Len Lisenbee's Outdoor World

    Len Lisenbee is the Outdoor Columnist for the Canadaigua Daily Messenger, Shooting Editor of the former New York Sportsman, retired Special Agent with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and book author of "TALES FROM THE MARSH AND OTHER DRIVEL" a unique look with fact and fiction of his years as a federal game warden.

A TERRIBLE CRIME, BUT NO PUNISHMENT

A horrible crime had been committed. The victim's body was still where it fell in the throws of death — right in the middle of my neighbor's back yard. It was horribly mutilated -- much too grisly a scene to describe here. After all, this web site is family orientated.

I was called to investigate this crime shortly after the corpus delicti was discovered. After a cursory exam of the body I interviewed the next of kin, a housewife who lived in the nearby house. She had been totally devoted to the deceased, their lives being totally intertwined. I could see she was visibly shaken, babbling on about how such a terrible thing could happen and wondering who could have committed such a horrible crime.

Facts, Mam. Just the facts. When did you last see the deceased alive? "Last night. He went out the door about 11:00 p.m. for his usual nightly stroll." I see, I said. And, when did you first notice he was missing? "Well, he usually doesn't come back from those walks until I get up in the morning." Did you notice anything out of the ordinary? Was he despondent? Did he seem irritated or short tempered? "No, he seemed perfectly normal. He even drank all his milk before leaving the house."

No leads here. So I did what any good investigator would do. As distasteful as the job might be, I made a closer inspection of the body. There was a slight odor that I had often smelled along highways. That was my first clue. The large gaping wound in the abdomen was ugly, but was not the cause of death. Not enough blood lost at that ugly wound. What are these marks on the back? Carefully I folded back the hair, and that's when I saw what had really caused the deceased to become deceased. Six tiny puncture wounds on one side of the body near the spine, and two similar wounds on the other.

Ah Hah! I loudly proclaimed. Now I know not only how the deceased got deceased, but who deceased him! Twas not a stalking prowler or nare-do-well of the night that caused the deceased to become deceased. No, this victim fell victim to silent death from above, I again loudly proclaimed.

Since quite a crowd had gathered by this time, and all of those curious onlookers were looking at me and scratching their heads, I realized a better explanation might be in order. So, I made my announcement. A great horned owl did him in, I proudly proclaimed. And believe me, that house cat didn't know what nailed it. It was dead long before it had any warning that danger on silent wings was near.

Another case successfully solved by yours truly. And that was not the first time I have been questioned about the sudden and totally unexpected demise of small pets. Great horned owls are notorious night hunters. They often kill relatively large mammals, usually grasping them on either side of the spine with their needle-sharp talons, and then squeezing hard to both drive the points deeper and reduce any residual struggle. Death is often instantaneous, even for animals as large as full grown house cats.

Great horned owls are especially active during the early spring months. They actually begin nesting in mid to late February, and it isn't unusual to see a parent bird, covered with snow, sitting on the nest to keep the eggs or youngsters warn and dry. Once the eggs hatch the young need a lot of food. Both parents hunt almost continuously until the youngsters are ready to leave the nest. That usually occurs sometime in April or early May.

Young owls leaving the nest to strike out on their own always coincides with a sharp increase in the number of dead small mammals being found. The young owls apparently become fascinated or maybe even enamored with their own ability to kill, and practice that survival technique even when they are not hungry. I once found eleven dead young turkeys, lying in a row under a long branch of an oak tree. From the evidence I observed, it appeared a great horned owl had landed on that limb after dark and side-stepped its way on the limb, biting and lopping off the heads of the young birds as it went along.

Young owls often become a major problem for farmers, too. They might get into a hen house or chicken coop and silently kill dozens of chickens. They may dine on one, but all the rest are simply killed and forgotten. And make no mistake about it. Even though owls are protected under the authority of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, many have died as a direct result of lead poisoning administered by a farmer’s shotgun after first being caught with their talons in the chicken pen.

The odor I detected around the cat’s body was that of a skunk. Owls, and especially great horned owls, are the principal predator on these striped or spotted critters. While predatory mammals have a highly developed sense of smell to aid them in securing game or avoiding danger, owls have virtually no sense of smell at all. Their hunting style, which relies mainly on keen eyesight and hearing, does not require them to identify any odors. Hence, the skunks primary means of defense is useless against its most aggressive predator.

However, there is another truth that needs to be mentioned. The bottom line with all owls, including the great horned species, is that they always do far more good then harm. These birds are extremely efficient predators on small mammals such as mice and rats. A single pair of adult barn owls can literally control the population of noxious rodents on several farms. While feeding their owlets a pair of adult barn owls have been observed to kill 50 or more mice and rats each during a single night!

