Coyote Captured in New York City

A coyote was captured in a parking garage in New York City this week. It seems this particular coyote had managed to elude New York City Police for two days after first being sighted near the Holland Tunnel. Officials managed to chase the coyote into an open-air garage in Tribeca. Officers then tranquilized the coyote and carried it off to the local A.S.P.C.A. where it will be observed before, eventually, being released in a more rural location. You can read the story and watch a video documenting the capture at the website of the Huffington Post here.

According to the article, this is the fourth coyote sighted in Manhattan this year. Seeing as we are only three months into 2010, four sightings is a significant number. The whole episode is very reminiscent of the story that came out of Houston, Texas earlier this month that documented the capture of a bobcat in the downtown area. The bobcat was also tranquilized and captured in a parking garage.

This story gives me one more reason to stay out of those parking garages. I've spent some lonesome nights in the woods, swamps, and mountains from Texas to Washington. None of them have given me the creeps like those multi-level parking garages do at night. But I digress...



I take two things from this story. If coyotes are living in New York City then they are going to be able to live in any major metropolitan area. As stated here before, I continue to believe that other predators, including big cats like cougars and bobcats, are adapting to life in urban areas as well.

If I'm correct, and this trend continues, animal control officers in cities around the country are going to become known as more than just dog catchers.

Sasquatch Classics: The Tale of Muchalat Harry

There are many tales of encounters with the sasquatch that have become almost mythic. These are the tales that I would refer to as the "classics." Many of these stories have been told and retold often through the years and appear in almost all books dealing with the subject of bigfoot. Other stories are less well known to the general public but are discussed often among those who seek these creatures. Some of the stories ring true and others I have serious doubts about. The stories of people who were allegedly abducted by a sasquatch and held against their will occupy a unique place in bigfoot lore. While there are not many reports of abductions there may be more than most modern researchers care to discuss. Foremost, among such reports is the strange tale of Albert Ostman. A lesser-known account of an attempted abduction involved a man named Bill Cole. The story I would like to discuss today is not as well known as the Ostman tale but probably better known than the Cole account. This is the story of Muchalat Harry.

The tale of Muchalat Harry was documented very well by one of the "Four Horsemen" of sasquatch research, Peter Byrne. Below is the story of Muchalat Harry in Byrne's own words:

According to the Indians, there was once a large number of Bigfoot living on Vancouver Island, a large island, 12,408 square miles in area, off the west coast of British Columbia. The Indians knew about them, feared them, and respected them, but granted that they were harmless. One of the Indians of the Nootka Tribe, who lived at Nootka in 1928, claims to have been carried off by them and held captive for some time.
The story, told to me by Father Anthony Terhaar of Mt. Angel Abbey in Oregon, is a curious one. Father Anthony, a much-loved missionary priest who traveled the west coast of Vancouver Island for many years, was living at Nootka at the time of the story and he knew Muchalat Harry very well. Muchalat Harry was a trapper and something of a rarity among his fellow tribesmen. He was, according to Father Anthony, a tough, fearless man, of excellent physique.

In the course of his trapping; he was wont to spend long weeks in the forest alone, something that the average Indian did not do in those days, The Indians of the coast were apparently a rather timid people and they seemed to regard the deep forest as the home and territory of the Bigfoot. When they went into the deep inland forest for any reason, they never went alone. Muchalat Harry was different from other Indians. He went in the forest alone and feared nothing.

Late one autumn Muchalat Harry set off for the woods, with his traps and camping gear. His plan was to set out a trap line and stay in the woods for several months. He headed for his favorite hunting area, the Conuma River, at the head of Tlupana Inlet. From Nootka he paddled his own canoe to the mouth of the Conuma. There he cached the canoe and headed upstream on foot. Approximately twelve miles upstream he made his base camp and, after building himself a lean-to, started to put out his trap line.

