Desert Boy Meets Some Goats

Desert Boy and I visited Aunt Tana's zoo yesterday, and Desert Boy had a wonderful time getting to meet some goats. Aunt Tana keeps several goats, and during the winter she welcomes the milk they produce for her family and also for any bummer calves. (Bummer calves are calves that are abandoned by their mamas and have to be fed by bottle.)

This is one of the Nubian goats. Tana knows much more about them, but she was busy playing football so Desert Boy and I just visited for fun. In a future post I'll tell you all sorts of interesting details about these goofy goats.

The goats had lots of fun making noise. Desert Boy had lots of fun making noise too.

The goats were very interested in the little person hanging out with them.

It didn't take Desert Boy long to get up close. 

I love the eyes of this goat. If it looks a little strange, it's because it doesn't have any ears.

Desert Boy got a little braver and started petting the goat.

The goat was quite happy for the attention.

Then Desert Boy started climbing the fence to get into the goat pen. Note the goat in the background carefully observing the action.

Up and up.

Almost to the top! But Desert Boy didn't go in. He hasn't figured climbing over fences yet, just climbing up. The sounds of the goats and Desert Boy were fun, so here's a short video for your enjoyment.

Wild Turkey and Other Game Birds

Happy Thanksgiving! Traditionally we associate turkeys with Thanksgiving. Thanks for checking out this blog for a slightly different take on turkeys. 

Around here, the state introduced wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) a few years back. Although wild turkeys are native to large parts of North America, they aren't native to this area. Nevertheless,  the state thought it might be fun to put some in so people could go hunt them. (We'll just ignore any effects they might have on the native wildlife before I go off on a long diatribe.) The wild turkeys have flourished and now are in all sorts of places they weren't supposed to go. Although this time of year would seem to be ideal to have the hunt, the season is March -May.

Apparently bringing birds in just so they can be hunted is a fairly popular thing that state wildlife agencies do. Above is a chukar (Alectoris chukar), a bird native to Eurasia, but now found in many states in the western U.S. Every year from October through February there is a chukar hunting season and people go out and try to shoot this football-sized bird, with a daily limit of 6 (in Nevada). The birds travel in coveys of 5 to 40 birds. The chukar is the national bird of Pakistan. (You're ready for Jeopardy now.)

Another introduced game bird is the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus). Some people near here tried to raise these in pens so they could then be released for hunters to shoot, but foxes kept getting into the pens and killed them all. This bird, originally from Asia, is one of the most sought-after game birds throughout the U.S. In Nevada, hunting season is all the month of November, so it could be a good potential replacement for the standard turkey dinner.

I figure if a bird has to be introduced, it should be something really exotic with a silly name, like this Himalayan Snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis). The only place it lives in the U.S. is in the Ruby Mountains in northeastern Nevada. As such, it has become a mecca for birders who want to add it to their life list without traveling to the Himalaya Mountains. Bird trips like this one are organized to go see the Himalayan snowcock. Some birders will even go so far as to hire a helicopter to get them up to the high elevations where the bird prefers to live. There's a hunting season for the snowcock, from September to November. It makes me wonder who provides more to the local economy: hunters or birders in search of this elusive bird?

Desert Destination: Wild Horse Roundup

My husband told me that there was a wild horse roundup going on in a nearby mountain range,  so yesterday we took a little drive to see what was going on. What can I say, I'm a sucker for photographic opportunities.

As mentioned in a previous post, "wild horse" is a loosely used term. These horses are descendants of horses that escaped domestication, so technically they are feral horses, but the term wild horses is usually the one used. Wild horses are found throughout the western United States. While researching them, I was surprised by just how many there are. Many are found on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, and the BLM has an extensive Wild Horse and Burro Program to manage them.

 
The BLM has designated 270 Herd Management Areas (HMA) in ten western states. Click on the map above to see a larger version. Each HMA has different objectives about type of horse to be managed for and size of the herd. These HMAs support approximately 33,000 wild horses and burros (BLM Fact Sheet). According to the BLM, this is 5,700 more wild horses and burros than can coexist with the other uses on those public lands, including grazing by native species like elk and deer. 

According to the BLM specialist I talked to, the wild horse populations often increase about 25% each year--so in about four years the herd can double in size. About every two to four years, the BLM or a contractor goes out to do a roundup to decrease the herd size. Without these roundups, the wild horses would simply overpopulate an area and there wouldn't be enough feed. The roundups bring wild horses to town so that they can be adopted.

Roundups are rather complicated, expensive operations. A holding corral needs to be set up so that the horses that have been captured have a safe place to stay until trucks come to take them away. A helicopter is often used to do the roundup. It places metal gates in a semi-circle, then adds wings to the semicircle, making a wide chute so that the horses will run down the chute and then be trapped in the semicircle. As the helicopter starts moving the wild horses towards the chute, a couple domestic horses will lead the way, and wild horses will follow them in. The gates are closed, and the wild horses are loaded onto trailers and taken to the holding corral, where they are separated by sex.

