The panther on the 11th fairway

Sightings of big cats are not especially common in Denmark, although we have had some from time to time – a few lynxes (strangely enough the most common type in Denmark), the odd panther, a lion or two and even a serval and a possible cheetah. Now things (or should that be cats) are afoot again. About ten days ago, a girl wrote to the Danish natural history website “Fugle og Natur” (www.fugleognatur.dk) with her sighting of a big cat seen on a golf course north of the Danish capital Copenhagen. Unfortunately her sighting was three weeks old at the time, so chances of finding tracks, hairs or any other physical remains were rather small, as the exact position of the animal at the time of the sighting could not be established.

“My boyfriend and I saw a large, dark cat with a short fur and a long tail about as long as the rest of the animal. We would judge the animal to weigh something like 10-20 kg, but it was hard to be certain as it was 100 meters away. The animal looked very much like a black panther. It was seen on a golf course near Birkerød on the 22^nd of June 2013 between 1730 and 1830 in the evening. We couldn’t take a photo, as the animal very quickly disappeared in some shrubs. We tried to look on the internet to identify the animal which we think looked like a panther.”

I have corresponded with the girl, and she seems very straightforward and down to earth. But as in so many cases there are problems. Especially the fact that the animal seems to be to large to be a domestic cat, but on the other hand to small to be a leopard. I have tried to visit the place of the sighting and look for physical tracks, but with no luck. I have also talked to the golf club whether any members had seen anything, but also with no luck so far. I have managed to dig up a couple of other sightings from the area from earlier this summer, but nothing definitive and nothing that can tell us what is going on.

If I learn more, I will report in it – stay tuned! 

More wolf tales

The Danish authorities have released a map showing the various sightings of wolves in Denmark since the official rediscovery of the animal last winter. The official estimate is between two and five wolves. This is all well and good, but of course the deer-hunting season has also just started in Denmark, so everybody is waiting and dreading the time when some trigger-happy hunter who's been reading the Brothers Grimm to many times, starts blasting away at the wolves. Unfortunately several of them have already bragged about planning to do just that if the wolf got in their cross-hairs - just to protect their children and life-stock of course. Rumours have already started about wolves already having been shot - morons!!!

Beetle rediscovered in Denmark after 45 years

Danish naturalist Klaus Bek Nielsen had an inkling something major was afoot, when a rather dapper beetle suddenly trundled across an area of good ant-lion territory on the danish island Møn. He had been out exploring with a friend for most of the day, when this beetle suddenly appeared. Closer inspection and confirmation by several experts revealed it to be a specimen of Chrysolina carnifex - as seen on this very nice photo taken by Klaus Bek Nielsen.



This is the first confirmed sighting of the beetle in Denmark since 1967. Bek Nielsen and his friend is probably the only living naturalist in Denmark to have seen this beetle. All earlier sightings were made by people who are now all dead.

Wolf hunters and other morons

Wolves have been a big issue in Denmark for several months now – for the first time in 200 years we now have wolves living in our little country – two of them to be exact. But unfortunately all the loonies have started to come out of the woodwork as well. Some people seem to have their knowledge of wolves from the tales of the Brothers Grimm, and we have been subjected to all kinds of paranoid and hysterical ramblings from people who are now too frightened to take a walk in their local wood, from politicians who are certain the wolves have been released by biologists as part of some kind of underhanded scheme to suppress people living in rural areas. An organization has even started to collect signatures to get the government to sanction killing the wolves.

The latest is “anonymous” hunters declaring that when the deer hunting season starts in a couple of weeks, the wolves will not be a problem, as they will shoot them on sight. They are even bragging about two wolves that have allegedly already been shot and buried quietly. Unfortunately stupidity is not illegal in this country, but they even have the audacity to say that the wolves have been shot as an act of compassion – this is based on a photo of one of the wolves taken by an automatic camera a few weeks ago showing a wolf shedding its winter coat. “This wolf is clearly severely debilitated by mange, so we are in fact doing it a favour by shooting it.”

This one is only sleeping in the sun by the way.

Oh yes – and of course there is also an element of “them and us”. Them being people like me living in the capital, and not knowing a thing about nature, unlike a certain group of farmers and other people living in rural areas who see themselves as the only people who truly understand what’s going on in nature, and who see themselves as living in pact with nature and the seasons. “How do you think it would be to live beside a ferocious predator like a wolf? some of them have shouted at me – you can of course if you like, exchange ferocious with bloodthirsty or something even more scary. I have even been told that if my child was eaten by a wolf I would be sorry that I hadn’t listened to those sane voices wanting the wolves to be killed as quickly as possible.