Owls are responsible for the disappearance of thousands of house cats each year, which causes many cat lovers lots and lots of trauma and tears. But those owners are ultimately responsible for the deaths of their pets. Cats are predators, first and foremost. And, putting a cat out at night is the cause of uncountable deaths among the wildlife population.

I’ve often wondered what pet owners might expect their cats to do all night long — sit quietly and watch for shooting stars? They are predators by nature, and they operate most efficiently at night. They will kill any living small animal or bird they detect if they can get into an attack position. Mice, voles and other small mammals are their most common victim, mainly because they are the most numerous species and are easy to find. But it is estimated that pet house cats kill over 70 million birds annually. Based on my experience and observations from 27 years in federal wildlife law enforcement, that figure is probably extremely low.

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THE FASTEST OF THEM ALL

One question about wildlife has always intrigued mankind. Which animal among natures many creatures is the fastest? Actually, that question has several answers. After all, "fastest" is a relative term.

The fastest animal ever recorded is, without any doubt, the peregrine falcon. When one of these graceful birds goes into a "stoop", which means to dive on prey, it can reach speeds well in excess of 200 miles per hour.

The method of their kill is as unique as their high-speed dives from the sky. While most hawks grasp their prey in needle sharp talons while they also bite with their beaks, the peregrine does it just a little differently. It punches its prey.

This hawk hits its prey with its "knuckles", a bony part of the tightly closed foot, near the completion of its dive. This creates a tremendous shock to the victim's system, causing near-instantaneous death in the process. Then the falcon either grabs its prey in the air or follows it down to the ground.

The cheetah is the fastest land animal. These graceful spotted cats are native to the plains of Africa south of the Sahara desert. It is there they hunt their prey, usually selecting small and medium sized plains antelope and other medium-sized creatures of the savannas.

The apparent daintiness of these streamlined felines is misleading. They are not only capable of catching the swiftest gazelle, they are also capable of biting the neck ferociously, often causing a near instantaneous death. They have been clocked at better than 60 miles per hour.

Their main problem is keeping their prey after the kill has been made. Cheetahs, despite their ability to kill relatively large prey, are not very aggressive. Other animals often steal their food with little or no resistence. The hyena is especially adept at making off with a cheetahs hard-won prize, but lions and even African wild dogs will also bully in on the meal if they happen along at the right time.

The fastest land animal in North America is the pronghorn. These graceful critters are neither a true deer or true antelope. They are distant cousins of the European chamois, a mountain dwelling goat-like animal. Pronghorns make up a separate scientific subfamily in which they are the only surviving member. There were several other closely related species, but they passed into the abyss of extinction long before the first European settlers set foot on this continent.

Pronghorns are capable of short bursts of up to 55 miles per hour. They are also heavy on endurance, and can run more than five miles at speeds in excess of 40 miles per hour. They run a lot, even when they could be walking. In fact it quickly becomes apparent to anyone watching them that these animals just naturally love to run.

Ranchers have long since chopped up the great plains into much smaller pieces, with each parcel usually lined with barbed wire. But the pronghorn is especially adept at living with barbed wire. And oddly enough, these critters never jump over a fence.

When pronghorn are not in a hurry, they will crawl under a fence anywhere there is 18 inches of clearance. But when they are approaching a fence and they are also in a hurry, they hardly slow down. These graceful critters simply flatten themselves out in mid-stride and pass between two strands, hitting the ground on the other side at a dead run.

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THE AMAZING HORSESHOE CRAB

One warm May day I was walking along the shores of Delaware Bay when I observed several large flocks of shore birds. They appeared to be engaged in a feeding frenzy of some sorts, so I hurried over to where they were diving, screaming and fighting to see what was happening. And that's when I was fortunate enough to observe one of nature's most unique spectacles.

What I saw was an unbroken layer of horseshoe crabs in the gentle surf There were thousands -- no, tens of thousands -- possibly hundreds of thousands of those hard-shelled aquatic creatures as far as I could see. They weren't doing much. Just sort of lying there in the shallow water and milling around with each other. They were everywhere, a sight I'll never forget.

The horseshoe crabs that today inhabit the waters off the Atlantic coast first evolved over 400 million years ago during the Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era. There are fossil records from rock strata dating from that period that have yielded fossils almost identical to the creatures I observed on that spring day. Even older fossils, dating from 550 million years ago, show a smaller yet virtually identical version of this unusual arthropod.

The horseshoe crab is not a crab. It is a primitive arthropod, a large and diverse family that also includes scorpions, spiders, ticks, insects, centipedes, millipedes and numerous other segmented, hard-shelled critters. Of the more than one million known animal species currently living well over three quarters belong to this Class of lower animals. You might say arthropods are among the most adaptable and successful animals ever to inhabit this planet.

