The Skin of the Seahorse

Just get close to a seahorse. 

Real close.

And I bet you'll say to yourself..."unbelievable..."  

The silvery iridescence on the Lined seahorse above is like a powdering of stardust.  Amazing!  

As are the details on the seahorses in the following photos.  I think they will blow you away....

The Zebra's Dark Side

The black zebra...

Sometimes, a zebra is born with strange stripe patterns and large areas of black...even spots.

These photos illustrate some of the variety possible in the stripes or, in the top and bottom photo, spots of the zebra. Kind of amazing...

This Grant's zebra, below, looks like his stripes have been partially erased.

And check this out...spots among the stripes; looks like chocolate running down the stripes and mixing them up!

God sure made an amazing world of zebras.

To see "white" zebras, check out my blog post "When Zebras Go Pale..."

For more info on the incredible "chocolate" zebra at the top of this post go here.

The Zebra's Dark Side

The black zebra...

Sometimes, a zebra is born with strange stripe patterns and large areas of black...even spots.

These photos illustrate some of the variety possible in the stripes or, in the top and bottom photo, spots of the zebra. Kind of amazing...

When Dogs and Coyotes Cross

This is supposed to be a coyote pack.  But it's not.  It's a pack of coyote-dogs.

In Bouquet Canyon, where I grew up, we owned five acres in the National Forest (it wasn't forested, though; it was like desert - juniper and sagebrush). We were basically in the middle of nowhere. And we had dozens of cats.  Well, I should say a succession of dozens of cats. These cats were safe from harm around our house and our dogs but like most cats they were too... curious.  

So in the night they wandered up into the canyon hills behind us.

And in the night the coyotes were so hungry, that they wandered down from the canyon hills behind us.

  

Well, those coyotes crossed paths with our cats so often that we had a tough time keeping live cats around the place.  Even a small dog that coyotes come across could turn into a coyote snack. 

But if coyote and dog meet and the dog is too large to be a snack... 

... and the timing is right...

... and love is in the air...

there will be puppies.

Coyote-dog puppies.  Or coydogs for short.

Like Tawny here:

Tawny was a young coydog someone gave us in Bouquet Canyon.  She was buff colored and had yellow eyes and huge ears.  She disappeared when she was almost two years old. I wonder if she joined the coyote pack that ran the hills.

But coydogs are rare.  Only about 2% of all coyotes are coydogs. And they can look pretty different from each other.  Here are some wild coydogs you can compare to a pure coyote:

Some wild coydogs photographed in the fields:

But like Tawny, coydogs can be good pets. I remember Tawny as very friendly, intelligent, and dog-like. 

Check out these pet coydogs... they're pretty cool:

But there's a dark side; some pet coydogs can be timid and may bite out of fear....so, maybe not a great choice for a family pet.

But they sure are fun to look at, right?

So, have you ever seen a strange-looking coyote?  Let us know what you saw...

When Dogs and Coyotes Cross

This is supposed to be a coyote pack.  But it's not.  It's a pack of coyote-dogs.

In Bouquet Canyon, where I grew up, we owned five acres in the National Forest (it wasn't forested, though; it was like desert - juniper and sagebrush). We were basically in the middle of nowhere. And we had dozens of cats.  Well, I should say a succession of dozens of cats. These cats were safe from harm around our house and our dogs but like most cats they were too... curious.  

So in the night they wandered up into the canyon hills behind us.

And in the night the coyotes were so hungry, that they wandered down from the canyon hills behind us.

That Creature Sitting Next to You

You swing onto the Portland train one morning, find a seat and sit down.  You look across the aisle, and there.  There is a wild dog of some sort staring back at you. 

Quite a shock.  

It looks very like a fox, or a coyote.  Maybe.... a wolf?  

You know that if it's a wolf, you better back away as quietly as possible, with your umbrella at the ready.  But if it's a fox or coyote, you can probably safely leave him alone.  

But how will you know what to do?



Identifying the creature sitting next to you is crucial. If only you know what to look for...

Let me help

First, take a look at the differences in size, below:

But unless a wolf, a coyote, and a fox are all sitting together on your train, (not likely), comparing their sizes is not going to work. 

Color? well, no. Coloring of the three animals can look very similar, so that's not good either.

Okay, ears. That's a good start, because coyote and fox ears are fairly large and pointy. But wolf ears are smaller and have rounded tips.

And snouts?  Yes!  Coyotes and foxes have narrow snouts, wolves' snouts are broad, like a dog's. 

Well, wonderful.  Let's take a closer peek at our train companion:

Hmmm, slim snout and pointy ears.  Whew!  So it's not a wolf.  

Then it's got to be a coyote or fox.  Now what?

Eyes...are a dead giveaway.  Did you know that the pupils in a fox's eye are slit like a cat's?  But coyotes have round pupils like a dog does.

And tails!  Fox tails are so long that they can drag on the ground, while coyote tails only reach their back hocks.

Let's test these facts on our companion. The train photo doesn't reveal much about the eyes...but I think that tail is short, or it would be wrapped around the body more. 

Sooo.....coyote!  

Also known as the Prairie wolf, and the American jackal, and even the Brush wolf.

Whoa, lots of names for this clever guy.

He lives almost everywhere in North America; even, as we've seen, in the cities. And now we know how to identify him! 

How about I make up a little chart...visuals really work for me when I'm trying to learn something:

Got it?  Good.  Because, uh, there's a little test...

See if you can identify these animals as wolf, coyote, or fox:

How was it?  As scary as sitting next to a coyote on a train?  

Let's see how you did.  

Check out the answers below:

If you did well, you could easily be certified to ride the trains in Portland without any negative affect.  Congratulations! 

But now let me give you a little hint...if you ever see a bear curled on the train seat across the aisle from you, don't stop to identify.  Just run!  

:)

That Creature Sitting Next to You

You swing onto the Portland train one morning, find a seat and sit down.  You look across the aisle, and there.  There is a wild dog of some sort staring back at you. 

Quite a shock.  

It looks very like a fox, or a coyote.  Maybe.... a wolf?  

You know that if it's a wolf, you better back away as quietly as possible, with your umbrella at the ready.  But if it's a fox or coyote, you can probably safely leave him alone.  

But how will you know what to do?