Minnesota Update Of Sorts(Shrug)

[Guest Maggie]

Oh, one more short note with this. I heard my cousin telling my aunt to be careful every time she went down to the barn to do chores. They were pretty concerned about what could be opening the door and eating the feed.

[Guest Maggie]

Hmmm. After talking to my mom today I have a question because I think one of you could have an idea what is going on. Let me preface this. As I have said, the family has had this property for almost 50 years. It's in a small group of seven houses surrounded by a lot of woods and fields with a creek pretty close.

Now in all of this time we have never seen deer come into the yard EXCEPT a few years ago during a very bad winter where they were coming up at night to eat around the bird feeder.

This morning, my dad called my mom to come look and there were a couple of deer in the lawn/garden area. (Neighbor dogs are apparently useless. They want to bark and chase off people that live here, not wildlife,lol). My dad then made some noise and they took off.

Are they attracted to gardens? About the only thing up where they were right now is daffodils. I guess if it was later on when all of the garden stuff was up I would consider more normal. It's hard to describe but the family place is kind of in the middle of the other six houses, most of which have large yards. (The family place is just under two acres.) Whatever comes into the yard has to come through the other properties to get there.

I hear of people having deer in their yards all of the time, we just never have out there unless there were extenuating circumstances. Of course for the longest time my family had at least one good dog. I would be happy to bring my big dogs out there BUT I am certain the neighbors wouldn't like it as they would find themselves minus dogs.(IF they crossed the line into forbidden territory!) My big guys are great around family members, (they adore my grandson)little dogs and cats that live with them, and anything I introduce them to. They aren't so nice about keeping humans or animals out as they believe it is their "job".  

Edited April 16, 2016 by Maggie

[mesabe]

I have read that deer will sometimes come close to humans to escape other predators, that would stay away from humans.

 

The deer around here seem to know when hunting season is, and when it is not, they let us get fairly close, and are not afraid. Same with the turkeys, only I don't attribute it to inteligence, maybe they pick up on if we are in hunter or stealth mode

 

Also, the deer are a plague on my garden, which is fairly close to my house. They jump the fence, and eat as much asparagus as they can. One of the deer is diferent from the rest. On severral occasions, I have seen the others jump the fence, and that one crawls under it, very awkwardly.

[Guest Maggie]

Well it sounds as if we got lucky that we haven't had deer constantly raiding the garden!! I had another thought that maybe these two that were there were younger and therefore less frightened of humans.

Of course I can't discount that they MIGHT be hanging around because we are the "lesser" of evils,lol

[Guest Squatchologist]

Deer will come and eat basically anything that is green. We have deer on a nightly basis, 15 yards out of our back window, but that could be partly because i feed them corn

[Guest Maggie]

That's good to know. I had another thought. Not far from my parents garden is the neighbors bird feeder and I know some of the mixes contain corn.

On another note, I have addressed this before but when we have activity it seems as if the coyotes are scarce or not around at all. Then I have read that Sas and coyotes go together. I would love to know other thoughts on this? Maybe ours is/are canine aggressive,lol.

[mesabe]

I think they (BF & coyotes) are both opportunistic feeders, and may take advantage of each others kills. They may develope some kind of symbionic relationship, or maybe even develope like early humans and wolves, which lead to todays dogs. There does seem to be something going on. Since our BF activity has died down over the last few yrs. our local neighborhood coyote population has increased greatly. And looking back when we had the BF activity, the coyotes weren't so noticeable.

[Guest Maggie]

That's really interesting. I wonder if it depends on what part of the country a person is in? You saying the population increases more with the absence of Sas makes sense to me as that is what has happened here. When you don't hear many, that is usually when we have had the most Sas experiences.

But again, in other areas I hear about them being almost dependent on one another.

[mesabe]

I noticed that as well in other accounts and discussions. Yes I was making a comparison to your situation in that the same incidnets were occurring. Maybe they need to find a den of coyote pups before they can acclimate them to the BF lifestyle.

 

True coyotes tend to stay in their own territory, and only leave it when under pressure. Plus they don't really pack. They mate in pairs and raise the young for a while, but eventually the young leave the parents.

 

Wolves are more pack animals, and can form huge packs. In our state, and going mostly east we also have the coywolves and coydogs, that have interbred, and are said to be bigger and more agressive. I have seen a few in our area at times. I haven't heard if they pack like wolves, or seperate like coyotes, in their own territories.

 

If BF migrate to an extent, that might also affect how they relate to coyotes and wolves. Either way, they all must compete for deer/moose/elk, etc..

[Guest Maggie]

That's kind of what I thought, that they must be in competition for the different prey animals. Another thought I had was maybe where there are less animals for them to hunt, is where the coyotes get pushed out until the Sas move on. OR on the flip side, maybe this is where they work together to all benefits.

I like your idea of maybe acclimating coyote pups to their presence. Could be? Like dogs sort of. I have even heard a couple of stories of a cougar being with a BF. I DO NOT know how true that is but it's intriguing. IF they are anything like us in thought, there are probably some that like"pets". Or yet again on the flip side, they see them as a hunting tool.

[Guest Maggie]

Oh as far as migration, I believe they are in different areas that benefit them at certain times of the year, but if I had to take a wild guess, I would say they don't migrate super far distances. At least in family groups. With lone males it might be different if they have to set up an area that is "theirs"? Just throwing ideas out there.

[mesabe]

I basically agree with both posts Maggie. I too have read a few reports involving cougars or cougar cubs. I would probly freak out if I saw a BF calmly petting the purring cougar in its lap. LOL

[Guest Maggie]

Aww but it's just a itty bitty housecat,lol. 

[Guest Maggie]

It's going to be interesting around here in the next few months. My youngest son has moved back in until he decides what he is going to do, and my pregnant oldest daughter is also moving back in. It makes me wonder if having more people and a baby around will cause more activity....

[mesabe]

All I can say is, I don't see how it can't! I think the increase in human activity, will stimulate their curiosity.

 

Is this the family homestead you have talked about? or a different place?  What you could try is making the ground outside of that bathroom, that seems so popular with the BF, more conducive to forming track evidence.  Also putting up motion detector/security lights, on the sides of the house you don't want activity.

 

I would take a look around for any territorial markers, like TP structures, bent trees, crosses etc. And after your children have been there awhile, see if anything changes, or any new structures made. 

 

You could also establish a routine, maybe you already have, like taking the Cane out for an evening stroll, to see if it causes any interactions, like pebble throwing etc.

 

Cool, I hope you have some interesting stories to report.