Ever seen a coyote climb a tree? This Albertan got a front-row seat
Mona Giles of Pine Lake, Alta., not the only Albertan to capture interesting wildlife behaviour recently
It was a snowy Friday afternoon when Mona Giles headed over to her friend's house in the small gated community of Whispering Pines in Pine Lake, Alta.
She popped in quick to grab her, when they both noticed some movement in the backyard.
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"We were both shocked," said Giles as they watched the coyote at first jump up to eat the tree's fruit, and then decide it was going to make the climb.
The coyote can be seen carefully balanced on the thin branches as it makes it way to the top, all while having a nice evening snack.
She posted it to Facebook on Sunday, and it had more than 500,000 views by Thursday — and growing by the thousands every hour.
"It's funny, the comments — some people say no it's not a coyote, it's a fox," she said.
"But most of the reaction is amazement.... It was amazing. I never dreamed a coyote, or any type of dog, could climb a tree. Never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever see that happen."
Brett Boukall, a senior wildlife biologist with Alberta Environment and Parks, says it's typical to see coyotes go to extremes to take care of themselves.
"Coyotes are a very adaptable animal," he said, adding they have seen them climb trees when a food source is present.
Skunk with some spunk
She's not the only one to witness brazen wildlife activity recently.
Greg Shyba was heading to work at the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area southwest of Calgary on Halloween when he ran into a skunk with some attitude.
"The skunk actually charged at the cougar a number of times ... and drove it out of sight," he said. "I was very surprised to see the skunk taking the cougar on very aggresively."
Shyba says the cougar probably learned the hard way in the past how a skunk protects itself by spraying.
"At the same time, the cougar seemed very curious and allowed me to video it up close," he said, adding the wild cats tend to be very secretive.
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