BradfordToday received the following letter to the editor from Bradford resident Albert Wierenga, who urges residents to leave wild animals alone.
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When we were living in southern Zimbabwe in the eighties, we frequently had unique animal encounters. At one stage protecting my gardens, I was foolish enough to take on a large warthog with a seven-foot, metal fencing post chasing it through the greenery.
Had the animal stood its ground its tusks could have ripped me to shreds. Me shouting like a banshee probably confused it and it ran into the garden’s corner and right through the meshed, barbed-wire fencing, which he ripped apart, effortlessly. Having soft garden soil also showed us ‘spoor’ indicating that we occasionally had a rather special nighttime visitor.
How many people can say that a leopard considered their garden to be part of its territory?
The greatest animal treat was an errant rhino running through the school grounds. That one was on an exploratory journey and had lost its way from the safety of nearby Matopos National Park.
The local people treated the above-named animals with quiet and respect. What really made people afraid and go stir-crazy were the black or green mambas. They feared these snakes, justifiably, because these snakes will attack when it suits them and they do not slither away like most snakes when humans are near.
To drive them away people would create a din by any means possible.
We had one memorable occasion where a large, 14-foot, black mamba attacked when we were slowly driving by in an open, cab-less truck with six people exposed. Only a mistimed lunge and our greater speed avoided a deadly result.
This past Monday night around 11 p.m., I stepped out to watch the moon and stars prior to bedding down for the night.
The noise and ruckus that greeted me outside felt much like the panicky stirrings associated with mamba sightings in Zimbabwe.
Confused, I wondered if there was perhaps a bear, deer or maybe even a coy-wolf had made an appearance.
None of these animals, however, could be spotted or heard. Further inspection showed that a lovely black and white animal had sauntered into a neighbour’s garage and because people, trying to remove it, had poked it with a very long stick, it left its usual signature. Clearly, an approach with negative olfactory consequences.
The owners were advised to leave the animal where it was, to leave the garage doors open, to keep the lights on, and most importantly to remove the threat to the animal posed by the excited people. Within half an hour, this worked like a charm and the animal departed without leaving another shot of its pungent marker.
Whereas the animal’s signature will linger a while longer, no real harm was done and the “live and let live’ adage once again led to a desirable result.
All of us should be aware that we are surrounded by animals that were here, well before us.
At this time of year, they are trying to find a good wintering spot to wait for spring.
Leaving them be, without giving them an opportunity to enter our houses, continues to be best for them and us.
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