Horseshoe crabs actually spend most of their lives on the muddy or sandy bottom of Delaware Bay and the nearby Continental shelf. The increased daylight of longer spring days apparently triggers their urge to mate. When that happens they congregate along the sandy shores of Delaware Bay by the millions for their annual breeding rituals. And each day for more than a week they will ride the high tides onto the beach to dig a shallow hole and lay a cluster of eggs. Each female is capable of laying up to 20 egg clusters each breeding season, for a total of over 80,000 eggs.

Scientists who have been studying this mating phenomenon for several decades are quick to point out that only one egg in 50,000 is likely to survive to adulthood. Birds and other predators eat enormous quantities of freshly laid eggs. Those that survive this feeding frenzy stiff face tremendous odds, and most will eventually lose their battle for survival. Laying lots of eggs is the best protection nature can provide under the circumstances to insure this species will continue to survive.

The variety of bird species I observed on the beach or in the air overhead was equally astounding. There were semipalmated sandpipers intermixed with red knots. There were thousands of ruddy turnstones, and large numbers of short-billed dowitchers and dunlins. Sanderlings were also present in large numbers. I had little doubt that I was looking at more than half a million birds.

The tremendous numbers of shore birds I observed "mining" for eggs throughout the area were also responding to habits developed perhaps tens of thousands of years ago. They time their migration carefully to arrive when horseshoe crabs are laying eggs. It's those eggs that will supply much of their energy needs for the remainder of the migration north and their own breeding and young rearing rituals once they reach the nesting grounds.

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WILL THE BLACK RHINO SURVIVE?

Scientists in Africa are absolutely determined to save the rhinoceros from extinction, even though their’s might just be a losing situation. While the survival of the white rhino is almost assured because of the extensive numbers being on private and public game preserves, the black rhino is another story altogether. Two decades ago there was an estimated 22,000 black rhinos on the African plains. Today that number is only around 2,200, and it is still declining at an alarming rate.

The primary reason for this tragic decline is poaching. A poacher in Africa can make up to two years wages with the killing of one single animal. And, the worse part is that all they take is the horn. The meat and hide is left to rot under the hot African sun.

Rhino horn in its powdered form is worth around six times it’s weight in platinum because of its scarcity, and rich Chinese believe it has strong medical qualities. And there are now a lot of rich Chinese looking for powdered rhino horn.

Scientists and wildlife managers have tried “de-horning” these great beasts to remove the incentive for poachers, but the rhinos are still being killed. And, while de-horning has been somewhat effective, not every remaining black rhino has undergone this procedure. In national parks, for instance, the number of armed guards has been greatly increased. And scientists are now “fingerprinting” rhinos in these areas so that individual animals can be monitored more easily. They are photographing clear track prints and, using individual variations within those tracts (much like a human fingerprint), creating a database to be used for this purpose.

The Rhino family is believed to have become a distinct species in a form recognizable as they generally appear today about 60 million years ago. They rapidly adjusted to a number of widely varied environments. Some like the critically endangered Sumatra and Java Rhino took to the thickest jungles of Southeast Asia. The Indian Rhino also took to jungle life, too. The African plains south of the Sahara Desert became home to the Black and White Rhinos. The Black is primarily a browser on shrubs, using its nearly prehensile upper lip to gather leaves. The larger White Rhino has a broader, flatter mouth, and is primarily a grazer of grasses.

One species that is now extinct, the Mongolian Baluchitherium, was a gigantic herbivore. The adults of this species stood 18 or more feet tall, and they were around 28 feet long from the tip of their horns to the tip of their stubby tails. They were, in fact, the largest land animals ever known to exist after the age of the dinosaurs. They were both a grazers and browsers, eating both grasses and shrub leaves and twigs.

The average adult Black Rhinoceros stands around 5 ½ feet tall at the shoulder and can weigh around 3,000 pounds. Their horns are actually tightly packed hair fibers rather than bony horn. There are reports of Black Rhino horns of more than four feet in length being taken by trophy sport hunters during the 19th Century. Because of its enormous size this animal is virtually immune from wild natural predators such as lions or leopards. The young can be very susceptible to predation, but momma is a great protector that just naturally discourages all but the hungriest lions from venturing too close to junior.

By the way, being a rhino poacher can be a very unhealthy lifestyle. The game wardens and park guards of many African countries have been given permission to shoot suspected poachers on sight and without warning. They have even been encouraged to set up ambushes and actually try to trick the poachers into coming to them. Last year there were 18 reported poacher deaths at the hands of authorized officials. And, according to one knowledgeable source, the actual number of wan-a-be poachers shot and killed by the authorities was well over 100. Six other poachers were caught with rhino horns in their possession, and they were executed without trial. I guess you can call that bush justice.

