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December 6, 2018 6:53 AM Subscribe
HE SO MAD. That is one baby who does not have any problems with rehab habituation or being trap-happy.
(The problem many field researchers have with animals who become "trap-happy" amuses the hell out of me: it's an issue in trap/recapture studies, particularly of rodents. You will often get individuals who decide that getting to stick around in a nice Sherman trap for an evening is well worth it in exchange for a nice big glob of oats and peanut butter, and who will therefore learn what your traps are for--cozy peanut butter nights!--and actively seek them out in order to get free snacks.
It's not great for sampling, but it's definitely a better problem to have than bobcats who think humans mean nice things.)
posted by sciatrix at 7:11 AM on December 6, 2018 [42 favorites]
(The problem many field researchers have with animals who become "trap-happy" amuses the hell out of me: it's an issue in trap/recapture studies, particularly of rodents. You will often get individuals who decide that getting to stick around in a nice Sherman trap for an evening is well worth it in exchange for a nice big glob of oats and peanut butter, and who will therefore learn what your traps are for--cozy peanut butter nights!--and actively seek them out in order to get free snacks.
It's not great for sampling, but it's definitely a better problem to have than bobcats who think humans mean nice things.)
posted by sciatrix at 7:11 AM on December 6, 2018 [42 favorites]
ANGEREY
posted by East14thTaco at 7:13 AM on December 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by East14thTaco at 7:13 AM on December 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
That's what happens when you give your cat a cheeseburger.
posted by M-x shell at 7:25 AM on December 6, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by M-x shell at 7:25 AM on December 6, 2018 [10 favorites]
I was wondering if we were being set up for a repeat of that old video of the animal control officer where a cat claws its way up his leg to the groin.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:30 AM on December 6, 2018 [13 favorites]
posted by Dip Flash at 7:30 AM on December 6, 2018 [13 favorites]
It's so rare for a nonprofit of any sort to have a sense of humor. I salute you, Center for Biological Diversity. (The beaver trying to climb a tree video is a hoot as well.)
posted by goatdog at 7:33 AM on December 6, 2018 [12 favorites]
posted by goatdog at 7:33 AM on December 6, 2018 [12 favorites]
I remember hearing somewhere about how: If you threaten a human child, it will cry for its mother; a puppy will cower and submit, but a kitten will floof up and prepare to go down fighting, and this is why cats are always gonna be assholes.
posted by The otter lady at 7:41 AM on December 6, 2018 [40 favorites]
posted by The otter lady at 7:41 AM on December 6, 2018 [40 favorites]
Awwwww! He so kuute and kuddly. He have fozzy, bludy paws.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:48 AM on December 6, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by BlueHorse at 7:48 AM on December 6, 2018 [9 favorites]
You will often get individuals who decide that getting to stick around in a nice Sherman trap for an evening is well worth it in exchange for a nice big glob of oats and peanut butter, and who will therefore learn what your traps are for--cozy peanut butter nights!--and actively seek them out in order to get free snacks.
Honestly this sounds so nice, if I can check Twitter from the trap sign me up.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:54 AM on December 6, 2018 [40 favorites]
Honestly this sounds so nice, if I can check Twitter from the trap sign me up.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:54 AM on December 6, 2018 [40 favorites]
saw this already but had to watch the whole thing again. so small and fwuffy but so FIERCE. those little growls!!!
posted by supermedusa at 8:55 AM on December 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 8:55 AM on December 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Aww. Don’t mess with him! <3
posted by Secretariat at 9:03 AM on December 6, 2018
posted by Secretariat at 9:03 AM on December 6, 2018
I mean, they're usually made outta steel. I bet you could get pretty good reception in there.
I remember hearing somewhere about how: If you threaten a human child, it will cry for its mother; a puppy will cower and submit, but a kitten will floof up and prepare to go down fighting, and this is why cats are always gonna be assholes.
I... hrm. Anecdotally, the last time my own kitten found something Scary (which entailed accidentally wandering outside) he fell over and scrabbled in circles while wailing until someone found him and picked him up, whereupon he climbed onto their head and clung to it until he felt brave again. And then again, I grew up with Jack Russell Terrors, which may have shaped my expectations of puppies. They don't usually wail for a parent when they get scared, but then I don't think those dogs always experience fear.
posted by sciatrix at 9:12 AM on December 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
I remember hearing somewhere about how: If you threaten a human child, it will cry for its mother; a puppy will cower and submit, but a kitten will floof up and prepare to go down fighting, and this is why cats are always gonna be assholes.
