The seemingly never ending raccoon battle…new pics

[Flintsack]

The last lone surviving raccoon spent the night defending his Den. 

The raccoon that I threw back in the den has been eaten. I could see his bones lying in the hole.

Sometimes in the background of the pictures I could see eyes, or movement. There was hundreds of pictures.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@Flintsack Threw back in? So this is the second dead one in the den? Do you think the other coons ate it, or could they have dragged the corpse to the entrance of the den and something else got it? I actually tried googling what happens when a raccoon dies in their den. Didn’t find much. 

 

[Flintsack]

I believe the body count to be three raccoons and one skunk down the hole. 

I originally saw four raccoons in and out of that specific hole, I think this is the last one.

I’m thinking some incestuous cannibalism. Also called survival.

mike

 

[Flintsack]

Yes, the one surviving raccoon from the first family was runoff by a larger gang two nights ago. The baited him all night. Eventually one must’ve gotten by. And then they took over.

It was like watching a still life film as I looked at all the pictures of him and the other raccoons and an occasional skunk.

This is not turning out to be very simple. When I was out there changing the disc on the camera, I went down into a hole in the snow almost up to my hip.

it’s mutual of Omaha‘s wild Kingdom, where the heck is Jim when you need him?

mike

 

[L.Leon]

@flintsack, you've started a turf war. Gangs of raccoons in your hood, you might need backup. I use to love the Mutual of Omaha wildlife program, it was one of my childhood weekly highlights.

 

[qball]

Yeah, I second calling in backup at this rate! LOL! 

 

[Ezana4CE]

@Flintsack You live in a real-life nature show. This is very interesting to read. Even the skunk wanted in on the action. 

 

[Flintsack]

E

Yes it’s crazy. I guess it’s like real estate - location location location, obviously this Den is in a good location….

Leon…

This week we’re going to travel to Africa and Jim is going to ride a rhinoceros while removing its horn. This won’t hurt the Rino a bit, although Jim may be in trouble…Not! Nothing scares Jim. 

Remember the episode when the rhino was smashing into the side of the jeep? And someone got hit in the leg with the horn.

The world stopped when mutual of Omaha‘s wild Kingdom came on.

mike

 

[Bigragu]

Flintstack- get yourself a bottle of this PATIS fish sauce. Being Filipino, we use it a lot in our dishes as it adds just the right amount of taste to some of our dishes. But we use it sparingly. It’s made up of 100% crushed up fish turned into a liquid sauce. To smell it out of the bottle will turn your stomach, but it’s a very strong smell with an olive oil consistency. It’ll add more to your hot dog dishes by creating the odor.

Funny story on this- one of our apprentices who was half Samoan half Filipino was just able to buy his first Coleman cooler lunch box, as he was just starting out in the trade and didn’t have much money. So he bought a rather large and impressive lunchbox(he was a big boy, lol)



he accidentally left it on a Friday after work and one of the journeymen decided to prank him and put an empty sardine can in it, which sat over the weekend in 110 degree summer temps. Needless to say it ruined the lunchbox. 


once the apprentice found out who did it he got even by showing up early the next day, armed with a squirt bottle full of this PATIS juice and squirted tge journeyma’s tool pouch, work gloves, and inside his hard hat. 


by 10:00 inside a warehouse that was up to 95 degrees by that time, that journeyman was screaming about this odor that kept following him. Nasty smell-

https://sukli.com/products/datu-puti-fish-sauce-patis-25-36-fl-oz-750-ml

 

[Flintsack]

Ragu

speaking of really strong strong smells. I let Penny out a bit ago. And all of a sudden she started barking crazy…

Pepe le pew!

mike

I’m surprised things haven’t gone to fisticuffs. The guy who started it had no respect for anything.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@bigragu First @Flintsack is battling gang-banging raccoons, the you hit us with the fish sauce story. Hilarious!!

 

[moodyblues]

You see this with quite a few territorial animals, as soon as the “pack” is week enough another one comes in and pushes them out. I live on a beautiful creek and we have the very occasional water moccasin, I killed the first few I came on but loving reptiles I ended up just leaving them be. I got to doing research on them and they happen to be a very territorial critter, they will kill other moccasins that comes in their perimeter and if one dies another will take its place in short order. 

Also the show with the guy getting horned by the rhino that was ramming the truck is Hatari an old John Wayne movie where they catch animals in Africa for zoos. It’s one of my favorites.

Very good thread btw, very fun.

Beau

 

[Flintsack]

Beau…You’re right, thanks. but Jim did do some crazy stuff in his time. That guy could wrestle crocodiles by hand before there was a crocodile Dundee.

mike

I was thinking exactly what you were, that if I knock out this family, there will be another one following. if it was just me I wouldn’t worry about the raccoons a whole lot. Skunks, raccoons and medium size dogs don’t mix well.

 

[Flintsack]

More new visitors…just put out the smoked oysters per Ragu.

they are getting aggressive coming out during the day. I smell skunk all the time when I’m out walking.

I’m throwing a party tonight. I wonder if anyone will show up?

mike

 

[qball]

WOW! smoked oyster! One of my favorite, you sure have some very discerning varmints. Do they prefer the Spanish smoked oyster like me?

 

[TN_Yankee]

Good grief - it's like Grand Central Station!

 

[Flintsack]

No, just a regular smoked oysters.

I got out there a good half hour before dusk and it was a good 15 minutes after dusk before I finally saw movement. I was surprised. I went into total buck fever…Even though you expect it, it’s so surprising when they actually come out.

I was 60 yards away as usual. And I knew precisely where I was hitting. He was moving around a lot. Trying to figure out why there are these oysters lying all over the place. 

He gave me a quartering shot, and I went right in under his arm pit. Loud THWACK. He rolled out of sight. Quite confident he’s dead.

I wonder who will show up to eat oysters tonight ? Film tomorrow.

mike

 

[qball]

Nice!!! Another one bites the dust!!! 

 

[N2 Shooter]

You have a Jumanji movie going on! Now, we just need a bobcat or mountain lion to pop in, and you'll have all the bases covered!

 

[Flintsack]

I agree it’s crazy. It’s like going to the zoo. I had put out some fish for bait yesterday. I got to my spot to a little bit early. I had no more than sat down and I noticed a flicker of motion to the left, it was a skunk hightailing it towards the fish.

He literally gave me the ass, and sat there and started chowing down on my fish bait. I called softly to him to try to get his attention, so he would turn. I called a little bit louder, no response. Finally I yelled hey skunk!

he heard that. And started running back down the hill for his den. I picked a spot between two trees about 12 feet in front of his path and when he hit the opening I plugged him. It knocked him back and sideways, he rolled down the rest of the hill. There was a nice bright red blood trail. When he got to the bottom I plugged him again. And he slowly crawled into his den

I waited another half hour plus for the raccoons to come out. They didn’t come out until it was very dark. If there was not snow on the ground I would not have been able to see anything. Finally I noticed some movement. I Brought the scope up and watched him flip out of the back of the den like a marine going out on patrol. I didn’t shoot because I was waiting for a better shot.

About 15 minutes later another one came out in the same manner. I took a quick shot at him and somehow missed. The shot at the running skunk was much more difficult.

It’s becoming a war of attrition.

mike