Behavior patterns vary as widely in animals as they do in humans. Animal intellect may not match man’s brain power, but the capacity of animals to do odd and often funny things does not fall short of man’s ability to get caught up in the ludicrous and the bizarre.
Veteran grouse hunters living in rural parts know that if they wait long enough, the game will come crashing through the kitchen window to land feet up, ready for plucking — and the oven.
No one knows why grouse fall victim to this “crazy flight” behavior. Periodically, they succumb to an urge for mad peregrinations through space.
It’s a good thing that country houses are as widely spaced as they are, for these suicidal sprees might see our New England grouse population at ground zero.
Pickerel normally sulk in the weeds, hardly glancing at a red and white Dardevl. You can cast that spoon at them all morning long, heating up your spinning reel in hopes that a lunker will take the bait.
Then, just as you quit, that lunker will follow your lure to the boat, ducking under it, just as you take in the last 2 or 3 yards of line. You plop the spoon over the side in a half-hearted maybe-he’ll-take-it gesture, and the fish impales itself on your treble hook.
Wild animals frequently have their domesticated brothers and sisters up a tree when it comes to native wit and free spirit.
Creatures of field and forest can be unique and appealing, even remarkably human-like in their antics.
In one of our earlier spring searches for survivors of a hard winter, we were entertained by three grown deer playing their version of musical chairs. The precision of their gamboling patterns surpassed what we normally credit to simple “animaldom.”
They took turns chasing each other around a stump — then waiting for others to catch up. We sat, unseen, on the edge of that stump-filled clearing, watching the deer at play like children before they lept off in favor of browsing.
From time to time, we get reports from Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife people that diseased animals may be present in the woods of our state. Healthy behavior occasionally has its counterpart in abnormal and unhealthy activity.
Raccoons and skunks are sometimes known to suffer from a disease much like distemper in dogs. The disease is not rabies, but the warning goes out to stay away from all animals behaving oddly too close to your home.
Fish and Wildlife officials are too few to pick up all infected animals reported.
Anyone reasonably certain he has a sick wild animal in his backyard should call the local police or dog officer.
Bats, creatures that will probably never live down their undeserved reputation for horrors in the night, are frequently rabies carriers.
Officials state, flatly, not to handle a bat. With apologies to those who stand up for bats, we recommend, after you have opened all the doors, a badminton or tennis racket and a good eye to rid yourself of the bat that invades your home at midnight.
An animal isn’t necessarily sick, just because it is going around in circles. Perfectly healthy people often go around in circles.
Besides, that circling skunk and peregrinating raccoon may be someone’s mother out on her perpetual search for a meal for her offspring. We workday humans should all be able to understand that.