Wildlife Encounters in the Playground

[Amiel]

I'm currently experiencing an array of emotions at present: excitement, contentment, privilege.

I just recently had a visitor of the owl variety. And it was amazing. In all my years in Oz, I've never seen a native owl before, and never one this close before. It called last night as well, and its cry, so distinctive and loud was what drew me to it.

It was grand, especially as its distinctive call may mean it was a barking owl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barking_Owl), a species that is endangered over here in Victoria.


What are/were your awesome wildlife encounters and experiences, fellow Playgrounders?

[Emperor Ing]

Deers and Squirrels with a deathwish. I actually once saw a car right in front of me get a double kill on two squirrels.

[Coidzor]

Interestingly, I've recently had the interesting privilege to learn that coyotes have a fairly good hyena impression, because I could have sworn I heard a teenager laughing and there was no one home or about, just the coyotes coming up around and by the house.

[Serpentine]

I have a banjo frog =D Also today I hit a kangaroo in the head with an acorn. It turns out the deer like them, but kangaroos are pretty nonplussed by them.
My ex's cat was once hunted by a wedgetail eagle...

[Coidzor]

I have a banjo frog =D Also today I hit a kangaroo in the head with an acorn. It turns out the deer like them, but kangaroos are pretty nonplussed by them.
My ex's cat was once hunted by a wedgetail eagle...

...Wait...What? Deer?! In Australia?! :eek:

[Extra_Crispy]

Since I live in the south west USA, I have seen alot of desert animals. The ones that left a lasting impression were

A gila monster that weighted about 20 lbs. I crawled through the chainlink fence and into the back yard.

A rattle snake that crawled all the way up onto my parents back porch.

A skunk that got chased by our dog under the house and then sprayed. That was a lasting impression that got my dad (who was in the Air Force at the time) some time off work because his boss could not be around him because of the smell.

A baby rattle snake that I almosted tried to pick up because I thought it was a worm.

A baby (very close to new born) deer. We were walking and saw it but not the mother, of course did not even try to touch it. Few min later saw the mother, pretending to be hurt to get us to follow it away from her child.

Recently a pair of havalina, one that was sleeping under my parents front porch. I left their house late at night after being over there looking after things while they were visiting family.

[Serpentine]

...Wait...What? Deer?! In Australia?! :eek:I think they're pests or semi-pests in some places. These particular ones, however, are in "the Deer Park" attached to the university. In fact, part of the will granting the university use of those grounds stipulate that there must always be a deer park. That's also where the kangaroos were.

[Coidzor]

......Buh...Buh...

[Serpentine]

:confused:

Armidale's deer:
http://www.deerparkmotorinn.com.au/_images/armidale-deer-feeding.jpg

[Amiel]

Hmm, can't seem to find what that particular species of owl was/is (may even be a tawny frogmouth but its cry is different); can still hear it calling, and just recently saw it over the neigbour's fence sitting atop their wooden biped ladder.


Speaking of frogs, at least three of our neighbours have frogs calling from their water features, two from small ponds and one from a swimming pool possibly converted into a billabong. Can hear one now, it's rather loud. It's awesome, wish we had one of those. The frogs in question are most likely eastern banjoes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Banjo_Frog). Although we did have a non-calling frog that used to occupy our swimming pool, it's gone now.


Kangaroos are quite common here as are possums, to the point where they become almost ubiquitous; its guaranteed that you will hear at least one possum screeching and hissing every night. It's a testament to their adaptability no doubt.

Speaking of nature creeping into suburbia, our uni occupies quite a considerable area, and it was built to include a moat (a little river) and lakes and such abound. One can see rabbits, foxes, monitor lizards, long-necked turtles, native ducks, swans, geese, kangaroos, and that's just within the school grounds.


And of deers and does, we have a Melbourne suburb named Deer Park, presumably it was where the early settlers kept their deer, possibly for hunting or breeding purposes. It's a proper suburb now.
Don't deer have internal parasites that are potentially fatal to humans?


Wait; nope, doesn't sound like a tawny frogmouth.
Don't know what it is, it's almost a screechy cry with hoo-hoo.

