Trained Squirrels

fltsfshr

Rudolph better be careful

 

Deer in the yard are not much a problem as they are an opprtunity.

 

no problem here



i like him!~~

 

Sometimes the evolutionary psychologists go a little too far in assuming all behaviors are adaptive, but I think they are right on the money when they point out that people are fascinated by edible animals. People like deer, rabbits, elk, goats, etc. Or if "like" isn't the word, then at least they find them interesting. Much more so than animals that aren't generally worth eating, like mice, voles, small lizards, etc.

The wildlife community sometimes call animals like deer "charismatic megafauna" -- large, interesting animals.

 

But can't we like them or find them interesting just because they are?

 

My wife grew up on a ranch. Her philosophy was and still is. Don't name your food.

fltsfshr

beside that is one tough squirrel, defending his personal bird feeder lol

 

In addition to the girls and their kids, we have been visited by a gang of three young bucks lately. Yesterday, they were in the back doing the rack crash thing. I'd never seen three of them going at each other at the same time. Then there was the guy last week who went crashing through the 15 foot manzanita and came out with an addition to his rack.

 

Years ago, when we lived in downtown Boulder, the mule deer were like giant rats, but protected. We had a fallow orchard behind our house, and it was deer heaven.

One year we had a doe with twin fawns. When she got tired of dealing with them, she'd lead them around the outside of the block and beside our house to the back yard, and then she'd hop over the fence back into the orchard to have some time to herself. The fawns would then bleat (it sounded like baby goats, only more pathetic) to try to get her attention. It was awful.

We also had deer on our raised deck, trying to get at the bird feeders. They seem like magnificent creatures to city people, but in reality they were a royal PITA.

The trained squirrel idea, though, seems like a good solution -- except then you've got squirrels to contend with, which are like rats with furry tails. HPH

 

Well that's just it ... there is a difference between ultimate cause and proximate cause. For instance, the ultimate cause for why people have sex is because it is adaptive to have children (in fact, that's pretty much the definition of adaptive!). But the proximate cause is because they like it. The evolutionary psychology comes in to play by trying to figure out how the ultimate cause creates the proximate cause, which in turn creates the behavior.

In other words, people are fascinated by deer because they find them interesting (proximate cause) and their brains are designed to find them interesting because they are a handy food source (ultimate cause).

 

Right after we bought our house in 1994 we planted some Asian pear trees, and apple trees in our yard. We also started a strawberry patch. We're city folk, what did we know.

The Asian pear trees have done very well. For the last 4 years they blossomed with about 100 pears each. The deer have eaten very well and enjoy them. So far, in all of the years, we've only managed to have two, and that's only because we picked them before they ripened. Same with the apple trees.

Our strawberry patch was very productive. We've got some of the best fed squirrels and chipmonks in all of New Jersey. Again, in all the years, we've only managed to have a handfull of strawberrys, and only because we've picked them before they ripened.

Yes, we have a deer problem.