One night, while wrapped in his blankets and clad only in his underwear, he was suddenly picked up by a huge male Bigfoot and carried off into the hills. He was not carried very far, probably a distance of about two or three miles, at the most. When daylight came he was able to see that he was in a sort of camp, under a high rock shelf and surrounded by some twenty Bigfoot They were of all sexes and sizes. For some time, they stood around him and stared at him. The males to the front of the curious group females behind them and young ones to the rear. Muchalat Harry was frightened at first and his fear grew to terror when he noticed, he said, the large number of bones lying around the campsite. When he saw these he was convinced that the Bigfeet were going to eat him.

The Bigfeet did not harm him in any way. Occasionally one came forward and touched him, as if feeling him, and when they discovered that his "skin" was loose — it was in fact his woolen underwear — several came forward and pulled at it gently.
While they looked at him and examined him, Muchalat Harry sat with his back to the rock wall and did not move. He was cold and hungry, but his thoughts were only on escape. Some time in the late afternoon, curiosity on the part of the Bigfeet seemed to slacken and with most of the Bigfeet out of camp, probably food-gathering he thought, there came the opportunity that he needed. He leapt to his feet and ran for his life, never looking back. He ran downhill, toward where he guessed the river to be and sure enough, he soon came to his campsite. In what must have been blind panic he bypassed his camp and ran for twelve miles to where his canoe was cached at the mouth of the Conuma.

Father Anthony describes the story of Muchalat Harry’s arrival at Nootka as follows. It was probably three in the morning. He and his brother Benedictines were asleep and the village was quiet. Suddenly there was a series of wild cries from the waters of the inlet. Lights were lit and he and others hurried down to the water's edge. There, near-frozen and exhausted in his canoe, lay Muchalat Harry. He was barefoot and clad only in his wet and torn underwear and he had paddled his canoe through the winter night 45 miles from the mouth of the Conuma River.

Father Anthony and his companions carried the almost lifeless form up from the water's edge. It took three weeks to nurse Muchalat Harry back to sanity and good health. Father Anthony, who took him into his own care, did the nursing and he told me [Peter Byrne] that during the course of these three weeks, Muchalat Harry's hair turned to pure white.

The story of the kidnapping came out slowly. At first Muchalat Harry would talk to no one. Then he told Father Anthony what had happened and, later, others. When he was fully recovered to health he was asked when he planned to go back to collect his belongings, the camp equipment, his pots and pans, his trap line and above all, his rifle, at the lean-to on the Conuma. In 1928 a trap line and all of its pieces must have been worth a great deal to an island Indian. A rifle alone would be regarded as a highly prized possession. But Muchalat Harry never went back to the Conuma. Not only did he never return there; according to Father Anthony, he never left the settlement at Nootka, never went in the woods again for the rest of his life. He preferred to lose all of his valuables and probably hard-won possessions rather than risk another encounter with the Bigfeet.

Late in 1972 I had occasion to visit Vancouver Island. I was on a routine investigating trip and when I found myself at Nainimo, not too far by road from the west coast and the scene of Muchalat Harry's adventure, I drove there. I stopped in Gold River and obtained from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police some maps and instructions on how to get to the Conuma River area. Nowadays there is a logging road that runs all the way down to the mouth of the river, and one Sunday morning, with the logging trucks out of the way, I drove there and made camp on the Conuma. I spent several days there, walking the riverbed and exploring. I tried to make a rough determination of where Muchalat Harry might have had his lean-to and I found a place that offered a good campsite, twelve miles from the mouth of the river on the edge of a series of high bluffs. The salmon were running in the Conuma while I was there and all night long I could hear them splashing up the shallow waters of the river. In the morning black bear worked the river, getting the salmon that had come ashore in the night or had become tangled in the limbs of fallen trees that lay in the river. I counted six bears in several days.