[CDR_Doom]

I live near a river in North Florida, and we get big ospreys that catch fish come up into our yard to sit in a pine tree and eat their catch. The campus of my university has a bunch of lakes on it and there are alligators in some of them that we see all the time. We also have about 40 canadian geese which run all over campus and never migrate North in the summer.

[SurlySeraph]

Walking around in the woods near my granddad's house in upstate New York, I walked within 15 feet of a pair of deer without even realizing they were there. At which point they spooked and fled. I then stalked after them for about half an hour, seeing how close I could get without them running; never closer than 25 feet, but I really enjoyed it.

On a bus trip across the southern US, when we were in... Nevada, I think it was. My sister and I were walking along towards a lookout point. As she passed a scrubby bush, we heard rattling and a hiss. I stepped right the hell back upon hearing it, and quickly saw the rattlesnake it was coming from slowly rearing up. I walked several hundred feet out of my way to another cleared path to get past it.

And then there was my time in Ecuador. I don't have time to list everything awesome I saw, nor do I have pictures of some of the best animals, but I hope these pictures will give you a sense.

This is a coral snake. No, the picture is not zoomed in. It was almost at my feet. In retrospect, I should have stepped back.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7554/coralsnakephp.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/638/snailphp.jpg

Parrots at a clay lick.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9830/parrotsphp.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2024/olivetreerunnerphp.jpg

The most surprised cane toad in the world.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1780/canetoadphp.jpg

Bullet ants wrestling.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/6541/bulletantsphp.jpg

A roseate spoonbill, snowy egret, and cocoi heron - the main water birds of Ecuador - lined up in size order.

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/4264/roseatespoonbillsnowyeg.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3663/tinyfrog.jpg

And I just wish I had pictures of the sloth, monkeys, fish, birds of prey, and peccaries.

[Miklus]

:confused:

Armidale's deer:
http://www.deerparkmotorinn.com.au/_images/armidale-deer-feeding.jpg

How cute! We have the same kind of deer in a park next to where I live + two more kinds. They can not be petted, though. They are too shy.

Edit: The kinds are: Red Deer (300), Fallow Deer (1600 ) and Sika Deer (100). So 2000 in all.

[RS14]

I was hiking with my mom once and saw a wild turkey running from a bobcat. I suppose the turkey was just startled, and the bobcat wasn't actually hunting, because it passed the turkey and turned onto our trail. It then saw us, paused, and fled.

I saw a black bear while backpacking in King's Canyon. It saw us and fled into the brush immediately.

[Midnight Son]

We were running back to our rooms at the fish cannery I worked for in Alaska. As we rounded a corner we all stopped short as we encountered the bear. Poor guy was just looking for a bit of an evening snack, I'm sure, but finding yourself less than ten feet from all those teeth and claws is quite the adrenaline rush. He looked at us. We looked at him. Then he shuffled off to find a less crowded place to snarf.

[IsaacTheHungry]

On a cross country trip i drove through yosemite and it was great but we didn't see a single animal (we had only 1 day there). Not a single animal that is until we were on the exit road. First all the cars were stopped with the rangers at the front. then we saw the shapes coming up the road, one minute later we were sitting in the middle of a buffalo herd and we could't find our camera at first. :smalleek:

[Atelm]

The most memorable "wild"life encounter for me happened at the Kolmården zoo safari park in Sweden some ten odd years ago.

We were driving through at a slowish pace when a bear walked right infront of the car, stopped there (thus stopping us as well), and took a dump. We were taping the entire time through the park, so naturally it was recorded as well. :smallamused:

Living outside of anything that could be called majorly urban, there are days when all I have to do is look outside to find a hare or a squirrel. But only rarely do I find one that is happy to be photographed by yours truly from ~1-2 m distance on the ground.

http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss313/Atelm/P9130496.jpg


At our cottage we got a lot of birdlife, but rarely swans that align so perfectly for a photo. I've got the original photo somewhere, for now I could only find the screenshot from when the image was my wallpaper.

http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss313/Atelm/wallpaperswan.jpg

[Lord Blace]

On the way home from my old work I would cross a decent sized field and a coyote happened to live in it. It would rear its head my direction (probably smelling the sandwich I was taking home) and watch me as I passed. I swear it was getting more and more used to me, as each night it seemed to be getting a little closer before stopping and watching me pass.
I never got the vibe that he felt threatened or anything, and if it had decided to run at me, I'd probably have thrown my sandwich at it in hopes of giving an easier, better smelling thing to bite on. :smalltongue:

[Icewalker]

I walked past a stag once on the way home in Berkeley, late at night. So that was pretty cool.

