The cute and the not so cute

[nikonbob]

You gotta love animals of all sorts, at least I do. These are heavy crops to 8x10. I need to get a longer lens.

Bob

[GeneW]

Bob, what lens did you use? These are delightful shots.

Gene

[mickeyobe]

Bob,

"You gotta love animals of all sorts..."

I do. All of them are fascinating creatures.
And they are all beautiful in their own ways - if only to their mothers in some cases.

Splendid pictures.

Mickey

[nikonbob]

Glad you liked them guys. The squirrel shot was with a Nikon 24-85 AFS and the moose with a Nikon 70-300 VR. I am really [leased with both lenses on the D700. I was just too lazy to switch to the 70-300 for the squirrel shot but with the moose I could have used more than the 300 the vr lens offers. Yea, it is a good thing my ma loved ugly things.

Bob

[daveh]

Each photo is great but I am not sure which of the animals counts as cute: perhaps the latter.

[nikonbob]

Dave

I have yet to hear anyone call a moose cute. I will allow that with a big rack (antlers) they could be termed majestic. To me they look to be the victim of design by committee, with nothing quite in proportion. That said I greatly appreciate viewing them.

Bob

[daveh]

The poor old moose usually gets it in the neck.

Here is Britain we don't have any, but we do have squirrels. The unfortunate thing is that our native red has given way, for most of the country, to the American grey.
The greys are just not as cute as the reds. The problem was said to be that the grey, being slightly bigger, competed better for the available food. However more recent thinking has, I believe, put the decline of the red down to less resistance to disease carried by the greys. Having grown up seeing red squirrels with some degree of frequency and now bemoaning their infrequency I don't find the greys particularly cute.

If Wolves can be reintroduced into Scotland, perhaps the elk should be next.

[nikonbob]

Dave

We have the same trouble in my area now too. We have the larger grays and blacks that came up from eastern Ontario, at least that is where I saw them years before we had them here. Wasn't there a moose skeleton found in Scotland years ago? Funny how animal populations change over the years. I never saw a coyote, we call them brush wolves, here until 30 years ago. We just had normal timber wolves for the most part. Seems the coyote is one of the few animals that has greatly expanded it natural range in North America not seemingly bothered by urban expansion.

Bob

[John Parry]

Our red squirrels are more of a russet colour. I saw one in Niagara (right by the falls - couldn't believe it - and it was a bright orange red).

You're right Dave - the disease you're talking about seems to be something like TB - it takes a while to catch it, but when they have, its fatal. The grey squirrels are carriers but they don't get the symptoms. A bit like Typhoid Mary.

In Cumbria the reds are a separate race, and they seem to have slightly more resistance to the disease than elsewhere, but they're also helped by the local farmers shooting any grey squirrels they see - tree rats as they call them. (Mind you, they call the hikers crag rats - its a Cumbrian thing).

Regards - John

[Deleted]

Wolves were reintroduced in our section of the country more than a decade ago over the objections of a majority of the people who actually live in the area. Since then the elk population in the area has declined dramatically. The bulls seldom bugle anymore because invariable a pack of wolves rushes to the sound. They also prey on cattle and sheep. Last year a wolf hunting season was opened. More than 200 wolves were taken and this year there are more wolves that there were before the hunt! I'm glad the government didn't go ahead with plans to reintroduce grizzly bears!

Wayne

[John Parry]

Wayne

If I ever get re-incarnated as a bear, I'll be a grizzly....

Regards - John

[Randy]

Freda caught the red squirrel that lives out back looking into the kitchen at her.

[nikonbob]

Randy

That is so familiar, my wife feeds them and if they see you at the kitchen window they stand up and beg. They have got us well trained.

Bob