Around Western Pennsylvania, the coons have been getting rabies, in big numbers! The game comm. is setting out bait with anti-rabies medicine in it. But, i haven't seen near as many on the roads here as there were last year! Maybe they don't like the new diet!
Our problem here is tame wild geese! They have settled in most every lake and pond and wet spot all over. Foolish folk feed them, and they stay year around, never flying south from cold weather. I think some near us died from lead poisoning about a month ago! yeah, the pond owner scattered lead shot all around his lake, and i think the geese swallowed too much of it, and sank! I haven't heard any geese honking lately!
One of our county parks has lots of "used to be nice" pavilions, but the geese have fouled them all so badly that the shelters and yards can't be used, including the picnic tables, etc. And, it is mostly because of the ill-informed feeding the "poor geese"! Heck-why fly away to other climes, when ya get fed good every day, winter and summer?! End of rant! Rustyj

Dale
The raccoon are thinning out here also.

The DNR started dropping a hybred or whatever you wish to call it, type of rattle snake out of helicopters last Summer to help thin the deer popluation. By drop, I means 100's of them at a time and mostly in the southwestern part of the state. This new breed of rattler has a pattern much like a Copperhead. But has rattlers. They also have a black ring approx 1/2" wide at the base of their tail where the rattles start. This new breed of rattler is very aggressive when compared to the Eastern or Timber rattler. The real kicker that gets people. It is against the law to kill them.

Back to the subject. People here think that these new snakes that can kill a full grown deer with one bite have also been takeing a toll on just about any animal that they can find to bite. Including racoon and rabbits. Disease I beleive is really taking the biggest toll on them.

Black Bear are now being seen in places that they have never been seen before. We have very healthly black bear popluation. At the mine where I work, we have been "baby setting" a mother and her three cubs. She has a tracking collor for the DNP have been interested in her. She has had three cubs each year for the past 6 years. Very rare for a female bear here to have that many cubs each year. The mama has some cute and lively little ones this year. We love to watch them play within 50 of us when we are working. We do and will not feed them. For one guy use to feed some bears at the site and they busted windows and ripped apart the inside of a lot of equipment looking for food..

Hippy
What state are you in. Just so I'll know where to tip toe.

I scared a coon from under a bush by my fromt gate. So I'm wondering if he had rabies. This was at noon one day.

We also are seeing black bear where they never were before. Or at least we didn't know they were there.
Bob

Bob
I live in the Southwesten part of West Virginia.
The major counties that have had this new breed of rattle snakes dropped into them are, Lincoln, Boone, Logan, Mingo, McDowell and Wyoming.

Rabies, that word scares me. We are fortunate enough not have rabies here in Australia, *touch wood*, what a mess that would make with our native animals.

The hybrid snakes scare me too, heck snakes scare me, but add hybrid to anything makes it even more frightening. There should be a better way to cull the deers, I'm sure hunters could come up with an idea. This way the deer are going to thin out and then you'll still be stuck with the snakes. Stupid. Here in Australia we have major problems with species introduced to cull another pest. Cane toads are a major one, they were introduced to rid sugar cane of a type of beetle. Turns out they didn't like eating the beetle, prefering native frogs and breeding to unbelievable numbers.
It just makes me shudder.