Here in West Michigan. Should have worked from home.

Sebastian notes that proponents of expanding the no-lead range claim the “the science is in on lead in wildlife” and “There’s no debate.”

Can’t discuss if banning lead ammo makes sense. We can only discuss how much to ban it.

As usual.

Fallow Deer

A release on the Outdooor Wire notes that fallow deer have been observed in a couple of Ohio counties. Fallow deer are European natives but some are raised in the US.

The fallow deer are reportedly escapees from a propagator in Warren County. Both fallow bucks and does have been observed according to reports. This deer is not native to Ohio and there is no restricted season or bag limit. Hunters are encouraged to harvest them while out in the field. As with any non-native species it is important to quickly limit their populations to control spread of disease and competition with native Ohio wildlife.

Looks like gun season for white-tails opens November 30th, which means that the number of guys with guns on the lookout for deer with be through the roof. Hopefully, these fallows can be taken out.

Was out running this morning on a paved trail near my house when what looked a bit like a German shepherd started to cross the trail.

Except that it was a coyote.

It must have spotted me out of the corner of its eye or maybe scented me (though the wind was strong and mostly wrong for that), because about halfway across it suddenly sped up and dashed into a cornfield across the trail from the swampy woods it had come from.

This was all about 150 yards from a neighborhood along a heavily-used trail on the edge of the city of Wyoming, Michigan. I’ve seen a lot of deer along the trail, including about a dozen last fall crossing at nearly the exact spot as I saw the coyote. And I often spot deer even further into the residential area. But no coyotes until today.

And this wasn’t one of the stumpy mangy looking coyotes I remember seeing in Colorado, either. This was about the size of sleek shepherd.

Coyotes don’t usually attack humans. But there are exceptions.

(When my wife sees this she’s going to think I’m making it up to justify a predator upper for my rifle.)

Python reports rise dramatically since Sumter girl’s death

Florida wildlife officials say all this summer’s publicity about Burmese pythons may be leading to more reports of illegally held reptiles.

And they’ve just released numbers showing a dramatic increase in snake reports just in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Northeast Region, which covers 12 Central Florida counties.

Between January and June 30, FWC’s Northeast Region handled 13 snake reports, according to spokeswoman Joy Hill.

But since July 1, when a Burmese python killed a young Sumter County girl, that office has handled 38 snake-related calls.

That’s a 192-percent increase over the first six months of the year.

Officials are encouraging people with unlicensed pythons to get them registered. Which would be better than letting them go.

Woman warned against feeding wildlife eaten by bear

In the evenings, Donna Munson liked to sit in front of her picture window and watch the bears amble toward her Ouray County log cabin for dinner.

The 74-year-old woman — who stocked her backyard with dog food, fruit and yogurt — was found dead outside her home Friday, being eaten by a bear.

State officials had tried so many times to convince her to stop feeding the wildlife that she stopped responding to them and tried to have them banned from her property in southwestern Colorado.

Wild animals are wild, by definition, even if they act friendly. I don’t have any problem with her putting herself at risk, but her behavior also threatens others:

Neighbors complained about a growing number of bears in the hills, ransacking trash cans and even trying to break into houses this summer. Still, Munson kept feeding the bears.

Two of the bruins were shot and killed by Ouray County sheriff’s deputies Friday while they investigated Munson’s death. Deputies said the animals were threatening and had no fear of people.

Two other bears were captured and euthanized in July after a caretaker at Munson’s cabin complained they were too aggressive.

Apparently, the woman was giving special attention to a bear cub who had been injured and told a friend that she was going to use a broom to “swat a large bear that was bothering the baby bear.”

Randy Cassingham covered this on his This Is True newsletter, and he lives in the area. Go read his blog for some personal comments on the situation and a few related photos.

Wolves are hammering more than elk and deer. Working dogs are victims, too.

Graphic photo gallery at Outdoor Life. Kids aren’t going to want to see it.

The wolf issue always gets pretty heated pretty quickly. It’s tough for Murdoc to comment on it because of my limited personal exposure to the problems, and as most of my information comes from pro-hunting sources it may be unfairly biased.

