Shiloh Rifle Forums

Back during hunting season of '05 or '06 a friend of mine was driving along the main highway between Jackson and the Gulf Coast. Highway 49 goes right through Hattiesburg and is lined with businesses for several miles through town. Anyway, my friend was stopped waiting to make a left when a beaten up Nissan pickup passed him, weighed down with a gigantic deer. This was Megaladeer. The Tyrannosaurus Rex of deer. The animal's head was tied to the cab, and the ass end was trying to fall off the open tailgate; my friend said you could mount a big whitetail head between the spread of the creature's antlers. The two goobers in the cab looked like they'd won the Powerball, the Super Bowl pool down at the water treatment plant, Celebrity Apprentice and the hand of Cousin Sissy Mae.

On August 29 of 2005 Hurricane Katrina came ashore between the Mississippi River and Gulfport, with wind gusts of 150+ mph and a storm surge that topped 42 feet. Areas up to 200 miles inland were without power for as long as six weeks, and the forests were devastated, especially the Big Biloxi Wildlife Management Area.

Lots of trees down, and a wealthy landowner near the management area had his fences torn to pieces, and some of his ELK got loose into the federally managed land.

I don't think they would do well down there, as the forest is very, very "close" and covered with heavy brush. Depending on how many got loose, though, one can always wonder.

And then there's that herd of emus over near McLaurin...

Elk do fine in North Idaho where it is THICK with timber and brush. Basically a rainforest from the pacific influence.

I'm assuming elk were not present down there in pre-1492 so there must be some other factor that doesn't agree with em?

L

Come to think of it, I believe there were a lot of species here before the Spanish era that aren't around anymore. At one time there were wolves, cougar (panther) and black bear, for instance, and I think I read an historical reference once to either elk or to something that sounded suspiciously like mule deer. So yeah, maybe my assumption that elk wouldn't flourish was a bit hasty.

There have been panther sightings here in the last few years, and the Florida panther never left. I've seen a panther down in Honey Island Swamp, and there are definitely at least a few bears in my area, with a lot more in north Mississippi, so the idea of elk being here in the pre-Columbian era isn't particularly hard to believe.

As for breeding from the few that escaped during Katrina, I rather expect the numbers were very, very small, and it's very possible that they simply went back to the enclosed range they were used to. The fact that one animal was taken by hunters is pretty much an anomaly, a case of once in a lifetime luck.

Now those emus are another story entirely. Several pairs were released nearby when an emu farmer found that all the profit went to the guy selling him the emus. Apparently they headed for Camp Shelby, which has 140,000 acres of forest that is off limits to civilians a good part of the year. The sheriff's departments in Forrest and Perry counties get a couple of calls a year about wandering emus.

PS: I can remember when I was a kid and a coyote was an animal you read about in a book or saw on a TV show. But as we know, the coyote thrives in the presence of people, so now they've become a serious problem. The city of Jackson had to contract folks to protect the ducks and geese at the zoo because of coyotes getting in at night and killing them. Back in 2006 I shot one off the side of a target berm at Camp Shelby, so I do know they're here, and we're just about sick of them.

The coyotes won't kill you, there are quite a few here in the west and we're still ok.

Actually, the coyotes here CAN and WILL attack humans. It's not the pure coyotes that are the problem, but the "coy dogs" which are a cross between the coyote and domesticated stray dogs. There have been attacks, but luckily no fatalities. And the coyotes are hazardous to our wildlife--introducing such a predator to a new ecosystem that hasn't seen the likes before is a bad thing. Luckily there's enough easy pickings, aka garbage cans and restaurant scrap that they eat well.

The rabbit and quail populations have taken a pretty big hit around here, though.

The wild Emu stories are true, and don't try to catch and ride one.

squire wrote:The wild Emu stories are true, and don't try to catch and ride one.

And you know this from personal experience? I've heard they're a pretty wild ride, though some of the riders don't survive the trip.

What part of MS are you from?

Sorta though I wasn't there. I represented the land owner who was unaware any were on his place until a bunch of drunk rednecks tried to chase one down to ride it. They made a claim on his premises liability carrier on the grounds the Emus were an attractive nuisance, which is a legal term used by trespassers when they get themselves injured on some one else's property. Judge ruled the drunks were the nuisance.

My ancestors settled in Hinds County in 1817 and subsequently bought land in Claiborne County from a real estate speculator named Andrew Jackson. I have two residences in different parts of the State but don't reside in either, preferring to list my present location as whereabouts unknown. Barvid and Doc Lay know but they also know my ex-wives and are thus sworn to secrecy.

Must be in Hattiesburg, then.

My grandfather was born on the way from Alabama to Canton in 1876. His parents stopped for a couple of years in Philadelphia, then went on to Canton and became farmers. My grandfather went to work for the railroad in the 1890s, saved his money and became a cotton broker. I think before Alabama the folks were in Missouri, as one of his kinfolk rode with Quantrill in the War.

We had planned an emu hunt, but they're hard critters to find when you're actually looking for one. I think the most danger they present is to speeding automobiles. I doubt your pickup would do well hitting a 300-pound bird.

Around 11-12 yrs ago I was doing my usual "stalking" approach downwind of my tree stand and when roughly 150 yds from it was on an old logging road and had my head trained down watching where I step to stay quiet and looked up and was looking eye to eye with a big emu. It kept walking right around me and we both went our opposite ways. Later that day one of the hunters in the camp came back blabbering and wide-eyed he had just seen the "$#@&%" biggest set of giant turkey tracks on the power line he had ever seen!
Keith Lay

Keith,

You should have told him they were raptor tracks.

By the way Elk were in Arkansas and Bison were in Louisiana until extirpated by settlers. Arkansas has a nice elk herd now. Still looking for Louisiana Bison.

Jerry Liles

There were some emus out at Camp Shelby when I worked there at the Montgomery multipurpose firing range. I always had this thought about an emu running for its life as hot projectiles landed around it. Realize, of course, that the range where I worked was for firing guns from .223 through 120mm. The emus probably went downrange a little bit; that's where the 105s and 155s impacted, along with the 30mm from the A10 "Warthogs."