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Day Of The Animals: Tales Of Man Vs Beast (And Man Suffers)

Hmm, that's a thought.

My new car has an electronic handbrake; you pull up on a switch on the console between the seats to set it and press down on the switch to release it. If I park my car, apply the handbrake and turn off the ignition - I wonder if my dog (I don't yet have a dog, but hopefully will be getting one in the next year or so) stepping on the switch would realease the brake and cause the car to possibly roll away? :thought:

Practical experimentation called for..

If you leave it in gear or 'park' if automatic, with the engine switched off it won't move even if the dog releases the handbrake for a laugh.
 
Just tested it; once the ignition is turned off you can't release the brake with the switch.

So my future, theoretical, dog won't be going "Zoom Zoom" in my Mazda any time soon. :D
 
Just tested it; once the ignition is turned off you can't release the brake with the switch.

So my future, theoretical, dog won't be going "Zoom Zoom" in my Mazda any time soon. :D
You just have to work out how to release the handbreak if you have a flat battery and need to bump start it now :p
 
My Jeep came with an electric hand (emergency) brake. Actually I like the older lever controlled mechanical ones this has some automatic feature that if a door is open the brake turns on (no work around). At times backing up the boat I wish for the old style.
 
My Jeep came with an electric hand (emergency) brake. Actually I like the older lever controlled mechanical ones this has some automatic feature that if a door is open the brake turns on (no work around). At times backing up the boat I wish for the old style.

I'm a big fan of the old school cable-operated hand brake with a floor lever beside the driver's seat. On more than one occasion it's helped me avoid or minimize an impact when the brake system's hydraulics or power assist failed. When the brake pedal collapses all the way to the floorboard and the adrenalin kicks in you'd be surprised how effectively you can slow or stop a moving vehicle with this simple apparatus.
 
I'm a big fan of the old school cable-operated hand brake with a floor lever beside the driver's seat. On more than one occasion it's helped me avoid or minimize an impact when the brake system's hydraulics or power assist failed. When the brake pedal collapses all the way to the floorboard and the adrenalin kicks in you'd be surprised how effectively you can slow or stop a moving vehicle with this simple apparatus.
Spot on
 
My Jeep came with an electric hand (emergency) brake. Actually I like the older lever controlled mechanical ones this has some automatic feature that if a door is open the brake turns on (no work around). At times backing up the boat I wish for the old style.
At least you can’t do a Brian Harvey with an electric handbrake.
 
'Asbo Swan' In Letterbox Rumpus

Comical footage shows 'Cedric the Asbo swan' rattling the letterboxes of a row of houses opposite the lake where he lives in Northampton.

Nobody has been able to work out why the bothersome bird keeps poking his beak through their doors.

Locals have been left in a flap by Cedric's bizarre behaviour which sees him noisily clanging the metal letterboxes, sometimes for up to three hours.

“At the side of our houses there's a small lake which was dug out 20 years ago for drainage.

“The swan has been there for seven or eight years with its mate.

“Around this time of year five years ago the male swan started messing around my front door.

“It rattles the letterbox with its beak and stands in front of the glass.

“He does it every year until the summer then doesn’t bother for the rest of the year," he said.

"It is a flipping nuisance.

“He starts by rattling the letter box then bashes the metal with its beak quite loudly.

Why the swan does what he does is a mystery


Video at link.
 
Actually, this sounds like a win-win outcome rather than fauna 1, people 0:
Stray dog steals unicorn, becomes internet sensation:
Stray dog desperately wants stuffed unicorn, tries to steal it multiple times, animal control buys it
"A stray dog in North Carolina knew exactly what it wanted and it was not taking no for an answer. Luckily, an animal control officer with a big heart made the dog’s dream come true."
 
A wolverine is a very powerful animal that resides up at the northern edges of the boreal forest. They've been known to fight black bears over carrion. The bear is 3 to 8 times its size, this goes a long way towards telling how bold, strong and nasty the wolverine is. Their range crosses over, "that is wolverines and beavers". Wolverines range goes further north and beaver range further south. We have beavers in NYS. Y have go > 500 miles north before on could encounter a wolverine. I've been told by trappers up north that they will eat there leg off to escape a trap But as I mentioned they have a large overlap of territory n the boreal forest of Canada and Alaska.
 
A wolverine is a very powerful animal that resides up at the northern edges of the boreal forest. They've been known to fight black bears over carrion. The bear is 3 to 8 times its size, this goes a long way towards telling how bold, strong and nasty the wolverine is. Their range crosses over, "that is wolverines and beavers". Wolverines range goes further north and beaver range further south. We have beavers in NYS. Y have go > 500 miles north before on could encounter a wolverine. I've been told by trappers up north that they will eat there leg off to escape a trap But as I mentioned they have a large overlap of territory n the boreal forest of Canada and Alaska.

They sound like Jack Russell Terriers! I had a JRT who attacked an Irish Wofhound and put it to flight!
 
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From what I've read about wolverine; they're one animal that I would not particularly want to come into contact with. Here in Britain we have the weasel and stoat; the wolverine is also a mustelid, but weighs as much as 70lbs and has been known to kill deer.

@Jim are wolverine any threat to Humans?