These are some of the extra gates that can be used for the corral that the helicopter sets up. The cost for managing the BLM wild horse and burro project in fiscal year 2007 was more than $38 million (BLM fact sheet).

Here are some of the beautiful horses that have been captured. They are part of the Sulphur Herd Management Area, and apparently have quite a bit of Spanish blood in them. This makes them highly desired by some buyers, partly because only three wild herds have this characteristic. This Spanish blood is traced back to horses that the first Spanish explorers brought with them in the 1500s.

The horses in this herd come in a variety of colors, from dun, buckskin, grulla, bay, black, sorrel, palomino, and various roans (blue, strawberry, red).

Other characteristics include ears that curve in like a bird's beak, a dorsal stripe, bi-colored mane and tail, tiger-striped legs, and occasional chest barring (BLM info sheet).

This foal started drinking off any mare that would let her. Many of the mares and foals had paired up after an evening in the holding corral, but a couple still were wandering about.

Here's the hay truck to keep the horses well fed. By yesterday morning they had gathered more than 200 wild horses. The desired herd size is 135-180, so clearly the population is far above what it should be. The BLM specialist estimated that more than 500 might be in the HMA.

The horses will be taken to an adoption facility, where they will be checked out by a veterinarian, given vaccinations, dewormed, and have a blood sample taken. Some of the horses will be chosen to be returned to the herd to maintain the genetic characteristics that are deemed desirable. The others will be prepared for adoption, which will occur about a month after they've been captured.

According to the BLM specialist, only about 50-60% of the young horses will be adopted at the first facility. The ones that are left will be shipped further east, and eventually most of the horses from this herd are adopted. Extra horses from other herds are often not so fortunate.

Thinking about the number of horses in just this one herd management area roundup multiplied by the numerous herd management areas boggles my mind. There are a lot of horses up for adoption every year, and the number won't slow down any time soon. The number of people adopting horses has decreased for a number of reasons: higher fuel and feed costs, urban sprawl, and many horse lovers already have as many horses as they can afford. 

What happens to the left over horses? Some are offered for sale, while others are taken to BLM long-term holding facilities, where our tax dollars go to pay for these horses to graze on public lands until they die, usually 10 to 25 years after they are placed there. So many horses are being taken to these areas that the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program has the majority of its budget going to these holding facilities, which means less money going for the roundups and adoptions. If wild horses aren't rounded up, major ecological damage will result, with water holes trampled, insufficient feed for native animals, and excessive erosion. Nevertheless, the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act puts many limitations on what can be done with wild horses. This is a situation that needs some more attention and creative answers. 

Desert Destination: Hunting

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

I haven't taken many interesting trips lately, so I was searching my photos for a good place to take you on this desert destination Monday. I do have a lot of new photos of the equipment yard, my most recent destination, but I will save those for later in the month. They're providing a lot of inspiration for my novel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo, entitled "Adventures in the Junkyard." I figure that it's only appropriate that my blog provide my inspiration for my writing.

So today we're going to take a different kind of trip. It's hunting season. Elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope are the three big targets around here. The exact dates for hunting vary depending on the type of weapon used and the hunting unit. 

Now even though Desert Boy is dressed in the photo above in his camo pants and ball cap, we didn't really go hunting this year. My husband used to hunt, but works too much now to do it. These days my nephews hunt. I've never hunted, my family was just not into it. But every once in awhile we get to eat some venison steaks or venison stew or my absolute favorite, venison ribs. And then I sure appreciate hunters.

Today we're going on our virtual hunt. You try to figure out what animal we're hunting by the clues below.

Clue 1: the scat.

Clue 2: the footprint.

Clue 3: part of the leg and a hoof.

Clue 4: the animal eating yummy alfalfa.

Okay, you've probably guessed it, our virtual hunt is for a mule deer. Mule deer are considered to be abundant animals today, but interestingly enough, before European settlers came, they were relatively rare. It wasn't easy for the Native Americans to catch a deer, and thus they had to rely on much smaller game, like rabbits. Why are there so many deer today? One of the main reasons is that there is more food available for deer. Deer prefer grazing on shrubs rather than grasses, while livestock prefer grasses and forbs. When European settlers brought their livestock to the area, it they changed the vegetation dynamics. Livestock grazing stimulates shrub growth. It also reduces fine fuels and decreases the fire cycle, thus allowing shrubs an even better chance to grow and flourish. Of course, everything has a cycle, and if you'd like to read more about mule deer population cycles, here's a great pamphlet.

One final photo for our hunt. If you've ever wondered what a skinned deer looks like, now you have your answer. Bon appetit.

The Great Horned Owl

I hadn't seen the Great Horned Owls that had been hanging around our yard all summer for a few weeks, so it was a welcome sight the other day to see this one on the garden fence post. The owl just watched us play in the yard and let us come quite close.