The country was generally wild and deserted and the actual mouth of the Conuma, where it flowed into the salt waters of the inlet, was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Some of the forest close to the river had been logged off, but the logging work had moved on west and while I was there it was quiet.
The days began with morning mists on the river and then warmed to the clear crispness of perfect autumn weather. Evenings were cool and damp and nights bright with starlight that provided almost enough light to read. I found no sign of Bigfoot on the Conuma, nor any sign of Muchalat Harry's trap line or lean-to. I hardly expected to find anything of the latter, after forty-odd years. But even though Muchalat Harry was long gone, the river and the forest remained unchanged, The splashing salmon, the cold, clear water of the Conuma, the moss-covered banks, the shallow pools in the forest that the Conuma drained, that were the breeding places of the salmon, the river birds, the plodding bears, the deep silent waters of the inlet, all were as they must have been forty years before, when Muchalat Harry cached his canoe and made his camp there.

The story of Muchalat Harry is not discussed much these days. Loren Coleman, in his book Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America, theorizes this may be due to two factors. First, the number of sasquatches reported by Harry, an amazing twenty of different genders, sizes, and ages, makes the account just too much for many to swallow. Second, the native origins of the story may have caused it to be mostly ignored in the years immediately after the incident allegedly occurred. Certainly, it is possible these factors were, and maybe still are, at play. My theory on why the story is not well known is simpler. It is due to what I call the "Silver Medal" factor. Allow me to explain. Typically, people do not remember who finished second in an athletic contest. You can probably recall the gold medal heroics of Olympians like Muhammad Ali, Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, and Carl Lewis. More recently you may have watched Michael Phelps, Lindsey Vonn, and Shaun White win gold medals. Can anyone out there remember the names of the silver medalists? Probably not. It may be that Muchalat Harry's abduction tale has simply been deemed to be the second most interesting sasquatch abduction story behind Albert Ostman's account. In other words, Muchalat Harry gets the "silver medal" and, therefore, less attention.

I find the story fascinating. It is, of course, impossible for me to know if Harry was telling the truth about what happened to him in the wilderness near the Conuma River in the Autumn of 1928. What is not up for debate is that whatever happened changed Muchalat Harry forever. By all accounts, Harry was a fearless man who would spend weeks to months at a time in the forest alone. This, as was pointed out by Byrne, is in stark contrast to his fellow tribesmen at the time. If the missionary, Father Anthony Terhaar, is to be believed, Muchalat Harry's hair turned stark white over a period of only a few weeks and he never again entered the forest. Harry did not even go back to retrieve his rifle, trap line, and other possessions. The equipment Muchalat Harry left behind would have been worth quite a bit to an island Indian. The decision to leave it all in the woods indicates there was real fear in Harry.

There seems to be little doubt that the main players in the drama were real people. Father Anthony Terhaar was interviewed directly by Peter Byrne. Byrne seemed to have no doubt that Muchalat Harry had been a real person. While Harry was never interviewed by Byrne, his tale was well known among his fellow tribesmen who heard the story directly from his lips. Even had this not been the case it would seem Father Anthony Terhaar would have no reason to make up such a tale. Everything I've read about the good Father has been positive. He was respected and well thought of by those that knew him. Certainly, there was no financial incentive to share the story.

I believe something truly terrifying happened to the Nootka tribesman called Muchalat Harry. Whether the events played out exactly as described to Peter Byrne by Father Anthony Terhaar is something each person will have to decide for themselves. Many have a problem with the almost super human effort Muchalat Harry allegedly exerted to get away from the band of sasquatches. If the story is to be believed, he sprinted from two to three miles to the river near his camp site, then ran approximately twelve miles to the mouth of the river where he had cached his canoe, and then paddled forty-five miles back to his village. This is something a normal human could not have done according to many. I'm not so sure. Modern athletes today compete in "Iron Man" triathlons where they swim five miles or more, ride a bike for 100 miles, and then run a full twenty-six mile marathon. If this is within the realm of human ability then Muchalat Harry's escape seems possible. Byrne himself wrote that Harry was an exceptional physical specimen. When you add the fact that the man felt he was literally running for his life it seems more plausible. Fear and adrenaline are a powerful combination. It is no wonder it took three weeks of bed rest for Harry to recover from his ordeal.