And a friend of mine was something like 20 feet away from a mountain lion (close enough that they can pounce). Although I wouldn't be surprised if he could take a mountain lion in a fight, rather intense person.

[Fostire]

:confused:

Armidale's deer:
http://www.deerparkmotorinn.com.au/_images/armidale-deer-feeding.jpg

We have those in Uruguay. Some guy actually started bringing australian species into Uruguay some time ago and those deer are some of the ones that survived (and became a pest).
I think it was the same guy who brought Eucalyptus too, which turned out to be wonderful habitats (is that the right word?) for some species of parrots that in turn started breeding like crazy and are now a huge pest.

[Umael]

I don't know if I would call this "wildlife", but at a park in Eastern Oregon, I had an encounter with a chipmunk. Thing was so used to humans that I snapped my fingers like I had food. Zoom!, up the pants leg, stop maybe two inches away from my fingers, realize there was no food to be had, Zoom! and off.

It wasn't the only chipmunk like that either.

During an outdoor camp, we had one of the counselors throwing things at a curious coyote - didn't want the animal to get too used to humans, as it wasn't safe for the coyote.

Had a few encounters with possums, a few deer, a raccoon, but nothing close or majestic.

[Morty]

There are quite a few pheasants where I live, so I see them quite often. You can also see roe deers around sometimes, especially in winter. Sometimes, our dog chases them. Once, one of them ran just past my mother. I guess finding a hedgehog in our garden counts too. There are also a lot of carnivorous birds not far away from where I live, in the national park, and it's possible to see some of them almost up close if you have a good pair of binoculars.

[Pinnacle]

A chipmunk ran over my lap once while I was sitting at a picnic table. Startled me.

There's an area down the street from me with a fence blocking off the road, and there's always deer in there. People throw them bread sometimes. I don't know where they come from; I live in a suburb, and that patch of land is right near the river. No forest or anything.

My parent's new-ish vacation house had bats living under the siding. They got into the enclosed porch/sunroom a few times. The first time my mom noticed that, she pushed me into the room and then locked the door, since she thought they were deadly. She refused to open the door even to pass me a towel to try to catch them with or anything. Yes, that's right, she tried to kill me.
Of course, bats aren't quite as fatal as she seemed to think, so I just spent 15-20 minutes standing out there ducking and dodging as they flew back and forth, until the finally discovered the outside door I had opened for them.
She tried that another time, but I knew what she was going to do and stopped her from slamming the door. My sister and I managed to obtain a towel and a flashlight, which made it much easier to get rid of them.

[Rockphed]

Mainly I deal with squirrels. Here on campus, they will eat out of your hands if you have food. If I really wanted to(and had a small stash of food) I could probably get one in my pocket.

Otherwise, I have mainly dealt with birds at home. The squirrels there are much less comfortable around people, so no hand feeding them. On the other hand, I did once have a raccoon about 15 feet away from me. He was across the driveway and halfway up a tree directly across from the door.

[Pinnacle]

Ah yes, we've had a squirrel who liked to chew his way through the screen door.

There's a little room there before you get to the real door. It's where we keep the dog food (sealed), and the dog biscuits (not sealed), and some other things.
I took the screen to a hardware store where they fix screens. The guy asked if I wanted to replace it with the same kind of screening, or a stronger, better, guaranteed pet-proof kind. I said it was actually a squirrel.
"Oh. Well... Uh, not guaranteed then. It might help a little?"
I went with the better kind. It did not help. And we thought the squirrel was dead from some poison we'd put out, as he hadn't ripped through the tape in several days.

[Kurien]

On my way home from school one day, I was walking on a bridge over some train tracks. Suddenly, some bird of prey landed on the railing not 10 feet away from me. Of course, it saw me, and took off immediately. I'm fairly certain it was a red tailed hawk, based on size and colouration.

