Roadrunner, Something’s After You

January 13th, 2007 by Steven Gould

Well, most of the snow has melted (though we might get some flurries tonight and tomorrow) but on New Years Eve when we were driving around in it, Laura’s cousin took the photo below. We all said, “Well, look at that dog–that’s no dog!” It’s Maureen’s favorite animal, looking for a roadrunner.

(Click on the picture to see a larger shot.)
This is close to the foothills but not that close. It’s urban Albuquerque.

Posted in Daily Life, Laura, Maureen, Steve | 3 Comments »

3 Responses

1. Maureen McHugh Says:
   January 13th, 2007 at 10:54 pm

   Hey, coyotes live really well in urban areas. Coyotes, like rats and pidgeons, are good at sliding into unexpected ecological niches, and dumpsters and rats are great ecological niches.

   I wish my totem animal was a coyote. I saw a cartoon in the New Yorker recently where a business man is looking down at a snail and the snail is looking up at the man saying, “I’m your spirit animal.” I have a deep fear my dog is my spirit animal.

2. Steven Gould Says:
   January 13th, 2007 at 11:11 pm

   Raccoons are really good at the urban thing, too.

3. Doug Potter Says:
   January 14th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

   Austin, too, has a coyote “problem”. It has to do with urban sprawl pushing into the coyote habitat and the people buying new houses in the development and one day finding that Fluffy or Spot was gone, presumably taken as a meal by the displaced(?) wildlife.
   Naturally this led to some panicky complaints to law enforcement and animal control to “do something” before baby gets carried off as coyote food, but, so far, shooting permits haven’t been issued, though I think that it would be appropriate.
   They could also issue deer hunting permits in the upscale Westlake area of Austin and allow people to shoot deer grazing on every plant in the yard. Imagine!
   Soon, law enforcement would have more than wildlife complaints to contend with. ” Officer, I didn’t mean to shoot Mr. Jones’ Hummer, but the deer was right in front of it and I just…” or ” No sir. I didn’t know that my gun would shoot through the deer and through the neighbor’s house, too.”