Raccoons feasting on baby Herons in Stanley Park

[#juan]

Raccoons gorging on heron chicks in Stanley Park

I no longer think raccoons are cute little animals. I don't know why these too plentiful rodents are not trapped to save the Herons. After a raccoon chewed our cat a while ago, I have no sympathy for the little beasts.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Raccoons gorging on heron chicks in Stanley Park

I no longer think raccoons are cute little animals. I don't know why these too plentiful rodents are not trapped to save the Herons. After a raccoon chewed our cat a while ago, I have no sympathy for the little beasts.

Juan, you have a somewhat absurd notion about wild animals. None of them are cute; all of them are about survival. Raccoon is no exception. A raccoon, like any other animal, will get food where it finds it. Whether it is your cat or a baby bird, it doesn’t matter.

In fact, baby animals are fair game in animal kingdom. Babies are easier to catch; they cannot fight back and hurt the predator. Whenever a predator hunts, he always has to worry about getting hurt himself. With a baby, that danger is not there. So babies are the preferred dinner of most animals.

Thus a lion will attack a baby elephant, a baby deer etc, when he gets a chance. A polar bear will go after a walrus pup or a seal pup, in preference to an adult. When baby turtles emerge form their eggs and travel to water, many of them perish to the birds of prey. Birds of prey, seagulls etc. routinely feast on baby ducks.

So it is perfectly natural for a raccoon feast on baby birds. Indeed, if raccoons did not do so there would be cause to worry. That would mean that raccoons are not behaving normally and that may have to be investigated (are they exposed to humans too much? Etc.).

We must be careful not to attribute human qualities to animals. So again, no animal in the wild is cute (or ugly); he is simply trying to survive in a harsh environment.

While I think that all the nature is beautiful, I don’t think of one animal as cute and another as ugly. They are all part of the same ecosystem, they are all equally cute (or equally ugly).

 

[darkbeaver]

:lol:SJP you must be stoned today you're thinking like me. Small animals are cute so you'll get closer to them for the bite. There's lots of ducklings where I am everybody in the niegbourhood likes eating them. The ducks have had thier ducklings out for a month, this is the second hatching I think, the duck takes them on shore sweeps that's where those that aren't plucked from the nest are eaten mostly by other birds I think. They're cute and they taste good but don't get fooled those little ducks are first class predators in thier own right and they consume babies like the rest of us.

 

[#juan]

If Stanley Park was a natural, wild, setting I might agree with you. I'm sure the park was once a wild habitat but now it is an island in a busy city. Raccoons are fed daily by tourists and their numbers are vastly out of proportion with the area they live in. The victims here are the herons who've been coming to the area for aons. Herons are an endangered species. In about two weeks the raccoons have killed over fifty of the five hundred herons.

 

[Ron in Regina]

If Stanley Park was a natural, wild, setting I might agree with you. I'm sure the park was once a wild habitat but now it is an island in a busy city. Raccoons are fed daily by tourists and their numbers are vastly out of proportion with the area they live in. The victims here are the herons who've been coming to the area for aons. Herons are an endangered species. In about two weeks the raccoons have killed over fifty of the five hundred herons.

I think I've heard this story before...but the players where
depleted Shark and Cod stocks, and expanding Seal
populations.

Juan, I hear you and totally understand where you're
coming from, but don't let PETA, or the European
Union (or Paul McCartney) hear you.

Raccoons and Seals are cuter than Sharks or Herons
or Cod.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

If Stanley Park was a natural, wild, setting I might agree with you. I'm sure the park was once a wild habitat but now it is an island in a busy city.

I know that Juan, we have been to Stanley Park. We stayed in Vancouver for three days on the way to Alaska cruise (which started from Vancouver).

If there are too many raccoons, it is for the park to control their numbers. And people feeding the raccoons is really bad. That makes raccoons not afraid of people; they can get aggressive and bite somebody (the normal reaction of a raccoon would be to run away). Raccoons can carry rabies.

So if there are too many raccoons, I would hope that the park management would do something about it. But if a raccoon can get to a baby heron (or baby anything for that mater), he is going to eat the baby, that is how nature works.

