Pale Male and Lola evicted from NYC

And yet again, humankind flaunts its stupidity. What crime was so bad that these two lovely creatures committed that could have possibly warranted an eviction? A poop on someone's head? Probably well deserved.

It reminds me of the irrationality of a situation near where I live. Well, two situations actually.

Moron #1: Rich lady lives in The City and wants to move to the country, so she moves into a newly built exclusive residential community in my county. She is mad as hell! Damn those deer for eating all of her very expensive landscaping! Hmmm. Put up a fence. What?/ And destroy all of the beauty of nature surrounding me that I paid a million dollars for and then couldn't look at because of a fence? No way!! Can't I just kill them? She asked......

Moron #2: Similar rich lady scenario wanting to live in the country, but this time a bit more remote, like the Sierra Nevada foothills. Again, very upscale cluster of huge homes including and lovely amenity, the joggers path, not just around the community, but actually into the surrounding wilderness. Lady goes jogging all alone, gets attacked by one of many, many mountain lions that have lived in those foothills forever and the community of humans becomes outraged and wants to go on the warpath to rid the hills of these carniverous beasts!

Now...who the hell is in who's backyards here?

Man does so much damage to nature and its attempts to survive. Can't we just ship all the idiots to Nome Alaska to live with the Polar Bears? At least there, the bears will have a chance. Besides man, they are the only other animal on the planet who enjoys killing just for the thrill of the hunt.

NEW YORK - The abrupt removal of the nest belonging to Pale Male, a famous red-tailed hawk who lived on a tony Manhattan apartment building, had bird lovers up in arms on Thursday and demanding his home be restored.


Pale Male, once the topic of a documentary, is said to have been evicted for defecating on his doorstep and dropping the gnarled remains of pigeons outside the building entrance.
Supporters rallied for a second day on Thursday outside the apartment building overlooking Central Park, saying he gives a rare glimpse of wildlife to hardened city dwellers.

"We're just incensed by the disregard for New York City wildlife," said Stephanie Blackwood, who protested in front of the building on Thursday.

Her colleague, Jan-Peter Daniels, held a sign that read: "Successful, rich and mean. Give Pale Male his home back."

The bird gets his name from his unusually washed-out color. His unusual nest, built 12 stories above the park, inspired a book, a movie and a cult following. Bird lovers gathered there to observe the hawk and his mates, who raised more than 20 chicks in the nest since building it in 1993.

Some devotees whispered on Thursday about "guerrilla tactics" to have Pale Male reinstated.

Aaron Shmulewitz, a lawyer for the co-op, said the nest was removed on the advice of the building's engineer to comply with city laws governing building exteriors and because of health and safety concerns.

"I wouldn't want torn-up, dead animal carcasses dropped in front of my house," he said, adding he wondered what the reaction would be if the nest had fallen and hurt someone.

Bird lovers were not placated, pushing for the nest and the metal spikes that supported it to be put back. Gathered in Central Park, observers kept an eye out for Pale Male, who they said should have been engaged in a pre-mating ritual with his companion, Lola, but was not doing so.

"He could lose his mate to another male who has a nest," said William Fowler, who has watched Pale Male for years.

Bird supporters planned to hold another vigil outside the apartment building later in the day and invited New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to attend. The mayor's office said the event was not on Bloomberg's schedule.

Since his eviction, the bird has been seen making efforts to rebuild his nest. With the wind whipping up Fifth Avenue, he had made no noticeable progress.



Story by Nicole Maestri

Never heard of the family Mustelidae , I take it. You wanna see somethin' unpretty, take a look at a henhouse a badger or a fisher has visited. Martins, minks, weasels, ferrets, stoats, and ermines are real bloodthirsty critters too.

I'm not advocating animal-to-animal combat but pit bulls and roosters who are bred to fight don't need much encouragement to kill.

Granted, Noddy, but I dunno as that qualifies as pristinely inate behavior; selective breeding and purposeful training and conditioning come into play. A badger or fisher comes by it all natural.

Timber--

I avoid conflict whenever possible. I own a pit bull who glories in battle. She does not understand why everyone else disapproves of a little vigorous bloodshed.

Yes, she has been selectively re-bred for aggressiveness--as have fighting cocks.

As for the weasel family, they adore not so much combat as slaughter.

I'm sure if ferrets could be trained or bred to fight ferrets, someone would be organizing ferret fights.

As for polar bears, there isn't much else in the Arctic besides Innuits and seals--and both look like good eating. Polar bears manage to migrate through northern villages without slaughtering the local population.

I'm not sure, but it think in spite of the obesity epidemic that seals prove more calories for the coup than people do.

Wolverines are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Carnivora, family Mustelidae. They really like to get it on.

right you are Dyslexia. They'll wade into a fight with full grown bears and win. Nasty varmints them.

