I had to smile at this report from Wyoming.
At least one fox has been stealing shoes from campers in Grand Teton National Park, so far racking up a score of at least 32 shoes absconded with.
It’s become such a problem that the sly fox has become the park’s “most wanted” criminal.
There might be more than one fox involved — a vulpine shoe theft ring, if you will.
Wildlife experts aren’t sure why the fox or foxes decided to start making off with shoes from the Lizard Creek campground. It could be because the furry bandits like their scent, even though humans find stinky shoes repugnant.
Or, it could be out of curiosity with a touch of mischief.
There's more at the link.
It's odd how animals can develop a taste, or desire, for human artifacts. Crows and magpies are renowned for picking up small, shiny things, and even giving them as gifts to humans in exchange for food. Dogs will chew on their owner's shoes, cats will collect and hide small things, and so on.
In Africa, one of the oddest lessons I learned is that one should not carry a bush knife with either a leather-wrapped hilt (as in the famous Marine Corps KA-BAR knife) or a soft wood hilt that can absorb liquids and odor. If one uses it to clean, skin and joint an animal, blood will impregnate the hilt, which will retain that scent. Scavengers such as hyenas can scent that from a surprisingly long distance, and will raid your camp site at night while everyone's asleep, picking up the alluringly smelly knife and taking it with them. If you find it again, the hilt will be chewed to shreds.
The footsy fox in Wyoming makes me wonder what future archaeologists will think, if they excavate its den and find it packed from top to bottom with single shoes, all of different sizes and designs . . .
Peter
8 comments:
One of our indoor cats is always playing with an elastic hair band, even placing in the water bowl. Maybe its the smell of our hair ? I've noticed a lot of dogs pay attention to feet, but I figured it was where the shoe has been which piqued their interest.
This isn't the first time. I've heard about this since the 1970s. I blame careless campers. I think humans in the field should take care to avoid habituating wild animals. it's funny, at least until it's not.
This leads to the thought, what if the single shoes have matching socks? Although those may be less easy to remove from the individuals. ;)
My daughter had a black lab that would chew on only the left shoe of every pair she could find of her daughters. There were a total of six people in the house and the dog only picked the left shoe of one person.
When we were camping at Yellowstone, we had a chipmunk that literally unzipped our tent to steal the peanut M&Ms from her purse.
The park ranger didn't like it when I said, "Relocate him, or I got a pellet rifle. Any animal that is already that familiar with humans is an accident waiting to happen."
It must be a female fox ... married men will understand what I mean. Ahem!
Phil B
I kid you not. This is a true story.
I went camping with GF at Kirk Creek in Big Sur overlooking the Pacific.
In the wee hours I awake to a noise. From the tent I watch the most unbelievable thing.
The lid of my ice chest is held closed by positioning a wood picnic table directly upon it. I see a gang of racoons lifting the picnic table so that another can open the lid. The raccoon opens the lid. They abscomb with a pound of butter from within the ice chest.
The event over and done, I return to sleep. In the morning I see it wasn't just a dream.
My hand on the Holy Bible, I state this as truth and without any embellishment.
Swiper, No Swiping!
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