Why a sasquatch would kidnap a human is another question all together. Was Muchalat Harry right? Did the sasquatches intend to make a meal of him? It seems unlikely. If that had been the intent why wouldn't the sasquatches have dispatched him once he was brought to their "camp?" Why would the males and most of the mature females leave him unattended if he were considered prey? Nourishment and calories are too precious in the wild to be treated so carelessly. Was Muchalat Harry merely a curiosity? Something along the lines of a sasquatch show and tell item? One can only speculate.

In any case, the tale of Muchalat Harry is, in my opinion, truly one of the sasquatch "classics." It is a story that is hard to believe in the light of day. Like many such tales, however, it gets a lot easier to believe when out in the woods alone at that certain time after the campfire has died out and dawn is still hours away.

Federal Protection Sought for Neches River

A group of East Texas conservationists headed by author, and lifetime Texas resident, Richard Donovan is seeking to preserve the 415-mile Neches River by having it designated as a "National Wild and Scenic River."

If the designation is achieved, the Neches would remain free from impoundments, most shoreline development, and channelization. Neither would water be allowed to be pumped out of the river. In addition, most of the river would remain inaccessible except by hiking trail. To receive the designation as a "National Wild and Scenic River" a bill would first have to be introduced in the U.S. congress by a Senator or Representative whose district touches the river.



If the Neches is designated as a "National Wild and Scenic River" precious bottomland would be preserved. The Neches River bottoms are rich with animal and plant life. Species such as bobcat, fox, white-tailed deer, raccoon, otter, and many species of birds call these areas home. The bottoms are some of the last truly unspoiled areas left in Texas and may yet hold other surprises when it comes to what roams there. To lose the bottoms to one or more reservoirs would truly be a shame. Currently, only one other Texas river is designated as a "National Wild and Scenic River." That river would be the Rio Grande which received the designation on a 191.2 mile stretch in 1978.

You can read an article on these developments on the Lufkin Daily News site here.

The Big Thicket Gets A Little Bigger

There is some very good news coming out of Southeast Texas. The National Parks Service has purchased 3,600 acres of land along Village Creek, which winds through Hardin and Polk Counties, from the Hancock Forest Management Company. The land will become part of the Big Thicket National Preserve.

The Big Thicket is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world. The area contains a vast number of wildlife and plant species. The Big Thicket is made up of several units, not contiguous, that are all unique in their make-up. This wilderness area is made up of river corridors, wetlands, forests, open plains, pine savannas, and dry sandhills.

You can read the whole story on the Big Thicket Association's website here.

Wolf Attacks on Humans on the Increase

A story posted March 11 on the website of the Anchorage Daily News caught my eye recently. The article details a fatal wolf attack on a human being that took place in Alaska. I also located an article in the November 24, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated that documents the tragic death of Kenton Carnegie in Saskatchwan as the result of an attack by wolves. These incidents occurred a long way from my home in Texas. However, the stories touch on some themes I have written about here a couple of times in regards to the increasingly aggressive behavior of coyotes and the nearly monthly sightings of big cats in suburban settings so I thought I would post something about it.

According the Anchorage Daily News article, written by James Halpin, a 32 year-old teacher named Candice Berner was killed by an animal, or animals, in the Alaskan community of Chignik Lake while out jogging on an isolated stretch of road. The official cause of death has yet to be confirmed by officials but the local villagers seem to have little doubt the woman was killed by a pack of unusually bold wolves.
Apparently, the pack had been lingering near the outskirts of town for several days. Villagers, already on edge due to the boldness of the pack, are now truly concerned about their safety after the attack. Chignik Lake resident, and a member of the Chignik Advisory Committee to the Board of Game, Johnny Lind said there was little doubt that the wolves in the area are becoming bolder. He said, "They've been having sightings nearby but not this close. They're right in town looking for food." The Anchorage Daily News article can be accessed here.

