10 April 2010, 09:33
Safari-HuntIdentify please.
I know its not an african animal but most experts reside on this forum. I'm posting this for Larrys01.
And the info Larry sent me.
The animal in this photo was shot here in Iowa when it attacked a hunter.
If and when you have time can you post it on AR and see if anyone can identify it?
It was shot near Washington, Iowa.
Larry
10 April 2010, 10:20
billrquimbyCan't see it, but if it has a tail proportionately longer than a raccoon's, I would say it is a coatimundi.
If so, Iowa is a heck of a long way from Arizona/New Mexico, the northern limit of coati range. It also is unusual to see just one. They usually run in packs of five to twenty or more animals.
That stiff-looking hair, long nose and underbite, and the size of the animal are like a coati, but its coloration (especially its face) isn't anything like the coatis I've seen. They're usually much darker all over, and their tails have rings around them.
Also, I've never heard of a healthy coati attacking humans except in the parking lot at Iguazu Falls, Brazil, where tourists feed them.
We often have outbreaks of rabies in our coati packs here in Arizona, so this animal definitely should be checked before it is handled.
What did the game and fish people in Iowa say it was?
Bill Quimby
10 April 2010, 19:46
john113wyoquote:
Also, I've never heard of a healthy coati attacking humans except in the parking lot at Iguazu Falls, Brazil, where tourists feed them.
I also say it's a coatimundi, except the tail, which would confirm it, isn't visible.
As for the "attacks on humans" I can share two
(!) stories from my 20 year career as a police officer in Stillwater, OK 1977-1997. These may not be totally accurate I wasn't there for one of them, heard the victims tell about it over coffee and laughed until my sides hurt. But, get a cup of coffee,sit back and get ready to enjoy these.
Do NOT blow coffee out your nose!
1978 or so, a burglar alarm went off at a rural residence in Payne county. Deputy Sheriff J.S. and OHP Trooper B. V. responded. The home was situated fairly remotely from other neighbors. Arriving at the home after driving down the long, oak forested driveway, they arrived at the home and got out to inspect the security of the residence, looking for any forced entry. They separated and started their sweep. Todays high power flashlights had yet to arrive, D Cell or C cell kel-lights were the order of the day, so what light there was, was yellow tinted and just not very bright.
Trooper V. rounded a corner and encountered a large "creature", the likes of which he had never seen. This creature studied him for a second, huffed and charged. It was so close and V. was so startled he didn't draw his .357. The "creature" leaped and wrapped itself around his thigh and just hung there, simply holding on, with V. yelling for S. to "get it off" him, while S. ran to his car, saying he was going to call for help!
The "creature" hung there on V.'s leg, not biting or doing anything. It eventually let go and wandered around the house. Later turned out it was a family pet. We had never heard of one before.
The next one (again, about '78-'79)involved an apartment complex, a big red-headed, scarred-up-beast of a cop who was the arm-wrestling champion locally and a heart-stopping charge resulting in gunfire...
Our sergeant used to put this cop in the Sergeants car and drive him down into the bar district and challenge the OSU football players and any other college boy to an arm wrestling match. He never lost in any match against college boys on the hood of the sergeant's car.
0600, before ending our shift at 0800, I was at breakfast at Sambo's Restaurant (remember them?)with Lieutenant Cecil N. when Officer Bob C. was dispatched to the three story concrete-block(I forget the name) apartment complex that was north of Hall of Fame at Hester. The complex was built in a square, hollow in the center for a courtyard and had stairways leading to each floor walkways. Each interior apartment front door faced the courtyard. There were also external walkways to outward facing apartments.
"Stillwater to forty-three, see the man at (?) apartments reference an animal complaint" (I think OSU declared eminent domain and it's now a parking lot) Dawn was spreading her rosy fingers....
Lt. N and I are at breakfast and the Lt. had one the three portable radios the department owned. We heard 43 go out at the apartment complex and were slurping our coffee and eating our eggs, bacon and pancakes when the radio crackles with Bob C.s hyper-excited voice:
"FORTY-THREE TO SIX!"
The Lieutenant put down his coffee and picked up his radio. "Go ahead" he replied.
"IT HAD TEETH AND CLAWS AND I SHOT IT IN THE HEAD AND IT DIDN'T KILL IT!!!"
Lieutenant N. put his hand over his forehead and eyes, spread his fingers, looked over at me and said "We probably should go over there."
"Do you want me to go home and get a rifle?" I asked. At the time I was issued an S&W model 15 (I could use my choice of .38 Special ammo and handloads were NOT prohibited by policy) and a (get this) Winchester 1897 Riot .12 gauge pump shotgun
"No, let's just go." We left breakfast and I drove the white '78 AMC Ambassador over to the apartment complex about a mile away.
When we arrived, we met a very harried looking Officer Bob C. and two college boys who were clad only in their underwear standing in the apartment complex courtyard. There were others on their balconies, trying to figure out the source of the gunfire.
Bob explained that he had he had met the two college boys (I recall they looked Pakistani to me) at their apartment on the second floor. They told him of a "creature" that had chased them as they came out of their apartment on to the walkway. (Don't ask me why they were in their underwear. They were college boys. There is no explanation. That certainly wasn't the craziest thing I ever saw in my career.)
Bob said he went up to the second floor, looked both ways and seeing nothing, climbed the stairs to the third. The underwear-clad Paki college-boys were slinking behind him, using him as cover.
When he arrived on the third floor he saw something at the far east end of the walkway. Now dawn had not fully arrived and it was still gray daylight. Typical college apartment complex, some of the lights were burned out or removed by the kids to use in their apartments.
As Bob cautiously walked east with the college boys peeking out behind him, the "creature" had it's head down and away from him, snuffling along the wall and floor, looking for something to eat.
As Bob crept closer, the "creature" froze. It sensed the red-headed arm-wrestler, or possibly smelled the aroma of the Paki college boys last meal. It turned and cast a baleful eye in their direction.
Bob and the Paki's froze, too. The standoff was too much for the heroic college boys who turned and fled toward the stairway. Their flight was a call to action for the creature, whose toenails could be heard on the concrete walkway as he scrambled to gain purchase for the pursuit.
Now, not only was Bob the arm-wrestling champeen, he was one of the fastest sprinters I had ever seen. The Paki boys were already going down the flight of stairs as Bob turned to join them. Bob caught up with them midway down the stairs.
Bob told me and Lt. N "I caught up to them on the walkway on the second floor, I started to push them aside and pass them and then remembered I was there to save them."
As the creature rapidly gained ground behind them, left- handed valiant Bob drew his .38 and fired a round "over my shoulder" at the creature. He was sure he hit it in the head, but it didn't die, it ran and jumped to the ground from the second floor.
I found bloor and lead bullet splash on the concrete walkway. In the parking lot, I found blood spots from every time it put one of its front feet down. I managed to track it out of the parking lot to a parked car on one of the side streets.
There, underneath, was an extremely large and ticked off boar coatimundi, missing a front toe.
We snagged it with the animal control officers catch pole and I put it in the cage in the back of the truck where it proceed to try to tear the cage apart. It was later claimed by a college kid as his missing pet.
I remember a third Coatimundi encounter when one ran across North Washington by the Army Reserve Center. Officer Mike D. follwed it to a house where the owner coaxed it off the roof with a banana.
NO, coati's are not native to Oklahoma.
Hope you enjoyed the stories.