I've also seen another bird of prey in a field fly away into some trees, leaving a groundhog carcass that I investigated.

[Bouregard]

In Germany we slowly get some problems with ravens.... They start to ignore humans/ don't see them as a treat. I once parked near one. Car came a good half metre in front of it to a stop. The raven didn't even hoped away.

[Cyrion]

Most recently, I've been in touching distance of several alligators in the Florida Everglades and had ring-tailed lemurs (critters at left) climbing on me at the local wildlife park. I also got to pet a kangaroo- maybe old hat for folks like Serpentine, but I thought it was cool.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

In the city, there are, of course, the usual birdies, and squirrels. (The park near my house has one of the worlds only non-albino white squirrel groups) There are also a couple of deer, but they usually stay in the parks and ravines. We have gigantic raccoons. We once had one stuck in a tree at school a couple of years ago. It was pretty cool.

I have twice seen peregrine falcon's hunting. The first time I was really little, and it was perched on top of my school, eating. The second time, it was winter, and it had JUST killed a pigeon in the snow as I was walking by. I managed to videotape it.

Um... While on our Saskatchewan/Alberta/BC trip, we saw bears, and were chased from some salt flats by a large hawk of some kind. In our car. It was very aggressive. Oh, and we saw a corral of bison. My mum tried to cross the road to take pictures of them, and they mini-stampeded to the other side of the corral. Oh, and we saw wild turkeys.

While on our US South trip, we saw more bears, deer, alligators... spiders the size of your hand, grasshoppers just as large...

[PJ the Epic]

Once, by my house, we saw a black-footed ferret, which are extremely rare. It was swimming across a river. On the other side, it paused and looked at us. At the time we had no idea what it was, but, after several biology lectures, I am sure it was.

[Amiel]

[...]I also got to pet a kangaroo- maybe old hat for folks like Serpentine, but I thought it was cool.

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/funny-pictures-kid-makes-offer-to-coitus-kangaroos.jpg

:smallbiggrin:

[Hell Puppi]

Recently I was taking my dogs for a walk and cut through an area with a bunch of trees. We stopped for a moment, then I noticed a hawk sitting on a branch not two feet away. Scared the crap out of my shepherd (he's only 8 months old and the only birds he's seen are fairly tiny) when it flew away. Really neat!

Also recently saw a bunch of mule deer recently while hiking.

Had my first look at a wild owl not long ago. Was walking along in the dark when I saw him perched on the building next to me. It flew almost right over my head and didn't make a sound.

I've also encountered: vultures, peregrines, eagles, a bobcat (not a great encounter while horse-back riding but still neat), several rattlesnakes, many bats (one of which was stuck in the horses' water trough, we fished him out with a branch), several small water moccasins and one very large water moccasin, coyotes, jack rabbits, cottontails, quail, antelope and several species of lizard. I think that's it? (not counting common birds) :smallconfused:

[bluewind95]

I once got to pet a hummingbird. My sister's students found it and she brought it home. I fed it sugar water so that it'd be able to fly and then let it go in the nearby park. But in the meantime, the little bird let us pet it and we even got to hold it in our hands. A beautiful little thing.

[Serpentine]

HUMMINGBIRD. That reminds me of a bit of trivia I know... But mostly, that is so cool.
Some guy actually started bringing australian species into Uruguay some time ago and those deer are some of the ones that survived (and became a pest).Do you mean the deer were bred in Australia? It's possible, but they're not an Australian species.
I also got to pet a kangaroo- maybe old hat for folks like Serpentine, but I thought it was cool.Nah, that's still cool. They're so fuzzy, but hard... Also, these roos and deer don't really let you pat them, unless maybe you have a lot of food. They're fairly skittish. Though not skittish enough - last year someone was breaking in and mutilating the deer :smallfrown: :smallmad:

I once walked straight passed (I think) a copperhead snake. Wouldn't have noticed it except the people I was walking with stopped cold or just plain ran away. THANKS, GUYS. I followed it for a bit, 'twere cool.
Also, recently my cat caught some sort of native mouse-thing. He didn't injure it or anything and didn't seem to know what to do with it. I was going to let him have it cuz I thought it was a feral mouse, but then my Boy got it off him and it hopped away, rather than running. Not long afterwards, I found another, bigger, one on my way to work. It was in the lane where my cat likes to hang out, which was a worry, and it just sat there, ignoring me. I even patted it, and it wouldn't move. I had to actually poke it before it moved, and then it went only a foot. Trying to put it in my handbag (I was worried about it) got it to run away. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a photo of it. It was bigger than a mouse but much smaller than a rat, had a bald mouse-like tail, had a rounder body than a mouse, hopped rather than ran, had a head shaped like a fat tear-drop but from the side it didn't come down to a cone-like point, like this: > but more like this: \_/. I think it had largish ears, and small eyes. Dunno what it was...

[mikej]

I saw a Mountain Lion once when I was twelve. It was when I lived in British Columbia. It was sleeping about 100[ish] ft up the ridge. Needless to say, I was thier for long.

I see Deer all the time.

[Winter_Wolf]

Well, I grew up in very rural Alaska, so maybe that's considered "cheating". We've had brown bears in the back of the pickup truck, rabbits hopping around all over the yard in winter, foxes will occasionally pop in during the autumn and they'll be really active in the winter when they're hunting for the mice hiding under the thick snow. They look really cool when they're hunting mice in winter, by the way. Kind of mesmerizing, really.

Moose on right in the middle of the road, in the water, "over there" but still close enough to be dangerous; eagles of the bald and golden varieties; owls; beavers with their territorial tail slapping.

Yeah, like I said, rural Alaska. I miss those days. Now the closest we get to anything like this is the occasional muskrat on the walking trail or the deer through the back yard of my mom's place.

[Amiel]

I once walked straight passed (I think) a copperhead snake. Wouldn't have noticed it except the people I was walking with stopped cold or just plain ran away. THANKS, GUYS. I followed it for a bit, 'twere cool.

It could be that your friends were running for help :p.
Hughesy, the comedian, told a story concerning a snake and his girlfriend. He claimed that when she screamed, he caught hold of her and prevented her from startling it. His girlfriend claimed that he was using her as a human shield.



I'm still kicking myself for not taking a photo of it. It was bigger than a mouse but much smaller than a rat, had a bald mouse-like tail, had a rounder body than a mouse, hopped rather than ran, had a head shaped like a fat tear-drop but from the side it didn't come down to a cone-like point, like this: > but more like this: \_/. I think it had largish ears, and small eyes. Dunno what it was...

Could it have been this, the Northern Hopping Mouse (http://images.google.com.au/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hl=en&source=hp&q=Northern+Hopping+Mouse&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=)?

[Serpentine]

I dunno, it could be, but I think it had a bigger butt, and I can't get a good look of the northern hopping mouse's tail - it was definitely mouse-like, not long with a tuft like the spinifex hopping mouse's.

As for my friends: One was so far ran away I can't remember where they were, one (barely an acquaintance) had backed right away, down into the grass of all places, and the other (pregnant) was frozen in place staring down at it. If anyone should've run, it's the latter... I think I passed within a couple of metres of its head, too, without noticing it.

[Fostire]

Do you mean the deer were bred in Australia? It's possible, but they're not an Australian species.

I don't know, sorry. Is there any species of deer native to Australia? maybe it was some other species. I know the guy brought a LOT of plants and animals from around the world, but mostly from Australia.

[Serpentine]

No native Australian deer. I'll probably be corrected on this, but I don't think we have any native placental mammals bigger than a good-sized rat.

[Kurien]

Also, recently my cat caught some sort of native mouse-thing. He didn't injure it or anything and didn't seem to know what to do with it. I was going to let him have it cuz I thought it was a feral mouse, but then my Boy got it off him and it hopped away, rather than running. Not long afterwards, I found another, bigger, one on my way to work. It was in the lane where my cat likes to hang out, which was a worry, and it just sat there, ignoring me. I even patted it, and it wouldn't move. I had to actually poke it before it moved, and then it went only a foot. Trying to put it in my handbag (I was worried about it) got it to run away. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a photo of it. It was bigger than a mouse but much smaller than a rat, had a bald mouse-like tail, had a rounder body than a mouse, hopped rather than ran, had a head shaped like a fat tear-drop but from the side it didn't come down to a cone-like point, like this: > but more like this: \_/. I think it had largish ears, and small eyes. Dunno what it was...