The Sports Illustrated article tells the tale of how young Kenton Carnegie met his demise while out on a walk in Points North Landing which lies about 750 miles north of the U.S. border. According to the article, written by Matthew Teague, Carnegie was out for a walk in an area where two men had been accosted by a pair of wolves only a day or so before. He was viciously attacked by at least two wolves and died only 600 yards from the safety of his camp. You can read the Sports Illustrated article here.

For decades I have heard that there has never been a documented case of a fatal wolf attack on a human. That has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years, I'm afraid. No longer can wolves be considered harmless to humans. Like all predators, wolves are opportunistic and will take advantage of an easy meal when it is offered them. Unfortunately, a lone human running or walking alone in the middle of a long winter, when food can be tough to come by, fits the bill of an easy meal. Grey wolves, also called timber wolves, are huge powerful animals. A human, even a big male, would be absolutely no match for a pack of these animals. People who live in known wolf habitat need to start taking precautions.



The real question is why, after two hundred plus years without any documented wolf attacks on humans, are we seeing them now? Are wolves getting more aggressive? There is likely no single answer to the question. However, I have definite opinions on why wolves suddenly seem to be seeing humans as prey.

The explosion of the deer population in this country has, in my opinion, played a huge part in all of this. There are several reasons for the increase in deer numbers. As pointed out in the Sports Illustrated article, the popularity of hunting seems to be on the decline. As our society becomes more and more urban, fewer and fewer go hunting. It is expensive, and, in many places, if you are not a landowner, difficult to find a place to hunt. It also seems that the more urban society gets the more hunting is seen by the masses as barbaric and inhumane. I can't tell you how often I have heard things along the lines of, "How can you shoot Bambi?" There are other things I could mention but the bottom line is that there are more deer in the U.S. than ever. Where there is an abundance of deer there will be predators.

An over abundance of deer would not, on the surface, seem to be a reason that people are coming into contact with aggressive predators like wolves. I believe it is a factor for a couple of reasons. In many areas there are too many deer and the habitat cannot support them. The deer, therefore, come into towns and communities to find food. Not only do the deer feed on flower and vegetable gardens but, often, are fed corn directly by residents. While hunting would be banned inside city limits or community boundaries, predators would have no qualms about following deer into these areas. I believe this is one reason apex predators like cougars, bobcats, coyotes, bears, and wolves are being seen more and more often in urban locales. Add to the mix the abundance of rodents, stray pets, abandoned buildings, and green belts often found in major cities and it isn't too hard to see that an urban environment might be more hospitable for a predator than it seems at first glance. Predators in urban environments would invariably come into contact with humans.

You may be thinking, "Fine," but the incidents described in the two articles mentioned previously did not take place in urban areas. True. However, I feel these two incidents are still tied to the explosion in the population of the prey animals we have seen in this country. It is a simple equation. More prey equals more predators. The fact that fewer hunters are out there taking shots at these predators means they are less afraid of people. Without their guns, humans are just slow-footed helpless targets for a major predator. The fact that the first thing a human that encounters a predator usually does is run only makes things worse. Running will trigger a predator's chase instincts. This can only lead to disaster. The fact that Candice Berner was jogging when she was attacked is probably not a coincidence.



So, are wolves getting more aggressive? Overall, probably not. They are just doing what wolves do. There are just more of them. Yellowstone's wolf population has increased from 50 to 1,500 over the last decade. Minnesota's wolf population has jumped from 500 to over 3,000 since the 1950s. More wolves mean more encounters. Have wolves lost their fear of humans? In some cases, the answer seems to be yes. Federal protection and fewer hunters have made wolves less fearful of people. I believe wolves, like big cats and coyotes, may be adapting to live near, and possibly, within urban areas. As urban sprawl encroaches into their territory, predators have to leave or adapt. Some seem to be adapting nicely.