I think we must have bored the owl a little--here it is with its eyes closed!

And then we're not even worthy of a look--the owl turns its head and checks out what's happening in another direction. 

It was great to be able to see the owl so close and watch it for so long. It definitely kept an eye on us, but wasn't too concerned with us being in the yard. Eventually Henry got a little too curious and the owl took off, with Henry loping after it across the yard. It made me remember Henry's first night with us, when an owl hooted from a pole and my mom watched Henry dive into his doghouse to take cover. Now Henry is double the size and isn't at all afraid of the owl.

More Than You Wanted to Know about Scat

I have spent a lot of time looking at scat, and if you'd like to learn the basics of how to differentiate some common types of scat, see this post. Today we'll go into a little more details about some of the scat found in the area. I've gone to the trouble of trying to draw some of the scat, although these pictures are not to scale. Mouse scat is nowhere near as large as mountain lion scat. Really.

Let's start with some of the bigger scat. Bigger animals leave bigger scat, and the biggest one in our area is the mountain lion. Much of the information that follows was obtained from the excellent book Scats and Tracks of the Desert Southwest by James C. Halfpenny along with observations I've made over several years (do I really want to admit that?). 

Carnivore Scat

Mountain lion scat

Mountain lion scat is usually about 1.25 inches in diameter, with pieces up to 4 inches long. The ends are blunt as is common for cats, although a drier diet produces more tapered ends. Like house cats, mountain lions occasionally bury their scat, with dirt scrapings around the scat. Bones and hair are usually obvious in the scat.

Bobcat scat

Bobcat scat also usually has blunt ends, but it is much smaller than lion scat, with a diameter of only 0.8 inches. Pieces can be three inches long, and dry scat falls apart. Bobcats sometimes cover their scat with dirt and other debris.

Coyote scat

Coyote scat usually has tapered ends as is common in the dog family. The scat is often dark in color but may be brown or gray with lots of hair and bones depending on the diet. Coyotes occasionally scratch near their scat piles to mark territory. Diameter is 0.6 inches and length about 3 inches.

Gray fox scat

Gray fox scat is also tapered and can look very similar to coyote scat, with a diameter of 0.6 inches. Length is generally about two inches long. Scat color varies depending on diet, and may include more plant and berry material than coyote.

Skunk scat

Skunk scat also has blunt ends, but is smaller than mountain lion or bobcat scat, with a diameter of 0.25 to 0.75 inches. Length can extend from 1.5 to 5 inches. Insects are often a large part of a skunk diet and may be present in the scat, along with bird feathers, mouse fur, and carrion.

Weasel scat

Weasel scat is not easy to find. It's only 0.1 inches in diameter, but can be 1.5 inches long. It looks like a wavy, black cord with hair-like ends.

Herbivore Scat

Deer Scat

Elk are the largest herbivores in our area, followed by deer. Their scat is nearly identical in shape, but elk scat pellets are 0.5 inches in diameter and deer scat pellets are 0.3 inches in diameter. When the scat is moist, the pellets stick together. A drier diet allows the pellets to scatter when reaching the ground. The typical shape is called nipple-dimple, with a pointed end and a concave end, but drier scat is oval-shaped.

Rabbit scat

Rabbit scat is brown, round, and about 0.3 inches in diameter. Both the black-tailed jackrabbit and the desert cottontail also produce a black, semiliquid scat that they usually reingest for the remaining nutrients.

Porcupine scat

Porcupine scat can be pellets or strings of pellets that are connected by fibers. In the winter, scat is often redder from feeding on conifers, and in the summer, brown to black from eating herbs and shrubs.

Chipmunk scat

Squirrel and chipmunk scat is very similar, with small, unconnected ovals. Squirrel scat is 0.2 inches in diameter and chipmunk scat 0.1 inches in diameter.

Mouse scat

Mouse, pocket mouse, and vole scat all looks virtually identical: dark, small, oval, and unconnected. Voles have the distinction of leaving thousands of scat pellets in tennis-ball sized latrines. 

And that's it for today! But I'll be back again with more photos and info about the wonderful array of scat found in the desert southwest. I hope you'll be back again too!

An Early Morning Walk

The other morning I wanted to go out for a walk just as the sun was rising. Henry was happy to join me as we walked across the pasture to the fenceline. 

We crunched on the frosty grass and admired the snow up high. The snow on the mountains always makes them seem so much taller.

We disrupted a raven who had been hanging out on the fencepost. We heard many Canada geese flying off in the distance, along with some sandhill cranes and ducks. 

And then, off in the distance, I saw a small form. Henry stopped and sniffed the air. A coyote watched us, and then another one off in the distance started howling. It was so cool!

The coyote we were watching didn't seem to be bothered at all by us and eventually sauntered out of view. 

Meanwhile, Henry had fun running all over the meadow, letting his puppy energy loose. I think he likes going out on early morning walks as much as me!