  Pistonian_revolution Member Username: Pistonian_revolution Post Number: 74 Registered: 05-2006 |
does anyone remember when there were reports of a Liger wandering around metro detroit? i remember reports of a black panther and a cougar appearing in sterling heights only a few years ago as well. who's ever seen a wild animal loose in the metro area? 4th street with its peacocks doesnt count. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1514 Registered: 12-2005 |
Yes, only about a year ago there was a report of a big cat in Shelby Township. It seemed there was no doubt about the authenticity of the sightings. Then there are the reports of pheasants in the newly ruralized areas of Detroit.  I've seen a possum in our front yard. I think he lives in the pipe under the driveway. We also have a wild rabbit in the back yard. I love animals. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 635 Registered: 01-2006 |
Don't get me started about what I've seen at the liquor store on the corner of my street & Plymouth Road. Grossly overweight broads in tube tops, hollering, "I'm tryin' to get my drink on." Yeeesh. Seriously, though, one night, many years ago, my brother and I exited westbound I-94 at 12 Mile, and saw an owl, just standing there at the top of the ramp, like he was on sentry duty or something. Sorry; that's all I got. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4005 Registered: 10-2003 |
Both times were right in North Warren/South Sterling Heights. the "liger" was captured on film off of Chicago Road near the Red Run River. The second big cat was spotted across from a Dental office near the TRW plant at 14.5 and Van Dyke. This one was also captured on film. the weird thing about the second one was that it had a house cat following it around like it was a buddy or sidekick. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 636 Registered: 01-2006 |
Oh!! Jimaz sees a 'possum near his/her home. Back before I had my delapidated garage demolished and removed, we had an opossum hanging out back there. Jimaz: Seriously. Kill that goddam thing, or hire someone to kill it. Disgusting, potentially vicious monsters. The idiot woman at Animal Control told me that they're not anything to worry about, that you can pet them like you would pet a kitten. BULLSHIT. I wanted them to come and get the vile, mutant sonofabitch, but they don't do that. You have to go down to their office (probably still on Jefferson, somewhat downriver) and pick up a cage-trap, which you set, with bait, and when the cat-rat with fangs ends up in it, you call them, and they come out to get it. "Like a kitten," my ass. The guy who came out had a long rod with clamps on the end. He up-tilted the cage so the gruesome beast couldn't dash out, and when he got it clamped up, you should have seen the show of glowing red eyes, razor teeth and claws... That thing looked like it could kill a very large wolf, easily, without even busting a sweat. I'm not making this up. I can appreciate that you love animals, but that's not an animal, it's a hell-spawn demon. Oh, and they took the opossum away in a truck, but I had to return the cage. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 8278 Registered: 12-2003 |
Certainly hellspawn IF it had rabies...which is a viable option. Last summer I saw a fox running around just west of the new State Park on the river...it was slinky smooth as it ran...unmistakably a fox. Red one, too, just beautiful. I think it was stalking the pheasant that have made that area home. I watched a pack of wild dogs in the Thai restaurant parking lot on the north end of Eastern Market last weekend...fascinating behavior. BEST wild animals were when they used to let the albino deer herds wander on Belle Isle...they were quite the ghostly gangs in the fog that used to hang over the soccer fields in the wee morning hours. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 599 Registered: 08-2006 |
My folks get Coyotes, deer, fox, peregrine falcons, turkey buzzards and giant hawks on thier property in SE Southfield. | ||
Quozl Member Username: Quozl Post Number: 209 Registered: 07-2005 |
I remember when I hung around with Larry (Pun) Plamondon and John Sinclair with my cousin back in the late 60's we saw a boatload of White Panthers. Does that count? | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 82 Registered: 10-2003 |
Some bored soul compiled this fine list of rediculous cat sightings. Enjoy. http://home.cinci.rr.com/kd8af h/panther.htm | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 83 Registered: 10-2003 |
PS I very much enjoy the "composite sketch of eyewitness accounts". How did that go? Umm, it looked like a panther. Oh my gosh, your drawing looks exactly like it! | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1518 Registered: 12-2005 |
Ravine, thanks for your concern about my 'possum. I'm armed. | ||
Chitaku Member Username: Chitaku Post Number: 1121 Registered: 03-2006 |
I've seen pheasants in Woodbridge and a Fox near St. Anne's, plenty of wild dog packs. | ||
Ha_asfan Member Username: Ha_asfan Post Number: 99 Registered: 06-2006 |
in the 50's monkeys escaped from the zoo and huntington woods was swinging....lately, in Huntington Woods, I regularly see foxes on my street, peacocks, turkey buzzards....and a LOT of owls. | ||
Ventura67 Member Username: Ventura67 Post Number: 105 Registered: 12-2003 |
Oh, I love going in the Michigan Central and seeing the ratty-looking Racoons and Possums walk right in front of you and your tripod like your not even there. There's some cats in there too, but my guess is they don't mess with those bad-ass Ghetto Possums! | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 600 Registered: 08-2006 |