It certainly seems, however, that we have passed the point of over-compensation in some areas of wolf restoration. So many of the people I hear talking about protecting animals or re-introducing predators have no personal knowledge of living in rural areas, what concerns farmers and ranchers have, or what the real-world results will be of their happy plans.

Reading some of the comments on the photo gallery, the common “don’t blame the wild animal for being a wild animal and doing what wild animals do” defense of predators comes up. What those folks don’t seem to get is that no one is blaming wild animals for being wild animals. The point is “what wild animals do needs to be taken into account when making policy about wild animals.”

Iguana hunter: We might as well eat them

Iguanas, like Nile monitor lizards and Burmese pythons, aren’t supposed to live in Florida. They are here thanks to lax federal and state laws regarding the pet trade, and thanks to pet owners who lose their critters or let them go. Now all manner of alien reptiles with no natural enemies are reproducing in the state’s southern half as if on a mission to take over Florida. In a matter of decades they are changing the ecology of a place that has taken thousands of years to evolve.

This article includes a recipe for Iguana Stew.

Remember, after I posted about iguana hunting in June, some idiot commented:

As an iguana owner I would like to shoot you in the head at close range and shoot your dog and cat with guns what kind of pathetic a$$hole are you anyway. Go home to your trailer, trash.

Ha ha. Jokes on the idiot. He’s obviously clueless. Murdoc doesn’t even have a cat.

Another new .223 offering from Extreme Shock Ammunition to go with the frangible 100-grain Short Range Tactical I posted yesterday:

Extreme Shock 'Green' CT-2 .223 Ammunition

Extreme Shock Ammunition, known for producing the world’s most advanced ammunition, has added the .223 55 grain CT-2 (Copper Training/Tactical) to its innovative line of lead free, environmentally friendly, or “green,” ammo. This round was engineered for tactical and training purposes.

The 223 55 CT-2 is specifically engineered to offer all the same desirable characteristics of Extreme Shock’s compressed Tungsten core ammunition. The CT-2 is the economical solution to a Firing Range’s lead nightmare. This round will allow ranges to operate on expensive target steel without fear of steel damage or injury from ricochet. The CT-2 projectile consists of a patented compressed copper powder blend of the highest quality. Each round is encased in a copper jacket and topped with a green ballistic tip to aid in fragmentation and identification. Loaded to safe SAAMI pressure specifications, the CT-2 is safer for use in firearms than other brands of frangible or training ammunition.

The 55 grain CT-2 is available in a 20 round box with an MSRP of $20.18 as well as a 6 round blister pack with an MSRP of $6.05.

I don’t have much of an opinion on “green” ammo, but I know that some shooters do and that it’s required in some areas.

Scratch one lizard!

Invasion of the Iguana: Mankind Strikes Back by Terry Gibson on Outdoor Life.

Hunting the overpopulation of invasive iguana in Florida with air guns:

So far, these invaders are mostly sticking to urban areas, especially along canal systems. Feral iguanas crap all over seawalls and docks, destroy tens of thousands of dollars in landscaping, and eat native species. The City of Boca Grande, for example, has spent more than $100,000 per year for four years trying to eradicate the problem. They even had to create an “iguana tax” to pay the trappers…

Obviously, it is unsafe and illegal to shoot iguanas with any kind of gun in urban areas. Trapping and snaring works best. You’re not allowed to transport these reptiles or any other invasive species off your property. “Iguana huggers” want you to call animal rescue so these things can be “euthanized humanely.” While no one promotes animal cruelty, “cruelty” is not well defined in Florida statute. Hopefully, kill-and-grill does not constitute a crime, or I don’t think there’s much hope for us as a species.

Seriously, a $10 “iguana tag” good for a month of air gun hunting would not only help keep these critters in check, it would probably get more young folks into the shooting sports. I mean, who wouldn’t want to shoot a lizard?

Oh, yeah. It would also raise money rather than costing it. Though the majority of these things are apparently in urban areas where shooting is restricted, Murdoc would guess that there are a lot more in the wild than suspected.

Go check out the photo gallery on OL.