I... hrm. Anecdotally, the last time my own kitten found something Scary (which entailed accidentally wandering outside) he fell over and scrabbled in circles while wailing until someone found him and picked him up, whereupon he climbed onto their head and clung to it until he felt brave again. And then again, I grew up with Jack Russell Terrors, which may have shaped my expectations of puppies. They don't usually wail for a parent when they get scared, but then I don't think those dogs always experience fear.
posted by sciatrix at 9:12 AM on December 6, 2018 [4 favorites]
Those Utah DWR guys are the best. I seen a video of them releasing a cougar from a toe trap. Very brave and compassionate people.
My favorite Utah radio show, "Radio From Hell" in the mornings, used to host a segment called, "We Seen It." It was celebrity sightings and so forth.
There it is.
posted by Oyéah at 9:15 AM on December 6, 2018
My favorite Utah radio show, "Radio From Hell" in the mornings, used to host a segment called, "We Seen It." It was celebrity sightings and so forth.
There it is.
posted by Oyéah at 9:15 AM on December 6, 2018
Trap habituation is a thing. I had a long haired black cat who was clumsy, skittish and not too bright. On five different occasions he managed to escape out our front door, fall off our balcony, miss a jump out the window to try to reach the balcony or somehow get out of the house unseen. This always happened in the Spring on the first warm day the porch door and the windows got opened. Nobody ever say him fall.
So I would put out a live capture trap rented from the local Animal Rescue (Thank you, Saint John Animal Rescue League!!!) and bait it with cat food. The first racoon I caught was in the trap on a rainy night and managed to roll the thing out of shelter and through the mud. It was extremely difficult to determine what kind of distressed animal I had caught. The critter was inclined to cower and make frantic runs, making it scary for me to release it as I had once watched a raccoon make a credible attempt to murder an animal control officer. But the experience was not traumatic enough for anyone to prevent that racoon or one of his or her adolescent siblings from plunging into the cage the next night.
By the third year I was baiting the trap beside the house and putting a three-can stinky fish cat food buffet out in the open down the hill. I still caught an average of three or four raccoons or the same hungry raccoon each night. The fifth year the trap was entirely useless. The cat associated it with enraged raccoon and the raccoons associated it with supper. The last year I caught the cat by baiting the trap away from the house, putting out the buffet, pitching a tent in the backyard, filling it with bedding and lying as still as I could until three AM when the cat slunk nervously in and settled down at my side to sleep. I grabbed and the cat was restored to his anxious family. This was in April in Canada so I had to use a tent that did not need to be pegged down as the ground was still hard. Happily it was not sleeting that night but lying still while my toes and nose went numb was a small price to pay to get our lost one home.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:17 AM on December 6, 2018 [55 favorites]
So I would put out a live capture trap rented from the local Animal Rescue (Thank you, Saint John Animal Rescue League!!!) and bait it with cat food. The first racoon I caught was in the trap on a rainy night and managed to roll the thing out of shelter and through the mud. It was extremely difficult to determine what kind of distressed animal I had caught. The critter was inclined to cower and make frantic runs, making it scary for me to release it as I had once watched a raccoon make a credible attempt to murder an animal control officer. But the experience was not traumatic enough for anyone to prevent that racoon or one of his or her adolescent siblings from plunging into the cage the next night.
By the third year I was baiting the trap beside the house and putting a three-can stinky fish cat food buffet out in the open down the hill. I still caught an average of three or four raccoons or the same hungry raccoon each night. The fifth year the trap was entirely useless. The cat associated it with enraged raccoon and the raccoons associated it with supper. The last year I caught the cat by baiting the trap away from the house, putting out the buffet, pitching a tent in the backyard, filling it with bedding and lying as still as I could until three AM when the cat slunk nervously in and settled down at my side to sleep. I grabbed and the cat was restored to his anxious family. This was in April in Canada so I had to use a tent that did not need to be pegged down as the ground was still hard. Happily it was not sleeting that night but lying still while my toes and nose went numb was a small price to pay to get our lost one home.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:17 AM on December 6, 2018 [55 favorites]
In contrast to Jane the Brown's story, my dad had a raccoons-coming-in-the-cat-door situation which he tried to correct with a humane trap, but the first night he put the trap out he forgot to lock the cat door. In the morning the raccoons were once more in the basement eating the cats' food from their dish and Jack, the biggest roundest orangest dumbest cat, was outside in the trap eating cat food and looking pretty pleased with himself.
posted by little cow make small moo at 9:36 AM on December 6, 2018 [52 favorites]
posted by little cow make small moo at 9:36 AM on December 6, 2018 [52 favorites]
The Center for Biological Diversity has a compilation of wildlife releases on their YT channel. Freeeeeeeeeedom!
