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Critters Encountered While Fossil Hunting


Xiphactinus

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I really envy Bowkill for the badger encounter!!

Me too!! I have some possums and raccoons I feed and now i have a fox that is getting close :D I had one previously we named him biscuit (for obvious reasons) and now we have a young one hanging around the house we hope to see him regularly.

Just so you know we do not tame these animals or even try, they just happen to eat the cat food we provide for a few strays. It is never a good idea to try to tame or hand feed a wild animal it is very dangerous for the animal. People are more dangerous than any animal on earth and getting an animal used to people is only asking for trouble.

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"Teaching a wild animal to trust a human is not the office of a friend" Edward Abbey

Once accustomed to people, they all to often are labled "nuisance animals" and are summarily dispatched.

"All they require is our absence" Auspex

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Right racoons are already considered nuisances anyway so they dont need any help.

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Guest N.AL.hunter

Anson,

I know very well the Florida critters and their food "needs". We used to camp every summer at the Homosassa River. Every night we would be visited by: raccoons, opossums, cats, armadillos, and even the occasional skunk. We always had to keep extra food on hand for them. Of course this was way back in the 60s/early 70s, and we did not know better of it. Now we know better and I am afraid that we still feed the critters that come up to our campground.

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Right racoons are already considered nuisances anyway so they dont need any help.

Where I live (N. VA), animal controll officers are required by law to euthanize any raccoon that is reported as a nuisance. There is no such thing as trap-and-relocate (which would usually result in the death of the animal anyway).

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Please to all fossil collectors out there.. don't kill anything unless it is absolutely necessary for your safety or the safety of others. And I can hardly find a time when that would be necessary (However, a poisonous snake at a favorite swimming hole for the local children would be necessary, if you could not catch and release the critter somewhere else). All snakes, even the poisonous ones do a lot of good for the environment my helping to keep rodent populations down.

I really envy Bowkill for the badger encounter!!

N.AL.hunter, I hope you are not referring to me about the "don't kill anything" in your thread! The snake pictured was hit probably the night before I was there. Remember I raise reptiles, I don't kill them or run them over! Just wanted to make that clear! And if I did see one of the Canebrake Rattlers they are protected in Texas, so removal to a new location would violate state laws.

take care

B

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The following are some pics of critters I've photo'd while hunting (or en route to hunting):

1. Centipede

centipede.jpg

Found this little bugger underneath a chunk of marl off highway 64 in Tennessee. There were many of his type there, for some reason.

2. Damselfly

damselfly.jpg

This guy was flitting about all around us while we hunted at Point-A dam in Alabama. I also have a pic of him resting on N.AL.Hunter's wife's leg. :P But that one's not as detailed as this one.

3. Dragonfly Nymph

dragonflynymph.jpg

Accidentally pulled this guy up out of a creek in Hale County, AL. I was sifting for teeth, not bugs!

4. Rescued Turtle

rescuee.jpg

Delos, hero to all turtles stranded on the highway, rescued no less than three turtles as my friend and I rode along behind him on our hunting trip this last weekend. This guy was even given an escort to the creek in Hale county. He left Del and his wife a few "presents" on their fresh socks under the seat. :)

5. Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

swallowtail.jpg

Del's wife got better photos of this guy. He came and posed for us on a gravel bar in the creek last weekend. It was too good an opportunity to miss to get a photo of him. He was perfectly still while we shot lots of close up photos of him. I hope he wasn't dying already. :(

6. Random Toad

toad.jpg

A toad we found in the creek in Hale County. He shied away from the digital SLR Del's wife used, but for some reason he posed for my less sophisticated digital cam. He hopped away shortly after this shot.

7. Turtles Sunning Themselves

turtles.jpg

Not sure what species these guys are. I can see three of them here (the third is poking its head out of the water next to the other two). They watched us dig up shark teeth at Point-A.

8. Wasp Nest

waspnest.jpg

I spied this at a rest area on the way down to Andalusia last weekend. I also saw a wasp, but wasn't brave enough to get close enough for a picture. I'm an entomophobe through and through.

9. Water Snake

watersnake1.jpg

I think Del spotted him first. This is some kind of water snake, according to him. I've been trying to figure out exactly what species he is, but I can't find any definitive pictures online. All I can say is that he appeared to be hunting in the water, and we found him in Hale Co. AL. My brother thought it looked like a Copperhead, but I disagree.

10. Better shot of the Water Snake

watersnake2.jpg

You can see his scale pattern here. Anyone able to offer a guess as to this guy's classification?

