Ferocious predator in our lakes and streams

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There's a predator in our northeastern lakes most people don't know about. It eats its weight in flesh every day.  It has enormous claws, and 22 tentacles at the end of its snout. It's just as happy hunting by night or by day....

"Animal Hoarding" may explain Ohio animal massacre

A recent article from the New York Times, written before the killing of scores of animals released from an animal farm near Zanesville, Ohio, may explain in part what motivated Terry Thompson to keep so many animals under marginal conditions.

Animal hoarding is a disorder "in which people keep far more pets than they can care for...."

56 dangerous animals on the loose--what would you do?

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"Ohio police kill 48 exotic animals," including 18 tigers and 17 lions.  Just before the animal farm owner killed himself, he released his 56 dangerous pets.  Responding to a 911 call, the sheriff and deputies of Muskingum County, Ohio shot most of the animals.   A few were rescued alive, felled by tranquilizer darts.  Photos of massacre.

"Stranded" Emperor Penguin comes ashore in New Zealand

An Emperor Penguin was first spotted June 19 on the beach in New Zealand, 2,000 miles from it's usual Antarctic habitat.

It was the first Emperor in 44 years to be found ashore in New Zealand, so it caused quite a stir.  But in a situation like this, people jump to faulty conclusions.

I visited an Emperor Penguin colony in Antarctica, and studied Adelie Penguins in Antarctica for three breeding seasons--so I'll provide "between the lines" commentary on the Emperor story.

Attacks by killer whales on humans

Captive killer whale, or orca.  Photo by Milan Boers

Killer whales are predators of large mammals--unlike other whales, which feed on tiny krill or small fish. So... do they ever eat humans?

A popular video shows a killer whale jumping spectacularly into a group of kayakers. But the event shown is a fake, created as an advertisement for a sports drink.

So far, I haven't seen any information that kayaking where killer whales occur isn't safe.  But keep your distance--it's illegal to approach or harrass marine mammals.

Attacks on humans--very rare in the wild

There have been very few confirmed attacks on humans by wild killer whales, none of which has been fatal.

In one instance, killer whales tried to tip ice floes on which a dog team and photographer of the Terra Nova Expedition was standing. There was speculation that the barking of the sled dogs may have sounded enough like seal calls to trigger the killer whale's hunting curiosity.

Recently, a tourist in Antarctica made a remarkable video of a group of killer whales cooperating to capture a seal resting on a small ice floe.  The whales carefully eyed the seal, by bobbing their heads out of the water.  Then they cooperated to push the floe away from larger floes the seal could escape to.  Finally, in a carefully coordinated movement, all the whales rushed at the floe, creating a big wave that--after several tries--washed the seal off the floe.

This incident clearly demonstrated planning, cooperation, and close coordination.  In light of this event, the attacks on the Terra Nova photographer above can be seen as normal hunting behavior.  So, if you are kayaking in the Antarctic, don't haul out onto an ice floe to eat your lunch--unless you want to BE lunch.

In the 1970s, a surfer in California was bitten, and in 2005 a boy in Alaska who was splashing in a region frequented by harbour seals was bumped by a killer whale that apparently misidentified him as prey."

In 1820, sailors from the wrecked ship Essex were sailing across the Pacific in 25-foot lifeboats.  One night, they were attacked by a killer whale, which took a chunk out of one of the boats, then splashed about them for a while.  Finally, they drove it off by striking it with oars.  Since the attack occurred in the dark, we can't be certain it was a killer whale.

Sometimes, the slaves rebel

"Unlike wild killer whales, captive killer whales are reported to have made nearly two dozen attacks on humans since the 1970s, some of which have been fatal." From Wikipedia. These attacks are probably the result of the stressful, unnatural living conditions for captive whales.

Killer whales are highly intelligent, wild animals--so it's understandable they would object to the slavery of working to entertain humans.

Killer whale kills trainer in "premeditated" attack: Expert commentary.

Whale attacks on ships--the historical record

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Moby Dick attacks pursuing whaleboats.  Source

Melville based the ending of Moby Dick on the story of the Essex.

Recently, there have been stories in the news about whales causing damage to yachts, even sinking them.  But it's difficult to determine whether these are accidental collisions, or attacks by the whales. 

Even if real attacks, the whales may have felt menaced by ships bearing down on them, or they mistook the ships for rivals.

But during the heyday of the whaling industry in the 1800s, there were two accounts of full-sized sailing ships attacked and sunk by whales.

Attack on the Essex

In 1830, the whaleship Essex was hunting in new whaling grounds along the equator, two thousand miles west of the coast of South America.  They lowered their three small whaleboats to pursue some sperm whales, but when one of the boats was damaged by the tail of a whale they had harpooned, the First Mate named Chase returned to the whaleship for repairs. 

Next, the whaleship was attacked twice by a bull sperm whale, about 85 feet long.  Here's a description of the the second ramming, from a wonderful book* by Nathaniel Philbrick:

Chase turned and saw a vision of "fury and vengeance" that would haunt him in the long days ahead.

     With its huge scarred head halfway out of the water and its tail beating the ocean into a white-water wake more than forty feet across, the whale approached the ship at twice its original speed--at least six knots.  Chase, hoping "to cross the line of his approach before he could get up to us, and thus avoid what I knew, if he should strike us again, would prove our inevitable destruction," cried out to Nickerson, "Hard up!"  But it was too late for a change of course.  With a tremendous cracking and splintering of oak, the whale struck the ship just beneath the anchor....  This time the men were prepared for the hit.  Still, the force of the collision caused the whalemen's heads to jounce on their muscled necks as the ship lurched to a halt on the slablike forehead of the whale.  The creature's tail continued to work up and down, pushing the 238-ton ship backward until... water surged up over the transom.

