backyard albino possum

[The Snark]

Keeping in mind possums are known as bridge disease carriers, for some reason I've never been able to fathom, even more so than rats. I believe it has something to do with their appetites in that they will eat anything, even crap that rats shun, and are highly cosmopolitan.

Way up above all else on the list of spooky in my book, two animals stand out supreme. Cougar screams and coyote packs. To be out in the boonies and discover a pack of coyotes is passing through is incredibly unnerving. When ranging they are completely silent and those yips that people attribute to a few animals... aren't. I once heard the yips every night, found where they entered the property and took up a post on the roof of a shack to watch. They made their yips, calls, from a nearby hilltop then headed on down to their forage route. I expected 10 to 15 animals. I guesstimated around 80 cruised through the open area and probably another 50 that went a different route. Keep in mind the only thing that limits the population size of a coyote pack is food availability and disease.

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Many of the "80" coyotes that "cruised" through "an open area" might have "drifted" across the same ground more than once.
If they don't stand in plain sight while somebody is counting it is very easy to "count" more than one more than once.

It is much harder for 80 coyotes to stay together.
They would be more than likely to starve if they did.

Even if they LIKED to form such substantial herds...and as nearly as any field biologist can tell they do not...

How long could 80 of them find food in one place...?

 

[The Snark]

Many of the "80" coyotes that "cruised" through "an open area" might have "drifted" across the same ground more than once.
If they don't stand in plain sight while somebody is counting it is very easy to "count" more than one more than once.

It is much harder for 80 coyotes to stay together.
They would be more than likely to starve if they did.

Even if they LIKED to form such substantial herds...and as nearly as any field biologist can tell they do not...

How long could 80 of them find food in one place...?

Thanks for the info. Perhaps you would have some specific info on the southern California coyotes? The packs I observed aren't normal. They have become cosmopolitan, combining the wilds with foraging through the rural and suburban areas. The ones I have checked out range the San Gabriel mountains from San Bernardino/Cajon Pass area all the way to the Pacific Ocean out by Ventura. A span of about 80 miles as the crow flies, the greater Los Angeles area on the south side, the mountains to the north. The packs move swiftly in pretty much planned routes down various draws and gulleys and into the human populated areas. They appear primarily to hunt domestic cats and any other small animal that they came across while raiding back yards and garbage cans. The count of 80 was very conservative. The 'Altadena' pack as I called them was probably an average of 200 animals, living in the Lower Chilao - Chantry Flats - Mt. Wilson area and ranging on over towards La Canada. Say a forage area of 20 to 30 linear miles. They would join up with another pack, and disperse, that came down Switzers canyon, the Red Box - Upper Tujunga pack. How they organized the pack structure, changing from groups of 10 to 15 to the massive crowds I have no idea. When there were fires up in the mountains they would of course crowd together and it seemed raid farther into the urban areas. Sometimes they were sited in groups down in Pasadena, some 4 to 6 miles from the edge of the wilderness.

 

[okietooth]

Orphaned albino opossum we nursed to health and gave a great life to his final day. You told me I would ever grow attached to one of these before, I’d say hell no! Well I was wrong and I miss my pet dearly...