[Philmont]: Philmont Animals and Noise

Having gone early, medium, and late in various seasons, it has been my
experience that most Philmont wildlife very quickly recognize trekkers
as harmless, and ignore all but the noisiest Crews. The only way to
scare a trekker-familiarized mule deer with a hiking stick would be to
throw one at it. By August, only direct approach seems to set off alarm
bells. The only non-predatory animals I have encountered who were
unhappy with my presence even a hundred yards away were some elk. Bears
(I have seen over 50 in my 10 treks) seem to regard us as more of a pain
in the ass and/or an object of curiosity more than anything else -
though that can obviously change into something a lot more dangerous
when blood, vomit, or really pathetic bear safety practices are
involved. The only thing that still seems genuinely wary of humans are
mountain lions - I have seen one only (I think!), at some distance, in
all my treks. Mountain lions are also the only Philmont critter I am
genuinely concerned about, since they are (really) the only animal on
the Ranch that considers me to be on the menu all the time, as it were
(as an "exotic" on the back page). Thus far, that's a low level
concern, but with the significantly increased numbers of sightings these
past two years, I am certainly paying a little closer attention.

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Received on Wed Apr 6 04:33:55 2005