Yesterday, on my way to work, I had to divert my Jeep down at a busy intersection in order to drive around Tom the Turkey.
Tom is a local celebrity. He's a great big tom turkey, a turkey Lothario, and he's mean. He's also stupid and hangs around on busy streets continually. I have to drive around him frequently, as to many others.
Only a few minutes before that, I had to slow to a near stop to miss antelope that were down by the college. They've added the southern part of the college grounds and the municipal golf course to their winter range.
On the way home, I had to nearly come to a screeching halt near the same place as a herd of antelope again crossed the road. By this time the sun was going down and the light poor, and given where they were, they were not easy to see.
When I got home I had to run to the grocery store. I took one the bypass roads to do it, a very busy one, and was confronted with a buck deer standing in the road. Just standing there. Again, I missed it, but I was lucky that nothing was behind me as I slowed from 40 mph down to about 20 mph before it moved.
I came back the same way, and antelope bolted across the road. A pickup barely missed one.
All of this was in town.
I like wildlife, although as a stockman and hunter I don't have the Disney view of wildlife so common amongst the urban naive. But something needs to be done. This has gone from a few head of antelope that eccentrically hung out near the college to entire large herds. The antelope are now using a large area as winter range and there are a considerable number. Deer have penetrated fairly far into the town.
Somebody is going to get killed.
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