A quick Wikipedia search reveals that it was probably a Hopping Mouse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopping_mouse) of the genus Notomys, native to Australia. There are several species, so I'm not sure exactly which one it was. Apparently, the critters retain a tenuous hold on existence, having many of the species declared extinct and some of them endangered. The introduction of invasive species such as feral rabbits, feral cats and foxes probably greatly helped them to die off. So it was rather lucky of you to have encountered two of them on separate occasions. :smallsmile:

Looker further in the Wikipedia entry, there is a species that is larger than a mouse and whose current status is Least Concern. That species is the Spinifex Hopping Mouse, also known as the Tarkawara and which has greatly fluctuating populations coinciding with rain patterns. Perhaps this is the type you found?

[Pyrian]

There's a pelican in the parking lot outside work right now. :smalltongue:

[THAC0]

I have been charged by a moose (elk, for you strange non-american types).

I have had black bears in my front yard, grizzlies outside my tent.

Seeing a bald eagle is far less surprising than not seeing one on any given day.

I've seen coyotes hunting.

Caribou, far too many to count.

Dall sheep pretty often.

Tons and tons of migratory birds.

Porcupine!

Oh, and I saw a lynx, too. It was down in the ditch while I was on the road and gave me dirty looks for photographing it.

I love living here. :smallbiggrin:

[Serpentine]

Looker further in the Wikipedia entry, there is a species that is larger than a mouse and whose current status is Least Concern. That species is the Spinifex Hopping Mouse, also known as the Tarkawara and which has greatly fluctuating populations coinciding with rain patterns. Perhaps this is the type you found?Spinifex Hopping Mouse is a desert species with a distinct very long tail with a tuft on the end. I remember specifically noticing that this animal had a definitely rat-like tail. I do agree that a hopping mouse of some sort is the most likely suspect, but the tail is throwing me off...

[Fostire]

Spinifex Hopping Mouse is a desert species with a distinct very long tail with a tuft on the end. I remember specifically noticing that this animal had a definitely rat-like tail. I do agree that a hopping mouse of some sort is the most likely suspect, but the tail is throwing me off...

Maybe it was a cross-breed or a mutant?
maybe you found a new species :smallbiggrin:

[Generic Archer]

in the last 2 days I've encountered:
- about 4 hares, running accross the road in front of my roadbike doing 30km/h + at night, and I mean one of the ones with .8" tyres
- a couple of roos, one of which tried to do the same as the hares, forced me off the road too.
- a water monitor
- several wild birds, lots of varieties, notably a sulfur crested cocky and several wrens
- a lot of rabbits
- several skinks

thats about it for the last 48 hours...

and I've run over a snake, eastern brown, as in was running and took a stride that went over the damn thing, I was maybe 8 at the time so it freaked me a little

Dane

[Lupy]

Once I was inside on this forum when I heard my Mom scream from out back. I ran out, saw the copperhead, ran back in for a sledge hammer, and made short work of it. Another time there was one in my neighbor's yard. I called for her to get me an axe and she wouldn't because "I couldn't be sure it was dangerous." :smallannoyed: It was actually copper too.

Another time while working on my Eagle Scout I saw a bald eagle and two chicks in a nest about 100 feet up in a tree. ((Definitely an Omen.))

At the NC Zoo at Ashboro there is a lake you cross over before the entrance. There was a Heron there hunting once and I saw it catch a fish! :smallbiggrin:

I almost stepped on a cottonmouth when I was 7. I was at a Scout Camp, and when I screamed another boy rolled a big rock over it.

[Frozen_Feet]

Okay, darn you. Now I have a deep urge to go out in the cold with a camera to hunt for all the critters roaming nearby. As I live on the edge of a huge field, with a lake and lots of forest around, there's an abundance of rabbits, squirrels (those little bastards), shrews, pheasants, crows, magpies and what have you. Just a day back, we spotted a deer standing in the middle of the field, and it's common occurrance for some scared animal sprint into fleeing when I walk outside. Corvidae also like to pick on our dog by stealing his food.