Hai! I'm a Vancouver Island Marmot (marmota vancouverensis) and I am Canada's most endangered species and one of the rarest mammals in the entire world. I am the largest member of the squirrel family and live high in the mountains of central Vancouver Island. I'm cute and fuzzy, fairly friendly, and about the size of a house cat but alas, I'm a rodent. I'm an obligate herbivore so I'm considered tasty by those who want a snack on the run...speaking of which....
Good evening, I am The Vancouver Island Mountain Lion (Puma concolor cougar vancouverensis) and there are more of me per square mile on Vancouver Island than any cougar anywhere else on earth. I am as large as a grown man, but I'm more closely related to your house cat than the other big cats. Like your house cat I hiss and purr and will eat anything from insects to animals several times my size. Like my Island pals Mr. Golden Eagle and Mrs. Grey Wolf I enjoy making a quick snack out of things that are smaller than me but large enough to fill my belly. Even though I can run 45 miles per hour and have a vertical leap of 18 feet, I'm not going to turn down a tasty rodent when I only need my 40-foot standing long jump. There are no porcupines or skunks here, and the raccoons taste like shit after eating garbage. But this Marmot dude crawls out of hibernation when I'm in my lazy mating season and these logger guys were kind enough to build paths right to them. Score!
Oh my - they also like hotdogs that your kids roast on open pits in Provincial parks :)
ReplyDeleteDarryl was NOT afraid of the BIG CAT - but might peeved that we had to leave the hotdogs for the BIG CAT to eat.