#predatorandprey

One morning I had a 3k hike just to get to my survey, up a wide canyon filled with dense pinyon-juniper woodland. I woke in darkness and started walking just as the first hint of light silhouetted the mountains I was heading for. After my close encounter the previous week, I had cats on the mind, a high-powered flashlight in one hand, and a hatchet in the other! Despite my anxiety, the survey was great and I got to jump around on boulders and climb up on the rim of the canyon, taking in a bird's eye view of the sagebrush valley receding into the distance. There were even singing Hermit Thrushes - one of my all-time favorite sounds of the wild. On my way back I discovered a horse skeleton near the mouth of the canyon. I haven't spent time in close proximity to many horses, but every time I do, I am struck by how ENORMOUS their heads are! The skull must have weighed several pounds alone... There is a heated debate about the wild horses in the west, introduced by the Spanish and subsequently revered by First Nations. Animal-rights activists claim they belong here, but ecologists see the way their presence effects the environment, grinding all edible plants to nubs, competing with 'native' wildlife and eventually dying of starvation. In fact, the ancestors of domestic horses originated in North America four million years ago, but were wiped out here after the last ice age, along with other pleistocene megafauna now ghosts in our imagination - wooly mammoth, giant ground sloth, and most importantly, the large predators that would have kept horse, and other herbivore populations in balance with the ecosystem. Without them, or the modern alternative of hunting, the horse is doomed to heartbreaking and expensive boom-and-bust cycles, as federal agencies are left to round up starving herds and try to adopt them away. As I stopped for a few moments to sketch the beautiful skull, I pondered the fate of the horse who left it, as well as all the others who roam in such unfortunate ecological limbo. #fieldsketch #ecology #controversy #responsibility #predatorandprey https://www.instagram.com/p/BkEXlXeF9wNQrEQ3p-3fks5C8LVrdXgqiSUiq80/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

An Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) diving for a dinner of American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) for #PredatorAndPrey and #Nocturnal #WildOctoberArt days 21 and 22. #owl #owls #birdart #birdsofflorida #cockroach https://www.instagram.com/p/CGputfnjnJw/?igshid=1gvmww6tpu5s7

Slightly unconventional selection for @zoekellerart #wildoctoberart #predatorandprey theme. The Tree swallow is a pretty skilled hunter, zipping about for tasty insect snacks. #inktober2020 #inktober #drawloween #watercolor #watercolors #watercolorartist (at New Haven, Connecticut) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGnCxPOpgL6/?igshid=ojljffk5hlu9

spider 🕷 prey #predatorandprey #coronavirusquarantine #entomophobia #quarantine #quarantineart #phobia #bugs #insects #stayhome #arachnophobia #quedateencasa #butterfly #mute #prey #predator #deciaboddenphotography #creatures #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhite #selfie #blacknwhite #blackandwhiteportrait #selfportrait #selfportraitphotography #portrait (at Waterbury, Connecticut) https://www.instagram.com/p/B__2x7qDrlB/?igshid=3sqdk837rrgz

#mylife #yourlife #predatorandprey #wildlife @pnweingart via @shots_of_animals @silviaribguincho https://www.instagram.com/p/B6M9-gqoqfh/?igshid=1ezgbh3m4wkeh

“A dollop of creme fraiche can mask the channel edge of a wounded chicken breast.”  

This is part of a fantasy series I’m working on.