It is thought that wolves have been extirpated from Texas. It is also true that the red wolf, not the larger grey wolf, was the dominant canine in the Lone Star State when packs did roam here. That doesn't mean, however, that we should not learn the lessons of the wolf attacks discussed above. The same factors that are bringing an increase in wolf numbers are present in Texas, to a lesser degree, as well. Wolves may not be the predator that takes advantage of these more favorable conditions but coyotes and/or big cats just might.

So, keep your eyes open out there. The use of caution and common sense will go a long way toward keeping everyone safe.

Catching Up

I have just returned from my spring break trip to New Mexico. My family and I stayed for a couple of nights in a cabin in the Lincoln National Forest and a couple of more nights at a cabin belonging to my wife's Aunt in Alto. With the exception of one event, we all had a great time.

The area received a heavy snowfall the first couple of nights we were there. This really made for some beautiful scenery up in the mountains. I had never before spent any time in New Mexico and was struck by just how pretty it was in the higher elevations. I'm a flatlander, born and raised, so mountains have always impressed me greatly.




I spent a large portion of my time traipsing about the forest north of Ruidoso at elevations ranging from 7,500-8,000 feet. The heavy snow made for perfect conditions to look for animal tracks. I found plenty. The area is crawling with white tail deer (more on that later) and their sign was everywhere. I also saw elk tracks, turkey tracks, and some large tracks of unknown origin (they appeared to have melted, refrozen, and then filled with new snow making them interesting but, to me at least, indecipherable). I set my new game camera up in a draw that seemed like it would be a natural funnel for wildlife coming down from the higher elevations to seek food and



water (there was a large lake below the draw). I left it out for two nights but it captured nothing. Judging by the absence of tracks in the new fallen snow I am guessing it was because nothing wandered by rather than some sort of issue with the



camera. I did put the camera up outside the family cabin the last two nights and only captured one shot of a white tailed deer. This would be fine but there were deer wandering around the property constantly. Snow did totally cover the lens and sensors one night. Still, I would have thought that more pictures would have been taken in this area. So, it remains to be seen just how good this camera will turn out to be.



The one negative, and it was a big one, was that I hit a very large doe with my truck coming down the mountain my second night there. This was a thick and heavy girl that I estimate would have tipped the scales at about 140 pounds. Totally destroyed my grill, bent my hood, dented my bumper and fender, and knocked out a fog lamp. While it was quite a mess, the damage turned out to be almost totally cosmetic. The truck remained road worthy and I was able to get back to the cabin that night and, later, home to Texas. Hopefully, repairs won't take too long and I'll be back abusing it on the back roads of the Lone Star State very soon.



As I mentioned, I am not too sure about my newest game camera. I decided, before I go to too much trouble placing it in some remote location, that I would put it out in an area near my home to see if it works well. The spot I chose is the first spot in which I had originally placed a camera. As you will recall, if you've been reading this blog very long, this is the spot where a local woman claimed to have seen a large cat cross the road about a year ago. I will leave it out 2-4 weeks and see what I manage to capture. The area where the camera was placed has actually produced a lot of photos. I've captured photos of skunks, a fox, a coyote, and many deer in this spot. I may not get the cat photo I'm after but, if history is any guide, there should be a lot of wildlife in the area and I should be able to make a judgment on how effective a camera I have.



I am hopeful that by the end of next week I will have my hands on two used Cuddeback cameras. These two cameras have been used in the TBRC's Operation Forest Vigil camera project for several years. The group is updating with newer cameras and I am getting these for a very good price. Even though they are a couple of years old, they will be a significant upgrade to any of the cameras I have used over the last couple of years. The addition of the Cuddebacks will also give me a total of three game cameras. This will allow me to start my big cat camera project again.



Well, that pretty much covers what I've been up to for the last week or so. More soon.

Spring Break

There likely won't be any new posts for a week or so as I am making a trip to the mountains of New Mexico with my family for spring break.

I am working on several articles and should have plenty of down time to get at least some of them completed. However, I am unsure of what sort of internet connectivity I will have.

I am planning on taking a game camera to place in the woods near the cabin where we will be staying. Who knows what might turn up?

My best...