1616877707617.png
 
Ravens in Alaska have learned to forage by bullying and robbing shoppers in the grocery store parking lot.
Some Alaska Costco shoppers say ravens steal their groceries

Some Alaska Costco shoppers said they’ve had their groceries stolen by ravens in the store parking lot.

Matt Lewallen said he was packing his groceries into his car in the parking lot of an Anchorage Costco when ravens swooped in to steal a short rib from his cart, the Anchorage Daily News reported Friday.

“I literally took 10 steps away and turned around, two ravens came down and instantly grabbed one out of the package, ripped it off and flew off with it,” Lewallen said. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/alaska-anchorage-wildlife-birds-99b4db455f6d8bd9d18db091d0eeacb7
 
From what I've read about wolverine; they're one animal that I would not particularly want to come into contact with. Here in Britain we have the weasel and stoat; the wolverine is also a mustelid, but weighs as much as 70lbs and has been known to kill deer.

@Jim are wolverine any threat to Humans?

View attachment 37308
Here are some more facts about the wolverine, and avcording to this there have been no recorded deaths caused by wolverines of humans, but they more than likely could.

https://www.planetdeadly.com/animals/wolverine-facts-or-wolverine-kill-man
 
From what I've read about wolverine; they're one animal that I would not particularly want to come into contact with. Here in Britain we have the weasel and stoat; the wolverine is also a mustelid, but weighs as much as 70lbs and has been known to kill deer.

@Jim are wolverine any threat to Humans?

View attachment 37308
I don't believe they would attack a person for food. But if Y disrupted it while eating or with young watch out (for the giant raccoon from hell). Any animal that would try to and sometimes does fight with black bears for food and sometimes wins must have power and guts. I've seen the damage a bear (black and barren ground grizzlies) can cause including breaking down cabin doors if ones nor careful with food up north.
 
I don't believe they would attack a person for food. But if Y disrupted it while eating or with young watch out (for the giant raccoon from hell). Any animal that would try to and sometimes does fight with black bears for food and sometimes wins must have power and guts. I've seen the damage a bear (black and barren ground grizzlies) can cause including breaking down cabin doors if ones nor careful with food up north.
I was watching 'Life Below Zero' (a tv show about peole living in the extremes of Alaska) last night, one of the featured characters Sue Aikins, who runs a refueling stop alone in Kavik (about as far north as you can get in Alaska) she had a wolverine in her camp and said "although wolverines have never been known to attack humans, out here alone im not a human to a wolverine, i'm just another food source". She has encountered bears, wolves etc and she says she fears wolverines the most.
 
(Transplanted from the Magpies thread)

It is sort of common when you are growing up and injury is rare.

You've just got to keep your head down, shield your eyes, and get out of their nesting zone. They'll leave you alone once you've put distance between you and the nest.


Not a magpie story, but last summer the missus & I was out walking, when we were attacked by a buzzard (which I didn’t even think existed living wild in Britain)

The Buzzard didn’t attack from the air, but instead ran out from underneath a hedgerow, wings a flapping and hissing and spitting at us. We tried to ignore it by just carrying on walking, but the thing decided to attack. It came at me first and well discretion being the better part of valour, I ran for it. It chased me for about 30 yards back up the country lane, and I continued to run until I heard my wife scream. I stopped and turned, only to see the Buzzard was now chasing Mrs DT and Junior DT.

It gave up after a while, but now we were all standing 100 yards apart from each other in this quiet country lane, with the angry buzzard in between us, still flapping her wings and hissing and spitting.

Wondering what to do next, I used a tactic, that I’d always wondered would work if I was ever attacked an animal in the wild - I decided to run at the bird as fast as I could whilst shouting obscenities at it.

At first it seemed as if the Buzzard was up for a fight and I began to question my decision, but finally it backed off and started to run away.

Unfortunately it ran in the direction of where Mrs DT and my son were standing, so they had no choice but to run for it too. So picture a 47 year old woman running down a country lane, dragging her terrified 7 year old son with her, behind them a large bird of prey, who’s now in full retreat from a 49 year old man effing and blinding at the top of his voice.

The Buzzard eventually ran underneath another hedgerow and disappeared from sight. As we stood there catching our breaths, we heard uncontrollable laughter coming from behind. We turned, and there was a farmer sitting atop his tractor in fits of hysterics, clapping his beefy hands together and wiping tears of laughter away from his big red face. He said it was the funniest thing he had seen in years.

We simultaneously gave the farmer the middle finger, and sloped off home :)
 
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“...the commonest and most widespread UK bird of prey.”

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/buzzard/

Bizarre tale, though. l can’t help thinking that it must have been sick or injured. l’m not surprised, with an attitude like that...

maximus otter


Not being a country boy Max, I wouldn’t really know.

My next door neighbour is a country girl though, and told me it’s very common for Buzzards to attack. Walkers, joggers and cyclists apparently.

It did give us a bit of a fright, although back in the comfort of our living room we both saw the funny side – my son however said that’s the last time he comes out walking with us. :D
 
Pig saves its own bacon in a daring escape on the way to the slaughterhouse.

"Smallholder Sarah Allan, from Langtree in north Devon, had been driving three pigs to an abattoir 11 miles (18km) away in Holsworthy.

But when she arrived she was astonished to find that one of the animals had jumped out of the trailer. It was later found in a field in Milton Damerel.

Ms Allan said: "I don't think I have it in me to send him back."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-56680210
 
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