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:42 AM on December 6, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:42 AM on December 6, 2018 [9 favorites]
I have a trap habituation story! My mom would trap field mice and ground squirrels in her yard and release them in the nearby dry wash. When my granny got very old (95) she moved in with my mom. One morning they found the cutest little field mouse in the trap and released it in the wash. The next morning, another mouse. My granny said, "No, its the same mouse." No way, the mouse couldnt make it all the way back here from the wash! The next morning, they had caught a mouse again. Granny says, "Here, Ill prove its the same mouse", and she proceeded to paint its little tiny mousey nails with bright red polish before they released it. The next morning, they had caught a mouse, and sure enough it had shiny red fingernails!
They released her into a more distant trailhead and never saw her again.
posted by Illusory contour at 10:01 AM on December 6, 2018 [23 favorites]
They released her into a more distant trailhead and never saw her again.
posted by Illusory contour at 10:01 AM on December 6, 2018 [23 favorites]
> I remember hearing somewhere about how: If you threaten a human child, it will cry for its mother; a puppy will cower and submit, but a kitten will floof up and prepare to go down fighting, and this is why cats are always gonna be assholes awesome.
fixed that for you...
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:03 AM on December 6, 2018 [25 favorites]
fixed that for you...
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 10:03 AM on December 6, 2018 [25 favorites]
I don't want to think that the DWR doesn't know what they're doing, but how old is Mr. Murderbritches? Does he seem like 8 months? That's the youngest that they're supposed to get "evicted" from their mama's territory. He must be over 5 months if he's killing chickens on his own, but he does still look pretty kittenish to me.
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:22 AM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:22 AM on December 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Jane the Brown, it's lucky the cat didn't escape again, because you know the next iteration of this story ends up with you waking up with a raccoon snuggled up to you in the tent.
posted by tavella at 10:27 AM on December 6, 2018 [25 favorites]
posted by tavella at 10:27 AM on December 6, 2018 [25 favorites]
he is perfect i love him
posted by poffin boffin at 11:34 AM on December 6, 2018 [20 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 11:34 AM on December 6, 2018 [20 favorites]
Does he seem like 8 months? That's the youngest that they're supposed to get "evicted" from their mama's territory. He must be over 5 months if he's killing chickens on his own, but he does still look pretty kittenish to me.
I was wondering about that, too, dlugoczaj. it's possible that he lost his mother early and that's why he was going for the easy target of domestic animals. But I think it may be a case of necessity -- they can't keep and feed him for months without likely habituating him or him losing his wild skills. So the best option to keep him from ending up in a zoo is to find a good prey area to release him in and hoping for the best.
posted by tavella at 2:29 PM on December 6, 2018 [6 favorites]
I was wondering about that, too, dlugoczaj. it's possible that he lost his mother early and that's why he was going for the easy target of domestic animals. But I think it may be a case of necessity -- they can't keep and feed him for months without likely habituating him or him losing his wild skills. So the best option to keep him from ending up in a zoo is to find a good prey area to release him in and hoping for the best.
posted by tavella at 2:29 PM on December 6, 2018 [6 favorites]
Yeah, word on biology Twitter is that he is probably too small and young to survive, and that there are probably better ways they should have done this. 😔😔😔
posted by ChuraChura at 2:33 PM on December 6, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 2:33 PM on December 6, 2018 [6 favorites]
That kitten is not gonna survive winter, but yay we helped?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 2:59 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 2:59 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I might have to learn how to handle bobcats If I want to keep chickens from here on out. Here is a trail cam photo of a bobcat that may have killed 20 chickens over a matter of ~2 weeks: Bobcat at night! I live right next door to state trust land, just a mile of so from a national forest and hope that using a chicken wire fence over the top of my ~12x12ft chicken pen will keep both coyotes and this bobcat out of the pen and coop. I'm worried that a bobcat will get stuck in the chicken wire fence and volleyball net combo roof over the pen. If so I guess I'd need to call animal control if a bobcat *does* become entangled. I hope it will have the sense not to try to walk on to of that kind of roof.
posted by RuvaBlue at 3:07 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by RuvaBlue at 3:07 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
TINEEEE TABBEEEE!!!!!!!!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:39 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:39 PM on December 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I was wondering if we were being set up for a repeat of that old video of the animal control officer where a cat claws its way up his leg to the groin.
