Nature is interesting

[Guns4Fun]

First some background. I live in a home that has an acre of land--every home near me has at least an acre too. I live right next to a 15 acre farm. So, it is not uncommon for me to have all kinds of game / wild life in my back yard.

Warning----this might be a little graphic for the week at heart. Read at your own risk.

Well, last night around midnight, I hear a commotion going on in the back yard. I go out to my screen porch and see a fox killing / eating a possum. He drags it a little farther into the back yard because the flood lights I just turned on worry him. I check again later (about half hour) and the foxes buddy was now there. They are both enjoying their meal. This morning, I look out back and a turkey buzzard is picking over what was left. Now, there is nothing left of the possum--except bones and a little fur.

It is pretty amazing how the food chain works. I’m sure if I leave the bones out there again tonight, nothing will be left because the smaller critters will haul of the bones to pick over.

I know this type of thing is common and happens every day but seeing it up close and personal kinda made me think about how the food chain works in the wild. I was just a little shocked at how quickly it all happened.

[Eugene V. Debs]

That is pretty cool. You have foxes where you live? Foxes are awesome, I mean, if you're not a poultry farmer.

Ever see the Simpsons episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, and the Beef Council sends an educational video to the school explaining how vegetarianism is silly because of the food chain?

[Guns4Fun]

Nah, i didn't catch that episode. But I’m sure it was funny in the typical Simpson’s way.


What i did find interesting is that when i went and looked again, there was a second buzzard "standing guard". When he saw me in the screen porch, he spread his wings---i assume to try and look bigger than me and scare me off. His wing span must have been 4-5 feet wide.

EDIT---yeah, we have foxes--- i usually see 2-3 of them running around every night. This was the first time they caught their meal so close to my house. It couldn't have been more than 20 feet from my back door. The farm next door is used as a tree farm now. Local landscapers pay the farm owner to allow them to plant trees, shrubs etc. It has been a while since it was a real farm---the farm owners are pretty old now.

[imperialism2024]

What's also interesting is that humans are perhaps the most humane meat-eaters in the world, yet PETA-types try to criminalize our actions instead of trying to get rid of the meat-eating animals who tear apart other live animals while eating them. Very interesting, in fact.

[Virtus985]

It's because we apparently need someone to tell us to feel bad about something.

While I do believe that abusing or mistreating any animal is horrible, I love burgers. Humanely killing a cow is probably 100000x less painful for it than having its belly ripped open and guts spilled out by predators, while it lays there dying.

[stephpd]

I don't have foxes in my suburban community, but do see them at work. But I do get to watch my dogs and cats kill other animals. The cats and dogs kill strictly for pleasure, since they can always ask me for food and have never gone hungry.

The cats take the most pleasure in killing, making the rodents and birds bleed out before they die. Sometimes they eat them, other times they leave them for me. My wife hates when they bring them into the house while still alive. Most of the time I don't have much of a problem with it. But live bats in the house are the worst.

I like when all the animals get involved with the kill. Cats and dogs working together to get the outsider. Often the cats will get the birds first and bring them down to the floor. The husky will take it from them without hurting the cats. If the Husky gets hold of them he'll take them outside and release them. But if he finds dead animals inthe house he just leaves them and I have to clean up.

My Siberian Husky like to hunt too. I only live on 1/4 acre but he's managed to kill 2 raccoons,3 possums, 1 squirrel and 1 cat that doesn't live with us. Possums confuse him because he knows he hasn't killed them but they refuse to run, and he loves the chase the most. Watching the two dogs tear apart a raccoon or possum isn't for the squeamish. Jumping into the fray isn't something I've yet to try. Not that I don't trust my dogs but it's the wild animal I have doubts about. When both the dogs get hold of something it doesn't take long to tear it apart.

[LowFlyer]

Similar situation:

I was in the living room, heard a loud noise and went to investigate what it might have been. The noise sounded like something hit the window, but this was a LOT louder then what I have previously heard when a robin or blue jay would hit. Wife was on the deck out back w/the door closed and she heard it too!

I opened the front door and a 'poof' of feathers was sucked into the house, and I just caught the flurry of feathers from a large bird that was sitting on the front porch after hitting the dining room window as it flew away and landed on the corner of the neighbor's roof across the street. It just so happened that the neighbors were standing in their driveway when they heard the sound also. His wife was pointing out to him that she saw two hawks sitting on our porch as I was opening the door, when in reality what she and I saw was a bird of prey with its next dinner in its talons. What the three of us surmised was a pigeon or a dove was sitting on our porch or flying by our house when the hungry bird caught it and its flight path lead it to hit the dining room window with a LOUD 'THUNK'. The bird stunned, sat there to recover but flew away when I opened the door. We soon discovered that the now stunned and hungry bird dropped its dinner in the neighbor's yard as it flew to its resting place on the roof. The reason we knew it dropped its meal was by the time I got my wife from the deck, got her to the front door, saw the bird on the roof and started talking to the neighbors, looked back at the roof the bird was gone! I saw it in the yard and a few seconds later my wife saw it starting to strip its meal of its feathers!

I took a picture at a distance because I didn't want to scare it away and of what I could find on the web, we think the hungry bird of prey was a Peregrine Falcon!!! There have been sightings in the area of the species.

Let's see, rabbits, fox, deer, turkey vultures, red tail hawks.............and now Peregrine Falcons!!! (BTW, there was another bird flying around and after a look on the net, its flying shape indicated there was another and they travel in pairs!) Like the neighbor said, "Who needs the Discovery Channel when all we have to do is look out the window!"

[Grizz2720]

January 08 I was watching a squirrel come down the power pole in front of the house, when it was about 4 ft above the ground a Red Fox came out of no where and grabbed it around the middle and took off. It was Great. Two hours latter the Wife comes in looking a little green arund the gills. She found where the fox ate the squirrel. It was an area of about 5 ft around nothing but fur blood and bones on the stark white snow. I should have taken a pic. Darn it

[Mohaa Player]

What's also interesting is that humans are perhaps the most humane meat-eaters in the world, yet PETA-types try to criminalize our actions instead of trying to get rid of the meat-eating animals who tear apart other live animals while eating them. Very interesting, in fact.

PETA stands for..........

People
Eating
Tasty
Animals

[schr8er2000]

If GOD didnt want us to eat animals , then why did he make them out of meat ??