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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Friday, January 3, 2014

The State of Delaware has put in place draconian rules on shooting and trapping Coyotes, calling them "non-native" to their state............Perhaps the uninformed Game and Legislative Leaders in Delaware should also be looking to extinguish Cardinals and Opossums as well,,,,,,,,,,,,,BOTH OF THESE ARE NATIVE AMERICAN SPECIES WHO AT ONE TIME DID NOT RANGE THROUGH DELAWARE.....HOWEVER, DUE TO OUR TEARING UP THE THE LAND, EXTERMINATING LARGE CARNIVORES AND PUMPING CO2 INTO THE AIR, GENERALIST CONSUMER ANIMALS LIKE THE COYOTE(WHO EAT JUST ABOUT ANYTHING) HAVE FOUND IT EASY TO EXPAND IT'S RANGE AND NOW CALL DELAWARE HOME.............NON-NATIVE IS GYPSY MOTHS, NORWAY MAPLE TREES AND RATS, STARLINGS, HOUSE SPARROWS----ALL ORIGINALLY EUROPEAN OR OF ASIAN ORIGEN---i SUGGEST WE ERADICATE THEM------CONVERSELY, COYOTES ARE NATIVES, AND SHOULD NOT BE HUNTED LIKE VERMIN!

click on the link below to read full article on the 
extremely wrong policy
that Delaware has instituted in it's desire to rid
 themselves of Coyotes

Delaware officials 

adopt coyote hunting

 rules
















-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Range Expansion of the Opossum
retrieverman.net

 Opossums historically were confined to
 the subtropical south. They could be found
 from Virginia to East Texas. By the end of
 the Civil War, its range extended to the 
southern edge of the National Road (today’s
 US 40).  Today, its range extends into 
southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, parts
 of Maine, and southern Ontario. For some
 reason, this species was introduced to
 California, and now its range extends
 along the Pacific Coast to British Columbia.
 The animal can now be from from British
 Columbia and Ontario to Costa Rica.
Now, the success of this species is not
 because it has any novel adaptations. 
It is basically a generic mammal that eats
 virtually anything. Its has many
 unspecialized teeth. In fact, it has 
more teeth than any other mammal in
 North America. Its shaggy coat has no
 undercoat, and it cannot dig its own
 burrows. It has a prehensile tail, but 
it is unable to hang by its tail, as is
 portrayed in far too many cartoons. 
The truth is that this animal has 
been very successful without 
specialization. It hasn’t changed much
 since the early Paleocene or the late
 Cretaceous.



The red dots on the map show
 documented opossum collecting
 locations dating  from 1889 to 
1979. During this time opossums
 were limited to the southernmost 
part of the Lower Peninsula, with
 just one record in the western 
Upper Peninsula







The red dots show Professor
 Myers' oppossum road kill 
documentation for 1980-2006.
 The sample dots line up 
vertically following the roads
 used by Dr. Myers, and are clear
 evidence of the oppossums
 northward spread—all the way
 to the northermost parts of the 
Lower Peninsual as well in the
 southwest Upper Peninsula.



As Jesus said in the Beatitudes: “Blessed 
are the meek, for they shall inherit the 
earth.” (Matthew 5:5). Now, I don’t
 know how that applies to the nebulous 
discipline of theology, but I do know that
 it fits in with what European man has 
done to the natural history of this continent.
We have slaughtered all the big animals
 on this continent. Once there were great
 herds of wapiti (elk) where I’m sitting right
 now, along with teaming bands of bison, 
which were harried by packs of wolves. 
 The cougar is also gone, although a few
 people claim to have seen them slinking
 through the undergrowth. All of these 
have disappeared.
But with the extirpation of the great
 beasts, the ecosystem was opened 
up for new expansion by the smaller
 creatures. The raccoon has spread
 north and west into parts of Canada 
where it was never known before. 
The coyote now lives through most
 of North America from Alaska to Panama.
Animals that can eat just about anything 
and that aren’t that big enough to cause
 people to kill them out of fear really do 
well in this environment. Virginia 
opossums eat just about anything; they 
will regularly raid trash cans and left out
 stores of cat food, which are about the
 most common food sources in the suburbs.
Further, they can reproduce in very large 
numbers. Although they live only one of 
two years, a female opossum can give 
birth to two to four litters in her lifetime
 that contain as many as a thirteen 
offspring per litter. The opossum female
 gives birth to dozens of offspring, but
 only the first 13 to attach themselves
 to the nipples in her pouch survive. The 
female opossum has 13 nipples, arranged
 in a circle in her pouch.
They also have another behavior that
 prevents predation. Contrary to what
 urban legends say, the Virginia opossum
 doesn’t play dead. Instead, when it is 
really scared, it goes into an involuntary
 coma-like state and releases some stinky
 green fluid from its anus. Most animals
 will leave it alone, because who wants
 to eat something that is dead and 
squirting stinky juice out of its butt? 
Climate change and the tendency of this
 species to grow a somewhat longer coat
 have allowed it to expand its range. I
 don’t think we’ll have Artic opossums

 any time soon, but their range in Canada
 and the Upper Midwest is likely to continue
 to expand.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Range Expansion of the 
Cardinal

The northern cardinal is found

 throughout the
 eastern United States and on 
south into Mexico 
and Central America. Historically,
 cardinals were
 most numerous in the southern
 portions of their
 geographic range, but they have
 been steadily 

increasing in numbers in the north
 and are even
 expanding their distribution 
northward into 
northern New England and
 southern Canada. 
























The western boundary of their range
 is roughly
 along a line from the Dakotas to 
western Texas 
although there are cardinal populations
 in New 
Mexico, southern Arizona, and 
California.

The expanding distribution of
 the northern 
cardinal has been described by 
some as 
another ecological consequence
 of global
 warming. Some researchers,
 though, feel
 that the increasing popular habit
 of providing
 birds with seed in feeders may 
have allowed
 this species to survive and thrive
 in regions
 previously too marginal or harsh
 for their
 existence. Further, the ongoing
 fragmentation 
of natural forest habitats by 
human activity 
and the proliferation of suburban 
shrub and 
conifer plantings have created
 increasingly
 abundant “edge” ecosystems 
which are greatly
 favored by this species. 

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