Living with Wildlife

                      Living with Wildlife

No, this column is not about the time I spent living in the Playboy Mansion---in my dreams. It’s about living with the various critters that make Arkansas their home along with us. I know we don’t pay much attention to the wildlife, but you might be surprised at how much wildlife lives around us.

Vertis and I live on a wooded 37 acre tract of land with two ponds just inside the city limits of El Dorado. This past week we had several encounters with something other than the herd of deer that nibble on our backyard plants.  The first was young hawk that had just left its nest, and was still trying to master the art of flying. With a little struggle it managed to get airborne long enough for the hawk family to hand off a small bird.

After that sighting our property manager sent me a picture of our banded water snake that hangs out between our swimming pool and the pond. Miss Snake had just given birth to a bunch of little banded water snakes. Banded water snakes look a lot like copperheads, but they are harmless and in Georgia it is a protected snake.

We have a house, just a block from the center of town that we rent for weddings and last year, the day before a wedding reception, a mother skunk and seven little one marched out from under the side steps. “Just ignore them.” I said. “Maybe they won’t come to the reception.” Thank goodness they didn’t.

Just this past week, a neighbor, just a 100 yards down the road, recorded a black bear in his game camera, and another neighbor across the street from me has noted numerous red foxes.

A few years back I started being concerned about the growing turtle population in our backyard pond, but I didn’t know how to take care of the problem. During the spring when the sun brings out the turtles to warm up, as many as 10 turtles would be lying out in the warm sun. A couple of logs in the pond would have a half dozen lined up, and when we eat crawfish near the edge of the pond throwing the heads in the pond, after about 20 minutes turtles will be thick in the water. I really was wondering what I needed to do in order to hold down the turtle population. Then Mother Nature gave me a lesson in restoring an ecology. When the ecology gets out of balance into that vacuum comes something to get it back in balance. Nature abhors a vacuum.

This is how Mother Nature solved the problem. Over the past six months, around the pond, I have noticed several large turtle shells where turtles had been killed and eaten. Their hollow shells were from 10 to 15 inches. I could see smaller turtles being caught, killed, and eaten by raccoons, but many of the shells were more than any raccoon could handle. Then last Sunday, the long standing mystery was solved. I saw the turtle catcher swimming across the small one acre pond that is only twenty yards or so from our back kitchen door.

When nature gets out of balance with an abundance of something such as turtles, just their presence attracts something to rebalance the ecology. That Sunday afternoon I walked out on our deck and watched as a river otter swam across the pond. Mystery solved. River Otters had moved up the streams and ponds that connect all the way to the Ouachita River, and they ended up in my pond because of abundant food...turtles. Actually, about five years ago, we had one come by and take a dip in our swimming pool, and although we saw the otter hop out of the swimming pool and go directly to the pond, we didn’t connect the otter with the turtles. Now as I walk around the pond I can see where the otters have been at work. Empty large turtle shells are pretty common, and the visible number of turtles has dropped.

It’s a lesson we need to understand. And there is only one reason the river otters have found my pond---food. The abundance of turtles and other items such as crawfish, fish, and snakes are a banquet for river otters, and the abundance of food drew them in to re-balance the ecosystem in my small pond.

Last year, when I did several columns on the cougars in Arkansas, I received a call from one of the North American cougar experts who lives in Nova Scotia. If you will remember, from all the sighting, I made a wild guess that we had somewhere around 100 to 125 cougar in the state. The cougar expert was adamant, “Of course you have cougars in Arkansas, and you will be getting more and more.” And then he proceeded to tell me why. “Cougar go where there is abundant food, and with a huge deer and hog population in your state, the cougars will continue to come down the Arkansas River from the Rockies into Arkansas. And by the way, a hungry cougar will take any prey available from raccoons, opossums, small dogs and cats, and of course the mushrooming population of feral hogs would also be high on a cougars list of favorite foods.”

As I thought about hunting in the late 1950s, where I spent day after day in the woods or fishing in the lakes and creeks, and never saw or actually even heard of anyone who spotted a cougar or feral hog. And in all those years, I could count the number of deer I saw on one hand, and now when I compare that with just the woods and ponds around our house, I am amazed. Deer are so plentiful that the same old doe, has for three years in a row, (make that four—this morning) birthed a fawn in our courtyard, and feral hogs have rooted up our back yard. And then, when I think of the estimate of 100 to 125 cougars in the state, I know why. The cougar expert who called me was right on target, and the cougars are coming down the Arkansas River just like the river otter are coming up the creeks from the Ouachita River and they are coming for the same thing: food.

And now a message to our deer hunters: the Game and Fish Commission is continuing to try and ignore the presence of cougars in the state, but cougars are here and more are coming. Its Mother Nature’s way of restoring our ecology, so for God’s sake, don’t shoot one! Feral hogs are the easiest large animal for a cougar to catch, and according to the experts, cougars can be expected to make a hog kill every three days. Let’s give Mother Nature a hand by declaring a moratorium on cougars.

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And finally, an atta-boy to Gov. Asa for putting 7 women as heads of the new consolidated 15 member Governor’s Cabinet. If those women don’t give you a hug, Gov. I will!---Are the Highway Commission and Game and Fish Commission next, Gov?