There's an elk herd out there. I guess they came from the park's founding. I may have details of this story wrong but it seems that when the County decided to turn that place into a park (it had been an artillery range during the war and you can still see concrete forms of some kind all over the place), it thought it had eliminated all the wildlife from the area.
Only to find that there was one, lone elk still wandering around out there. So I guess they changed their minds and found our boy some companionship. And they're still out there. Last time I was out that way, there was a fifteen- or sixteen-point buck in charge of all the ladies but I don't know if he's still around or not.
You can see wild turkey and white tail deer there (you can see white tail all over St. Louis County these days; right now, I'm just waiting for the black bears to come in because they're overdue). There's also a bison herd out at Lone Elk, that, like the elk, is basically used to all the cars that drive through. I took this out of my car window several years ago.
He was that close. Was I nervous? A little. But I figured I was okay since I was smart enough not to get out of my damned car.
12 comments:
Oh, thank you! I was reading down your post and looking at the photo, and saying to myself, Chris, that's not an elk! Very relieved when you got to the bison. We've got wild turkeys in the woods out here, and tons of deer. And last week there was a baby black bear in the north end of Durham. Wait for them; they'll be coming.
That is awesome. I would never have guessed that StLC would have elk and bison, but there you go.
Nature's reclamation of certain parts of Detroit has shown some fascinating things like deer (which exist in the inner ring suburbs, too) and coyotes. And we have a Lord's-honest wolverine residing in the Thumb and evidence of wolves in the northern Lower Peninsula.
But the elk are still up mostly in the Sunrise side of the LP or the UP.
No wolverines here, at least not yet. The state's trying to get more elk into more places. I saw a coyote not too far from where my sister used to live in Webster Groves so I have to figure there are more of them around. And while I've never actually seen one, there have been armadillo sightings here from time to time. Really interesting what nature is up to generally.
Those of you on Facebook have probably seen some version of the office pool meme, so
"WHO HAD BLACK BEARS FOR AUGUST?"
Oh, yeah, we've got coyotes in suburban Raleigh-Durham. People with small dogs are careful.
In South Florida, it was alligators. Cats are smart enough to avoid them, but dogs bark at them & that always end badly.
"St. Louis, famously known as the Gateway to the West, has become America’s reigning murder capital and a symbol of urban decay—trends accelerated in recent years by a soft-on-crime mayor and a social justice-minded prosecutor."
https://www.city-journal.org/st-louis-most-violent-city-in-america
Chris,
I completely lost track of you when themcj.com went TU two three years ago. Didn't know you had moved your blog to another platform.
It is good to see that you are still blogging.
Oregon,
Christ's site was hors de combat for a while. He's only been back up at this new site for 6-8 months. You haven't missed much. It's nice to get the old gang together.
Good to see you again, Oregon. Just talking about MO wildlife. And I didn't even mention our feral hogs. :-)
When I was in Yellowstone I saw a woman who was stupid enough to attempt a selfie with buffalo. Not killed that time.
Yeah, the concept of "wild animals" really needs to be emphasized in the schools way more than it apparently is. Seriously, though, if you're ever up this way, check Lone Elk out. There's no guarantee that you'll see either of the herds (if they're back in the timber or something) but Lord knows what'll drop by out there.
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