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A MISTRESS MOST CRUEL

Nature can be a very cruel mistress. For instance, last winter several pods of beluga whales, the “white” whale, became trapped at ice holes when a late winter storm closed off open water passages that had originally allowed the whales to leave their wintering grounds in search of better fishing grounds. Those whales had no choice but to stay at the ice holes until open water would once again allow them to move.

Polar bears quickly found the semi-stranded whales, and the feast was on. The bears gorged themselves on the rich whale blubber, leaving behind badly wounded and scarred belugas. Several bears were tranquilized and studied. All were found to be “bloated” on blubber, overweight and in such good condition that they probably would not have to eat again for almost an entire year!

The bleeding wounds left by the bears on the whales also attracted many Greenland sharks, a particularly vicious species of cold water shark. These 500 to 800 pound fish began to attack the injured whales from below, doing to them there what the bears were doing on the surface. The experts believe many of the whales were actually killed by the sharks, although the bears managed to pull several whales out of the holes and onto the ice for easier dining. The final toll of dead whales was placed at around 100. Regardless, it was a slaughter sponsored by mother nature herself.

I happen to like beluga whales a lot. I once had the opportunity to watch a pod of over eighty belugas feeding and playing near where the Nome River flows into the sea just south of Nome, Alaska. Fortunately belugas are very common as whales go. They are also prolific breeders. The loss of a hundred belugas in ice traps, while a sad occurrence, is a small loss to the species as a whole. Beluga whales can be expected to be with us for a very long time to come.

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WHEN THE ANTI-HUNTERS REALLY SCREW UP

I sure get a kick any time one of the anti-hunting groups does something stupid and then ends up with egg on it’s collective face, even though it probably means that some wildlife species is probably suffering from inhumane treatment as a result of their blunder. And that is just what happened not too long ago to the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS).

For years this viciously anti-hunting organization has been spouting drivel about how deer populations can be controlled by means other than hunting or killing off does. Deer contraception was the catch phrase for the past decade or so. They said the obvious way to prevent fawns from being born was to put every doe on birth control. They even came up with a “delivery” system they said would be both cost effective and easy to perform.

Well, the state of Connecticut gave them a chance to put their money where their mouths were. The state gave them permission to use a medium sized town full of deer (and where no hunting was allowed) to experiment on. State officials also included full support from the state game agency and the University of Connecticut. All the HSUS had to do was control the deer population by any non-lethal means it saw fit.

That was around four years ago. The experiment was begun with great fanfare and lots of media coverage. And, after just one year, the HSUS people loudly touted how successful their project was. They cited that they had darted virtually every doe inside the designated area. And when questions about the apparently abundant fawn crop arose, those folks poo-pooed it and went on to different topics. Oh yes, they also asked everyone to contribute more money to their cause, too.

Year two was about the same as the first. Then came the end of year three of the experiment. And the HSUS people have finally been forced to admit the truth. Their entire experiment was a total complete and failure. There are now many more deer in the experiment area then there were three years ago when the project began. Records clearly show that at least 30 percent of the does in the area were not treated in any given year. Some does were treated with the contraceptive darts and still gave birth to fawns. Since it is impossible to tell one doe from another, some does received two, three and even four doses of the contraceptive, suffering permanent brain damage as a result.

More importantly, HSUS officials were forced to admit such a program was not only not cost effective, it was so expensive and so labor-intensive as to be impractical. There was just no viable way for humans to treat every doe in any deer population. There were too many variables working against such a program. But wildlife biologist already knew that fact.

What is the ultimate answer for controlling our deer populations in the future? With the number of deer hunters decreasing every hunting season, and with no other methods that have proven to work effectively, there is really only two viable answers.

One is to permit commercial hunting of doe deer. Professional hunters, armed with extremely accurate rifles and an allotted number of tags purchased from the wildlife agency in charge, will go forth, kill and tag does, and sell them to various customers such as high-toned restaurants. Venison is, after all, the most healthy red meat known to nutritionists. But “market” gunning is a distasteful practice in modern America. Still, this is one viable solution to a serious problem.

Either that, or states, counties, towns and villages with deer over-population problems will eventually be forced to hire professional hunters. These people will have to be expert marksmen. They will be using special ammunition designed for safe urban and suburban use. And, if there are not enough people to use all the meat from the deer that are culled from any particular herd, the unused portion will no doubt end up in the local landfill or be incinerated at some designated place. Now that would be a real tragedy.

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Did you know that coyotes are normally solitary critters, but they will often team up to hunt prey such as jackrabbits? And, they will always share whatever prey they catch with each other, too!

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Len Lisenbee