.

(photos by Kate St. John)

Backyard Cats

Mammals
Bobcat in a Tucson backyard (photo by Donna Memon)

9 July 2021

Backyard cats in Arizona are a lot more interesting that the ones we have in Pittsburgh.

Instead of small domestic pets or feral cats, both Felis catus, Arizonans have bobcats (Lynx rufus) that come to drink from the water bowls …

Bobcat in a Tucson backyard (photo by Donna Memon)

… then lay down in the shade …

Bobcat yawns in a Tucson backyard (photo by Donna Memon)

… and have a nice long sleep.

Be careful when you open the door!

(photos by Donna Memon; embedded tweet from @KateSmithAZ)

Stay Away From My Baby

Bird Behavior, Crows & Ravens, Mammals
Raven strafes a coyote that got too close to her youngster (screenshot from tweeted video by @CrytzerFry)

8 June 2021

Ravens and coyotes can work together but not when a fledgling raven is involved. A motion detection camera captured this mother raven’s reaction when a coyote came too close to her fledgling.

Keep your distance! Stay away from my baby!

p.s. Sometimes ravens and coyotes work together. See these anecdotes from the Adirondacks (https://www.adirondackavianexpeditions.com/behavior/communication-between-common-ravens-and-eastern-coyotes-an-observation) and San Francisco (https://coyoteyipps.com/2010/06/11/crows-and-ravens/).

(screenshot from embedded Twitter video by Melissa Crytzer Fry @CrytzerFry)

Back Up So I Can Take Your Picture

Mammals
Short-tailed weasel (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

6 April 2021

Clare Kines @NunavutBirder tweeted this encounter with a short-tailed weasel.

Also known as stoats or ermines, short-tailed weasels (Mustela erminea) have a circumpolar distribution. This one was filmed in Nunavut, the most northern of Canada’s Arctic territories.

See more at Clare Kines’ award-winning photography website.

(tweet by Clare Kines. photo from Wikimedia Commons)