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9. Water Snake

I think Del spotted him first. This is some kind of water snake, according to him. I've been trying to figure out exactly what species he is, but I can't find any definitive pictures online. All I can say is that he appeared to be hunting in the water, and we found him in Hale Co. AL. My brother thought it looked like a Copperhead, but I disagree.

10. Better shot of the Water Snake

You can see his scale pattern here. Anyone able to offer a guess as to this guy's classification?

Shuko,

It is a very common Diamondback Water Snake. They are non-poisonous, but regularly mistaken for all kinds of poisonous species. Snakekeeper can fill us in on the rest of the details....

#6 looks like a cricket frog...nice pics!

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Not an animal, but in one of my last hunting trip,I found this rare orchid.I`ve look in some books , I look on internet, but I can`t ID it.Very nice, though!

post-62-1212042563_thumb.jpg

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Thats a very light colored diamondback water snake.He is amazing looking.Many times people mistake him for a Diamondback Rattlesnake,Water mocassion,copperhead,and i've even heard someone say,"I didnt know there was cobras in texas."HAHA.

Hope that is good for ya.I cant give you those fancy names,I can just tell you what i know.

Lowes Farm Krew For Life!

~C*J*J*D*D*G*P~

My Shark Teeth Website.MANSFIELD EXCLUSIVES!!

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Guest N.AL.hunter
N.AL.hunter, I hope you are not referring to me about the "don't kill anything" in your thread! The snake pictured was hit probably the night before I was there. Remember I raise reptiles, I don't kill them or run them over! Just wanted to make that clear! And if I did see one of the Canebrake Rattlers they are protected in Texas, so removal to a new location would violate state laws.

take care

B

Sorry Snakekeeper, but I was referring to your post. If you read it, it does sound like you found the snake "sunning" itself, and then we see the picture of it smashed. What am I to think? Anyways, glad to hear that you did not kill it. On our road trip this last weekend, we unfortunately saw way too many snakes smashed on the road. In my mind, I am sure that many of them were killed by drivers intentionally aiming for them instead of swerving a little bit. Same thing happens to box turtles around here in Bama. Too many dumba-- rednecks that can't let things live.

And for you hunters out there, I don't mean you. I have nothing against killing for food.

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No prob on the misunderstanding of the post. I meant the"sunning itself" as a joke because it was baking in the sun! Although it's no joke to see a beautiful animal flattened. Someone driving in to work in the wee hours of the morning probably was the culprit here. And yes there are plenty of people in this world that intentionally swerve to run over animals on our roads.Funny thing, in west Texas TP&W went as far as to put dead snakes across the road in certain areas to find out who was out there snake hunting. I wish they would do that for the rednecks trying to run them over.Hmmmm...... vehicular snakeslaughter! :)

B

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Last weekend, I made my annual pilgrimage to the family cabin in N. PA for a little native brook trout fishing, and to nose around some of my childhood fossil haunts. The best fossiling site from my youth was the eroded trailings from a small strip mine, where I used to haul out tons of Lepidodendron, Sigilaria, Stigmaria, & etc. It even yielded Mazon-like nodules. Well, it's pretty grown up in Jack Pines now, so the stuff isn't just laying around on the surface any more, but it was a nice walk down memory lane (this was where I caught the fossil bug).

To make a short story long, my critter encounter involved the outhouse, specifically over the center hole. I thought it was a cocoon at first; turned out to be the "Bat of Damoclese". We left him alone, and he was gone the next day.

post-423-1212165841_thumb.jpg

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Hehe I love bats I saved one once when i was a teen. he loooved crickets.

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Guest solius symbiosus

Saw this little moth today. It's wings looked small, and underdeveloped. Hard to tell in the pic, but I was afraid if I goaded the critter, it would take off, and I wouldn't get a pic.

I think it is some kind of Tiger moth.

post-179-1212368349_thumb.jpg

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Furry little fellow. I've read that in most sp. of Tiger Moths, the adults do not have functioning mouthparts and thus do not eat.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Not as dangerous or cool as most I have seen here but I hate spiders and did not realize this one was here when I snaped a pic of this tooth before I extracted it just in case I screwed it up.

spidertooth.jpg

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Last week I saw 2 large juvenile owls in the trees above the stream I was sifting.

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Cody , here is a cool snake that I caught back in the glades when I was a lot younger HaHa!! It was a little over 8'7" I took it home for a few days then took him back and let him go where I caught him. .B)B)B):D

post-23-1212850942_thumb.jpg

It's my bone!!!

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