That is the most eloquent comparison of cat vs dog I've ever seen.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 4:01 PM on December 6, 2018
That is the most eloquent comparison of cat vs dog I've ever seen.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 4:01 PM on December 6, 2018
I remember hearing somewhere about how: If you threaten a human child, it will cry for its mother; a puppy will cower and submit, but a kitten will floof up and prepare to go down fighting, and this is why cats are always gonna be assholes/awesome.
My cat Alex walks like a staggered boxer and his goal is to fight everything on earth. When he hears the hawk that lives in the backyard screech, he puffs up and barrels towards the window with an attitude I can only describe as U WOT M8 I'LL BASH UR FUKIN EAD IN I SWEAR ON ME MUM. The hawk could eat him. Doesn't care. Sees a dog? Starts yelling and wants to fight it. I live with my mom for the moment so he lives in the bedroom. We had to put a baby gate in front of the door because he'd make sad/wounded cat noises to get the dogs to investigate and then they'd get close he'd slide a paw through the crack under the door and WHAP their noses with his claws extended. Cats!
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 4:55 PM on December 6, 2018 [14 favorites]
My cat Alex walks like a staggered boxer and his goal is to fight everything on earth. When he hears the hawk that lives in the backyard screech, he puffs up and barrels towards the window with an attitude I can only describe as U WOT M8 I'LL BASH UR FUKIN EAD IN I SWEAR ON ME MUM. The hawk could eat him. Doesn't care. Sees a dog? Starts yelling and wants to fight it. I live with my mom for the moment so he lives in the bedroom. We had to put a baby gate in front of the door because he'd make sad/wounded cat noises to get the dogs to investigate and then they'd get close he'd slide a paw through the crack under the door and WHAP their noses with his claws extended. Cats!
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 4:55 PM on December 6, 2018 [14 favorites]
More info from the Salt Lake Tribune. Seems like their wildlife folks know he's at risk but deemed it a better long term solution than sending him to a rehab facility or putting him down directly. Finger's crossed for Mr. Murderbritches!
I work an animal rehab where we had a very baby bobcat for a while and it was the cutest thing ever (and hungry! She was a very good eater). We sent it on to another facility where they had a baby bobcat as well because they do better with siblings.
posted by macfly at 9:20 PM on December 6, 2018 [9 favorites]
I work an animal rehab where we had a very baby bobcat for a while and it was the cutest thing ever (and hungry! She was a very good eater). We sent it on to another facility where they had a baby bobcat as well because they do better with siblings.
posted by macfly at 9:20 PM on December 6, 2018 [9 favorites]
From the same YouTube channel: Bear Mother and Cubs in a Food Coma Cuddle Puddle
posted by oakroom at 5:21 AM on December 7, 2018
posted by oakroom at 5:21 AM on December 7, 2018
Murderbritches in the SL Tribune, courtesy of Pat Bagley, my favorite cartoo ist in the world. Trigger warning political
posted by Oyéah at 1:24 PM on December 7, 2018
posted by Oyéah at 1:24 PM on December 7, 2018
Utah is not all conservative Mormons, and has pockets of people in a wide variety of more progressive subcultures. And I don't know anything about the specific place this happened. But do you think that whoever from their group captioned the video knew all the various meanings or connotations of boi, or is it likely they thought it was just doge for boy? (Or did they know but mean it as a shitty "joke" against the guy opening the cage :( ?)
posted by eviemath at 9:27 PM on December 8, 2018
posted by eviemath at 9:27 PM on December 8, 2018
"boi" as used in social network slang has nothing whatsoever with being gay. It's just a variation on boy in the sense of 'my boy', not children. Do a twitter search and see.
posted by tavella at 10:59 PM on December 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 10:59 PM on December 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Follow up from the SL Tribune: Why was the surly bobcat Mr. Murderbritches freed, while thousands of other ‘nuisance’ wild animals get a bullet?
posted by hydropsyche at 3:40 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 3:40 AM on December 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Yes! So happy to see a pic of Murderbritches with snacks. And to know more about the decision to trap and release.
posted by Secretariat at 8:55 AM on December 14, 2018
posted by Secretariat at 8:55 AM on December 14, 2018
It's fair; releasing animals whether from rehab or directly isn't about being absolutely certain they'll survive, it's about giving them the best chance you can. He judged that it had a reasonable shot of being able to fend for itself, so he gave it that chance and a little help in the form of a few meals worth of roadkill.
posted by tavella at 10:41 AM on December 14, 2018
posted by tavella at 10:41 AM on December 14, 2018
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Bad idea: Poking Mr. Murderbritches with a stick.
posted by carsonb at 7:07 AM on December 6, 2018 [12 favorites]