Re: FW: [adelgids] 3rd HWA Symposium    greentreedoctor
   Sep 02, 2004 08:05 PDT 

Tim:

...  My only encounter in the wild with a live fisher was while trout fishing. I walked within a few feet of a fisher in a small fir tree at eye level. I stood there for a moment, looked at him (likely a male, because of the larger size), and he looked at me without concern.   I thought to myself, "Oh, this is the ferocious fisher?" And continued on my way.    

Randy
Re: Fishers    Lee E. Frelich
   Sep 02, 2004 08:55 PDT 

Randy:

It seems likely that I am the only University of MN Faculty member ever to
have a lecture interrupted by a fisher. During a field trip to the big
blow down 3 years ago, I was in the middle of a lecture with a disturbance
ecology class, in the middle of Miles Island, in the Middle of Seagull
Lake, which is in the middle of the blow down, when a fisher approached
within 5 feet of me on a log, at which point I turned the lecture over to
the fisher, who looked at the class for about 20 seconds and then
disappeared into a pile of blown down 300 year old red pines.

Lee
RE: Fishers    Robert Leverett
   Sep 02, 2004 09:29 PDT 

Lee:
   
   That's a cool experience. I remember the remarkable black bear
experience you had in the Porkies that you've mentioned on a couple of
occasions with your mentor whose name escapes me at the moment. Do you
have a list of your top wildlife encounters that you'd care to share
with us? Where do you see the most wildlife?

    On my recent trip to the Rocky Mountain west, I saw more antelope
than I could count, a small herd of mule deer, a surprising number of
bighorn sheep, two mountain goats, two elk, four herds of bison, burros,
prairie dogs all over the place, bald eagle, golden eagle, one badger,
two coyotes, one small herd of wild horses (Pryor Range, Wyoming) and
mountain lion tracks in the Wasatach near where my daughter lives. I
don't count white tail deer. I heard a whistling marmot, but never
spotted it. Oddly, I saw very little bear sign although many places I
went had plenty of blacks. I never got into grizzly country. I got into
moose country, though, but didn't see any.

Bob
RE: Fishers and other wildlife   Lee E. Frelich
  Sep 02, 2004 10:11 PDT 

Bob:

I have had a few wildlife encounters in addition to the Fisher. Some of
the highlights include:

1. The black bear that approached from behind and looked over our shoulders
as Craig Lorimer and I sat watching the Little Carp River and eating lunch
in the Porkies. The bear had the mistaken impression that we would give
him some food.

2. Also in the Porkies, a female black bear with two cubs approached from
behind and ran past me, the cubs on the left and mother on the right, at
Lake of the Clouds. I was apparently in the middle of their path.

3. I saw three grizzly bears in separate incidents, but all in one day, in
the Interior Rain Forest near Prince George British Columbia. They were
too busy digging up some sort of plants to notice me.

4. The wolves at Split Rock Lighthouse in northern MN catch several deer
and moose on my research plots every year. You can go there any time and
see footprints of moose, deer, black bear and wolves superimposed on each
other. I have seen white, gray and black wolves there. Wolves have now
also become common in the Porkies, and their deer kills are common along
the tops of bluffs, where a wolf pack can trap them. I almost ran over a
wolf while returning from the Porkies to Minneapolis last July.

5. Last would be the porcupines on the Door Peninsula. When I was a child
there were many of them living on caves near our summer house. I used to
play with them, and they are quite friendly and careful not to stick you
with quills as long as they think you are not a threat. Once they got into
the house by eating a hole in the wall.

Lee