This is a great time of year to see Horned Owls as the trees are defoliated. There's a nesting pair at the Metro Beach metro park. I've even heard that the Arctic Snowy owls like to spend their winters in our balmy region, some have said they can be seen at the airport. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 2402 Registered: 02-2005 |
The one about coyotes in SE Southfield was suprising to me. I think the birds of prey that you see in the inner city are pretty cool. There are the falcons, and various hawks, downtown. I've seen hawks in some east side/GP neighborhoods also, including their nest high in an old elm tree. Of course there are the pheasants. Becoming common on the urban prairie...and I think its sweet when some people get 'resident' pheasants in their backyards (i've heard of this in GP Park and City.) Skunks roam my inner-Ann Arbor neighborhood at night, and I'm always terrified of the possible ramifications if I walk in the wrong spot... | ||
Gambling_man Member Username: Gambling_man Post Number: 957 Registered: 11-2003 |
I remember a few years back an 1800lb steer getting loose from Eastern Market and lumbering down Gratiot..... | ||
Dds Member Username: Dds Post Number: 123 Registered: 10-2006 |
Pheasants are everywhere that there are overgrown lots. There were about half a dozen living south off of Jefferson between St. Jean and Conner. North of Mack, east of Alter there are probably dozens. On quiet mornings in the fall you can hear them easily. At one time there were a pair of Peregrine Falcons living on, or near the Federal Building. My brother had some cool pictures of them hitting doves in midair, and then dining on them on the roof. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 381 Registered: 04-2006 |
I used to hate all of the skunks they have in Ann Arbor. I was afraid that I would get sprayed one night. Ann Arbor was also good for a raccoon swirling up out of a garbage can when you least expected it. I saw a fox running through the snow one late night/early morning there too. The most exotic thing I can remember from Detroit are the opossum. There was no shortage of them in the summer. I smelled a skunk one night while driving on the Southfield Fwy just south of 8 Mile, but I never actually saw one in the city. I saw a raccoon or two in the city too but nothing the size of the ones in Ann Arbor. I still think some of those raccoons in Ann Arbor may have actually been wolverines in disguise... | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 604 Registered: 08-2006 |
My dad always liked to keep a bird feeder in the backyard, that always brings the wildlife around, both the prey and the predator types. I don't do it at my place, never there much. | ||
Al_t_publican Member Username: Al_t_publican Post Number: 152 Registered: 06-2004 |
I remember what Malcolm X once said about Detroit... "The pheasants have come home to roost." | ||
B24liberator Member Username: B24liberator Post Number: 4 Registered: 01-2007 |
I'm glad the pheasants seemed to have found refuge in the urban prairie... Because the coyote has virtually erased them from the farmlands of s.e. Michigan-- | ||
Michmeister Member Username: Michmeister Post Number: 100 Registered: 10-2006 |
Bet the dog pack didn`t get past the Thai restaurant . | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1526 Registered: 12-2005 |
I guess it wouldn't count as a wild animal but back in the 60s a couple of toothless yahoos wrassled down an enormous escaped hog in the ditch in front of our house. I would have cheered for the hog if not so distracted by the spectacle of live toothless yahoos in their unnatural habitat. Bacon, yum! About a week ago I saw some kind of hawk that had caught another bird. He was securing his grip on the thing in our driveway while being attacked by other birds. Last Summer I saw a couple of turkey vultures flying through the woods near the Clinton River. Amazing how something that large can so easily navigate through dense tree branches. | ||
Gary Member Username: Gary Post Number: 212 Registered: 02-2004 |
I see red tailed hawks all the time in the woods behind my school. We also have at least one (probably more) skunks living nearby because I have seen them, smelled them, and seen their tracks. Possums are vermin. I don't see any live ones in my area, but I see quite a few dead ones along 9 Mile, Lahser, and Evergreen. When I was a kid, my neighbors had a racoon holed up in their attic. How he got there or where he came from, I don't know, but he was shore 'nuff in there. They sent their German Shepherd up there to take care of that varmint, but that dog came screaming back down the attic steps with his tail between his legs about 30 seconds later with a large gash across his nose. Another neighbor eventually stepped in and shot the racoon in the eye with a .22 rifle. True story. | ||
Eric_w Member Username: Eric_w Post Number: 5 Registered: 02-2007 |
In the city I've seen pheasants,rabbits, possums, racoons and ducks & geese. In Rouge Park I've seen hawks & owls and Bobwhite Quail. There have been dozens of reported sightings of big cats all over Michigan. Deer are in many of the suburbs and coyotes too. When I worked in Highland Park there was a pretty big flock of Ringnecks out behind our building. | ||
Al_t_publican Member Username: Al_t_publican Post Number: 158 Registered: 06-2004 |
There used to be a helluva lot more two-legged doe in Detroit years ago. Did someone put a bounty on them? | ||
Michmeister Member Username: Michmeister Post Number: 103 Registered: 10-2006 |
They set a big trap, waited, and collected the booty. |
