Those were the words of "Eyes of the Night" when she arrived to begin her bookkeeping chores. To do a thorough test, she had brought four dozen eggs. She put out an egg surrounded by pieces of chicken to see who might come. The mink appeared, sniffed the egg, said no thanks, and made trip after trip for chicken.
Mink w/ egg
 Mink |
 Mink |
An hour later, the nice male red fox became the next testee. He saw the egg surrounded by his favorite muffin, a piece of pork, and a piece of chicken. He sniffed everything and took the egg. "Eyes" put out another egg, heard a mousetrap click, and added a fresh, warm mouse. The fox came back, sniffed the mouse, and again took the egg.
"Eyes" wondered, “How many eggs might he carry?” She put out two eggs. The fox put one deep into his mouth and tried over and over to add the other but couldn’t quite hold it.
Red fox attempting two eggs
In total, he took six eggs. When he came back, there was no egg. He took the muffin and added the mouse to his mouthful, and left for the night, leaving behind the pork and chicken.
The raccoon visited but didn’t get tested with eggs. Then came the Peekaboo raven the next morning. We thought he was here for the ham fat like he had taken the day before. I sat perfectly still and didn’t dare move to aim the camera as the raven walked out of sight and then flew by with his wide-open bill somehow holding an egg. The egg won again! "Eyes" still has eggs left to test the fisher, the shy fox, the two raccoons, and maybe another raven.
Whoops, the shy fox came just now, immediately grabbed an egg, saw me and somehow dropped the egg as he leaped and ran. Now raccoons are in the yard but no time to see what they do. "Eyes" will be watching.
On another note, "Computer Carolyn" found a link to the 15 or 20-minute Q&A on Wisconsin Public Radio’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Friday, February 23rd. https://www.wpr.org/shows/morning-show/bears-awakening-midwest-video-game-developers-wisconsins-young-workers When you open this link, a picture comes up with a red oval with the word ‘Listen.’ Click it and the interview begins.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center