 

[#juan]

If there are too many raccoons, it is for the park to control their numbers. And people feeding the raccoons is really bad. That makes raccoons not afraid of people; they can get aggressive and bite somebody (the normal reaction of a raccoon would be to run away). Raccoons can carry rabies.

That was my point....;-)

 

[darkbeaver]

Ah too many racoons. I don't see another solution something will have to eat the racoons. A recipe may help establish a new food group. Could the local food banks do something?

 

[Nuggler]

Ferst o all ya shoot yer coon, eh.
Then skin'em out
Gut'em
Cut offn the feets and all other dangly bits
Wersh'em good in clean cold water
Stuff em with onions er whatever, make a dressin if ya wan.
Preheat the oven to 350
Chuck'im in a pot with some water n taters n carrots n the like, and cook in moist heat till ya gets brave enough t'eat it.
Be sur to remov the tale, eh.

Pray it don't have rabies, cause if you got a cut on yer hand, so do you.

Enjoy.

(makes bout 6 goodly servins)

:cheers: have a beer with yer meel.

 

[darkbeaver]

The new baby coons are about a pound now I rekon, might we not consider barbacueing.

 

[YukonJack]

Nuggler, I am sure #juan will be happy to your recipe to his collection.

 

[darkbeaver]

I"m a bird lover.

 

[petros]

In time the great urban equalizer, the automobile will equal out the numbers or diabetes from all the crap food they aquire.

 

[taxslave]

Ah too many raccoons. I don't see another solution something will have to eat the raccoons. A recipe may help establish a new food group. Could the local food banks do something?

Nothing wrong with raccoon meat. Cute little pests. tast good after they raided the chicken coop. Usually the resident coyotes will keep raccoon population under control. Which is another animal Hongcouver has a problem with. Juan has a typical city perspective on wildlife although I understand what he is getting at. If we control one part of the natural food chain we must control all of it. This is why bear and wolf hunts are important. We hunt deer so we must also hunt their predators or the populations get out of balance.

 

[darkbeaver]

Coyotes are the solution then, they should be introduced to Stanley Park. I understand Juans pain as well but on every scale we are surrounded by life giving death and we have to pause to realize that without death there is nothing but a broken circle.

 

[#juan]

Nothing wrong with raccoon meat. Cute little pests. tast good after they raided the chicken coop. Usually the resident coyotes will keep raccoon population under control. Which is another animal Hongcouver has a problem with. Juan has a typical city perspective on wildlife although I understand what he is getting at. If we control one part of the natural food chain we must control all of it. This is why bear and wolf hunts are important. We hunt deer so we must also hunt their predators or the populations get out of balance.

If you want to eat raccoons, go right ahead. I doubt there are many coyotes in Stanley Park. My point, if I had one, is that the raccoons are killing herons which are an endangered species. Raccoons are a plentiful pest. The answer should be simple, like your post.

 

[petros]

So why are herons endangered? Should we turn the marmosets loose on the humans?

 

[bluedog]

Plea for the Pleasure.

We get your beautiful Blue Heron, babies or naught, when they come through here to Alma Nebraska and lounge on the lake for

a month or three, on their way south to Texas and Louisiana.
Could you get them raccoons to feasting on some other small rodents- just to guarantee us OUR springtime delight?

We'd 'preciate it.

 

[#juan]

The tall, long-legged great blue heron is the most common and largest of North American herons.

Great blue herons are waders, typically seen along coastlines, in marshes, or near the shores of ponds or streams. They are expert fishers. Herons snare their aquatic prey by walking slowly, or standing still for long periods of time and waiting for fish to come within range of their long necks and blade-like bills. The deathblow is delivered with a quick thrust of the sharp bill, and the prey is swallowed whole. Great blue herons have been known to choke to death by attempting to swallow fish too large for their long, S-shaped necks. Though they are best known as fishers, mice constitute a large part of their diet, and they also eat insects and other small creatures.

Great blue herons' size (3.2 to 4.5 feet/1 to 1.4 meters) and wide wingspan (5.5 to 6.6 feet/1.7 to 2 meters) make them a joy to see in flight. They can cruise at some 20 to 30 miles

 

[Cliffy]

In time the great urban equalizer, the automobile will equal out the numbers or diabetes from all the crap food they acquire.

Yes, I doubt that they are good to eat because of all the garbage they eat. It would be like eating an urban human - toxic waste.