And to think I had this idea that the Middle Ages was long gone. Silly me!

The wild and wanton wallaby

We have an important cryptozoological anniversary on our hands here in Denmark today. A red-necked wallaby have now been on the loose for a year since it ran away from its owner, a farmer on the Danish island Ærø in the spring of 2012. Despite the winter and spring 2012/2013 being very cold and nasty, the animal is probably having the time of its life. It is regularly seen by locals, and it has been moving around all over the island. The owner, who is something of a wallaby afficionado (he's got 15 all together) has been trying to catch the animal on and off for most of the year, but is is proving difficult, and since it is doing so well, he isn't trying to hard. Locals are even now trying to persuade him to release some more, and make them into a tourist attraction.

Rampant marsupials are nothing new in Denmark. This wallby is not the first, and will probably not be the last. Most of the sightings during the years (and they stretch back about a century) are of red-necked wallabies. They are a tough and very adaptable species having no problems with the danish climate. One set of sightings though, from the early 1960's are a wee bit different. That particular kangaroo was described as being very big - close to 2 meters, and bright red. Giant red kangaroo anyone? This was in the southern parts of the island Zealand, about 50 km's southwest of the danish capital of Copenhagen. It was seen 7 times all together, and then disappeared without a trace.

It was a wolf!

Ever since the alleged wolf was found dead in northwestern Denmark on November 16th., speculation has been rife as to the actual identity of the animal, and the actual cause of death. The Danish Veterinary Institute has now published their findings and conclusions.

First of all - the animal was not shot or poisoned or anything sinister. The poor thing was suffering from some form of tumour in the chest cavity - not cancerous, but caused by some form of inflammation. The tumour ended up being so large the animal couldn't eat, and finally wasn't able to breath.Not an easy death by any means.

There was of course morons celebrating that the "monster" was dead, but the general feeling was one of sadness. A lot of people would have liked to have free-roaming wolves in Denmark. But not this time.

And then there was the matter of identity - wolf, wolf-dog hybrid, wolflike dogbreed or something else?? The first detailed anatomical examination of the dead animal could not give a definitive answer. Some dog breeds are extremely wolf-like, or a wolf is very doglike so to speak, so we all had to wait for a DNA analysis.

It was indeed a bonafide wolf. According to the genetic analysis it must have come from the German population, so it had been on quite a walkabout before it ended up in northern Denmark. Nobody knows for how long it has been here, but probably for at least a year. I have a sighting from the border area with Germany from early 2011 from a girl of 16 who thought she saw a wolf running across the road early one morning when she was on her bycicle driving to school. This could have been the first entry of the wolf into Denmark.

Anyway - what is certain is that the now dead wolf represents the first confirmed wolf-sighting in Denmark in 199 years! Not bad. I wonder what comes next?

Alas poor wolf - an update

The possible wolf that showed up in Denmark recently - and in my last post - elicited the kind of reactions you would expect. A lot of people were over the moon about it, talking about how fantastic it would be to have this large predator back in Denmark. And of course the panic mongers started coming out of the woodwork, screaming about what all those treehugging greenie f****** hippies would say when the wolf attacked their child - which it would certainly do, because we know from scientific sources (Little Red Riding Hood and so forth) that wolves are bloodthirsty killers...bla, bla, bla.And could we please send a lot of hunters and policemen out there and kill it as quickly as possible.

Fortunately not everybody lost their head in such an obvious manner. The environmental authorities mounted a whole string of automatic cameras all over the area and supplied the animal with plenty of bait - dead deer and various other juicy pieces of meat - and then sat back and waited. It almost ended in a major stampede, as some started to offer rewards for a definite picture of the animal. Luckily the reward offer was withdrawn before people started galloping all over the restricted area where the "wolf" was seen

Alas poor wolf - the story did not have a happy ending. As can be seen from this link:

http://jyllands-posten.dk/indland/article4913999.ece

the animal was found dead a couple of days ago. Everybody feared it had been shot by some vigilante type or poisoned, but it seems the poor animal died from starvation inspite of the large number of camerabaits. It is now going to be dissected to determine the exact course of death, and a DNA-test will be performed to see whether it was in fact a wolf, and if so from what population.

Stay tuned for further developments.