     One of the men who had been belowdecks ran up onto the deck shouting, "The ship is filling with water." (p.83)

 Within ten minutes of the crash, the ship was awash and capsized.  Over the next day, the men salvaged what they could from the wreck, made sails for their three 25-foot whaleboats, and then prepared to sail 4,500 miles back to the coast of South America.  During that three-month ordeal, they ran out of food, and began to eat one another.  Only eight of the 20 crew members survived.

This wasn't the only sinking due to a whale.  In 1807, the whaleship Union accidentally collided with a sperm whale at night and sank.  Thirty years later, the whaleship Ann Alexander, also cruising in the Pacific, became the second vessel to be "stove by a whale."  Source

Etching by William Bradford

While scores of smaller whaleboats pursuing whales had been smashed to bits over the years, in 1820 Nantucketers had never heard of a deliberate ramming of the mothership.

Why did the whale attack?

The attack on the Essex was so well-observed, and so apparently deliberate that--ever since--people have wondered about it.  Chase said: "He came directly from the shoal [group of whales] which we had just before entered, and in which we had struck three of his companions, as if fired with revenge for their sufferings."

In his modern retelling, Philbrick suggests that the whale may have mistaken the Essex for a rival bull.  A whale's vision in the water is limited, so they depend on "echolocation," a kind of sonar.  The Essex was only slightly longer than the attacking bull, though it was three times the whale's weight.  Before the attack, the First Mate was using a hammer to repair the damaged whaleboat.  The hammer may have made sounds, conducted through the hull and into the water, which resemble the clicking sounds that bulls make when they challenge one another.

Today, much has changed, making a deliberate attack much less probable.

• Most commercial whaling has ended.
• Whales are less numerous, and the remaining bulls are smaller.
• Whales are more familiar with humans and their ships.
• Ships are larger--and many make a lot of  noise.

French harpooners

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*  I heartily recommend In the Heart of the Sea by N. Philbrick.  It's exciting, well-written, and puts everything in historical context.  But it's only the latest of several accounts on the sinking of the Essex.

Coyote attacks

Coyotes used to be a symbol of the American West--the stuff of folklore and cowboy song. Throughout the 1900s, they were spreading to the East. Now they are common throughout the country, often living right under the nose of urban residents. For example, wildlife experts estimate there are over 2,000 living in Chicago, even downtown, where one walked into a Quiznos store.

I live in Madison, Wisconsin. If you walk on our lakes in winter, after fresh snow has fallen, you will see a myriad of coyote tracks, along with those of other mammals like fox, beaver, mink, deer, raccoon, rabbit, and squirrel.

Coyote tracks look like those of a medium-sized dog, except that they typically trend straight as an arrow. In contrast, dog tracks are nearly always found looping out and back to human tracks, or zig-zagging.

Fox tracks also head in a beeline, but are a good deal smaller than coyote tracks.

Although there are doubtless many coyotes living in your area, it's rare to hear them howl. That's because they are extremely wary of humans.

Coyote attacks

In March of this year, coyotes attacked dogs several times in Cape Cod. These attacks may have involved rabid coyotes, since coyotes usually avoid dogs as large as the ones attacked.

But there are other reasons why coyotes attack dogs: It may be for food (in the case of small dogs), or because coyotes see dogs as a threat to their territory or to their young.

Healthy coyotes are extremely wary of humans--but attacks on humans have occurred in Cape Cod, and recently in a suburb of New York. There was a fatal attack last year on a woman in Canada.

Don't worry--attacks on humans are extremely rare. The few that do occur are the inevitable result of large numbers of people and coyotes living close to one another. Your chances of you or your pet being injured by a dog are far greater.

The Coywolf

Now that I've put your mind at rest--here's some unexpected news. The coyotes in Massachusetts are actually wolf-coyote hybrids. That explains why coyotes there are larger than the coyotes out West, where they originated. The adults on Cape Cod weigh 30-40 pounds.

Jonathan Way and three other wildlife biologists studied coyotes caught in traps on Cape Cod and near Boston. Their conclusions about wolf-coyote hybrids are based on studies of DNA from the animals. They think that as the coyotes spread eastward through Canada, they interbred with the Eastern Wolves found there.

Other conclusions from the study

• Although coyotes do interbreed with dogs in the western US, they don't in the Northeastern states.
• "Coyote social groups...are made up of family groups.... Offspring typically remain with their parents anywhere from 6 months to about 2 years of age before dispersing to new areas.... "
• "Typically 3–5 adults live together in a territorial pack...." The advantages of living in packs are better success in hunting large prey (like deer), better defense of the territory, improved survivability of pups, and preventing theft of prey already killed. The packs typically consist of a breeding pair, plus a few related animals.
• These "coywolves" seem to prefer prey more typical of coyotes than wolves. Wolves prey almost entirely on deer, whereas the hybrids eat anything from deer to rabbits to small rodents, not to mention pets, pet food left outside, and garbage.
• They travel long distances (10-15 miles a day).

Precautions

• If you live near woods, don't leave small children or small pets outdoors alone.
• Don't leave pet food outdoors; keep garbage cans covered.
• Cats are especially vulnerable--some coyotes appear to specialize in eating cats. 

More links

New York Times review article on coyotes
More advice about living with coyotes

Coyotes--Never out of sight, or mind (excellent essay)
Eastern coyote/coywolf web page by Jonathan Way
The coyote wars on Cape Cod
Animal attack files
Purchase Suburban Howls--a book by Jonathan Way
New book on Coyotes with good reviews
Coyote Attack.  Book for children