The wolverine and the North American badger are the not the same critter, but they're damned closely related; they can even interbreed - if the involved parties don't kill each other first. The Native American of the Northern Plains had one name for the beasts: "Carcajou". They revered the critter. Dunno who wrote this - prolly not a Native American - but I've long liked this poem:

Tears of the Wolverine

Carcajou--

By the native tongue,
Of a beast so named,
That fears no one
Kee-waa-har-kee

As it also called,
At the northest place,
At the snowy top
Raised high,

On the totem pole,
By the people who knows,
The story as told
Of a gluttonous beast,

That would not sleep,
Constant hunger,
Neverending feed
Hated by some,

Feared by all,
A restless spirit,
A tireless soul
Though terror and mayhem,

Are often blamed,
By this wolverine,
As it's also named
Just a creature,

Like any of us,
Trying to make it,
To live--
To survive.


Badgers and wolverines have been known to steal kills from wolves and cougars - neither of which critter backs down from much at all - apart from badgers and wolverines. Some fights just ain't worth it

I bet a pit bull could whip a fighting cock any time.

If people want to build their homes in parts of the country that are 'wild' and 'untamed,' they should be prepared to learn to live with wildlife. A man in Boulder, CO was charged and sentenced for killing a bear on his property. To me, this was right and proper.

Usually, these houses are very pricey and the owners have a romantic idea of living with nature-- until nature gets too close. If they are so naive or so self-involved to think that they can kill the creatures who have lived in that area for countless years, I think they should be charged and should do time for the crime. Too many people think they are "entitled" to a storybook existence without bothering to learn anything about the area and the animals who will be their neighbors.

Too much Disney, I guess.

Timber--

I like the poem. It speaks of the beast in me.

My opinions of Badgers have been strongly influenced by The Wind in the Willows. Wolverines I encountered at a tender age through Thornton W. Burgess, The Burgess Animal Book for Children.

Mr. B. tended to soften nature--in his universe Blue Jays "occasionally" ate other birds' eggs--or even other birds. He had nothing but terse disapproval for weasels and wolverines.

I've been impressed by the fact that an enterprising wolverine will chew its way into a cabin to chew an ax handle impregnated with human sweat (and salt).

Some inner city kids remind me of wolverines.


Edgar--

You get a lucky rooster who can hop to the head of a pit bull and the outcome would be in doubt. Pit bulls are very much square off and kill critters. Subtle manuvers are not in their rulebook.

Porcupines will gnaw through a wall to get at a nice sweat-stained tool handle, too, Noddy. They're fond as hell of oars and paddles in particular.

In the vein of folks too dumb to live near critters, a few years back, a kid - a city kid at that - at a Boyscout camp in the middle of the woods not far from here was mauled by a bear. Stern spoken and posted warnings abounded concerning the impropropriety of leavin' foodstuffs unsecured overnight. Sturdy, bear-proof lockers were the rule for anything edible. Anyhow, the kid's tent was ripped apart and dragged away, screamin' kid enmeshed, by a bear in the wee hours of the mornin'. The bear was driven off, and the kid sustained relatively mild injuries; it wasn't him the bear was after, it was the Little Debbie Chocolate Peanutbutter Cakes the kid had snuck into his tent.

Timber--

Two years ago, a non-custodial father took his kids on a Nature Walk. They saw a bear--with cubs.

Papa wanted pictures so the kids would remember the moment forever. He unpacked the lunch and lured the bears closer so he could have his kids and the bear cubs in the same shot.

The child was not badly injured. Papa was cited for interferring with wildlife and he's no longer permitted to take his offspring on nature walks.

I shouldn't laugh ... It isn't funny, but ..........

About 150 protestors, including the president of the Audubon Society, gathered outside the fancy shmancy building today, jeering at residents as they entered and left. Some tried sneaking in or out the back entrance, but the crowd spotted them. A meeting has been set up for Wednesday between the building management and the protestors to consider options. Under discussion is an enclosure on the roof suitable for nesting.

Potential problems: Does building management represent the co-op board? If not, what's the point of the meeting?

Won't a roof enclosure present the same problems--bird poop and dead pigeons?

Will Pale Male and Lola like the new digs and accept them?

This is fascinating, Roberta. Please report the results of the meeting.

My sister and I, after a long walk in Central Park and a few hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art...came upon the protestors on our walk back to her hotel.

They certainly were an enthusiastic crowd...and loudly booed each person (most of whom they knew) as they entered the building.

We did not actually realize what the protestors were protesting until today...and lucky for us. Instead of going to dinner, we undoubtedly would have become fellow protestors. She and I are both animal lovers.

I'm all ears about the meeting outcome...

The one year we lived in New York City was a year from which I've derived lifelong visual memories I didn't know I was accruing at the time. I guess it helps if where your parents moved to next was different. Anyway, there's a bunch of indelible visual and aural memories there.

On of them is my mind's view of my mother's friend, Mildred Travers' kitchen. (Mildred was nice, she let me play with her high heeled shoes...) Anyway, Mildred had some sort of attachment to her kitchen window where she could lay out bird seed for the pigeons, which she was very fond of.

My other memory is that it was 107 degrees in her kitchen. Kidding but not quite, as I do remember it was 100 degrees -
those were pre modern airconditioning days.