Jimmer Negamanee

Those smiles are priceless! Well done.

Muley224, This is an interesting topic and I think I misread it the first time. We may say the word differently but you can say coues any way you want to and not only will I not give you hard time, but I’ll stand with you if someone else does. No one should become irate because of how you say coues. You have a lot of support for pronouncing it the way you do. Randall D. Babb, Information and Education Program Manager for the AZGFD, wrote an article called Who’s in a Name: Patronyms of Arizona Animals which appeared in July-August 2012 issue of Arizona Wildlife Views. In that article he says Coues is pronounced “cows” and that “nfortunately, most people mistakenly pronounce its name as “cooz” deer, doing an egregious dishonor to the man it is named for.” Ultimately, pronunciation is democratic in that words are pronounced the way people pronounce them so if someone says “cows”, fine. But if they say “cooz”, that’s fine too. I think it’s an overstatement to say it’s an “egregious dishonor” for saying “cooz.” (I say “cooz” and don’t mean any offense.) For example, I don't take offense for how one says "Casa Grande" or the "San Francisco" Peaks. Another problem is that spoken language changes JUST fast enough for us to notice (and therefore annoy us). When I was a kid we said “Neanderthal” with a “thal” ending but now most scientists say “Neander-TALL.” Same goes for Genghis Khan which was said with a hard “g” when I was a kid but now many historians say “Jengis Khan” with a soft “g.” And don’t get me started on definitions…I’ll save that for another post. : )

My guess is that it's a Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata). This large orb-weaving spider is found mostly in warm climates throughout the World. In the Sonoran Desert it is most likely to be encountered near agriculture and along riparian zones, i.e. where prey such as grasshoppers and bees are abundant. The web is a large orb stretching a meter or more in width. There is often a zigzag layer of silk near the center upon which the spider sits. -Jimmer P.S. My spider knowledge is limited to "spider" or "not spider." The info here is just from my internet search. Google Banded Garden Spider (images) and see if it looks like what you found. P.P.S. I never thought I'd say this but that spider is actually kinda pretty.

That was pretty dang funny. Three letters would save that town a lot of trouble though. BBQ. (And thanks to Snapshot's post, I spent the last 45 minutes watching YouTube videos of various animal attacks. I may not sleep well tonight. : )

Agreed. I just don't know what the long-term effects of their short-term adaptation will be. Here's an interesting quote: "Myth: We have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment -- making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so." -Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author (b. 1953) and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author (b. 1945)

I go with the common pronunciation "cooze" for two reasons: 1. Words are pronounced like the people who use the words say them. And almost everyone says "cooze" unless theyre intentionally going against that pronunciation because they read somewhere that they should. 2. I believe Coues is a French name originally (at least it looks French to me) so from my high school French classes I would say "cooze" is pretty close to being the correct pronunciation. (Maybe it would have and "s" sound on the end instead of a "z" sound but its been a long time since my high school French. Maybe we have a francophone on here who can clarify.) If you ask me, how Dr. Coues pronounced his last name has nothing to do with how the name for the deer should be pronounced. An analog would be the lovely Arizona town called Prescott. Almost all Arizonans say "Preskit" and, in fact, if you say "Pres-scot" people will peg you as being not from 'round here. (Prescott, therefore, is a shibboleth in that its pronunciation gives away where your from, or, in this case, where you're not from.) Of course, the town was named after William H. Prescott and he, from what Im told, said his last name phonetically, "Pres-scot" but I dont see people jumping up and down when people say "Preskit" arguing that its common pronunciation should be changed. (Although I know someone from Prescott who steadfastly refuses to say "Preskit" on the grounds that William H. did not say it that way and I respect him for standing up for what he believes in.)

Do you hate the idea of wolf reintroduction to the Southwest (Arizona and New Mexico)? Do you love the idea? Are you firmly in the uncommitted camp? You don't have to declare here one way or the other but what are the negatives of reintroduction you see? What are the positives? Post your feelings here but also post your thoughts. Or are the feelings so strong that a rational discussion in not possible? (If so, put that here too.) Can you see the other sides position but simply disagree? Or do you question the mental competence of someone who feels/thinks differently than you do? Scientific, historical, cultural, emotional, personal perspectives are welcome. (And Amanda, if you think this thread should be nuked or never started, feel free to make it go away. It's your site I'm glad to have been a part of it for as long as I have.)

The argument that the wolf has been eliminated from the Southwest and therefore is inadaptable and therefore should not be allowed to return because it was eliminated seems circular to me. I've recently started reading David E. Brown's Wolf in the Southwest and that book shows that the wolf in the Southwest was not eradicated because they were a slow and dim-witted species like the dodo bird. Instead, they were eradicated ("extirpated" as the biologists say) by official government policy. That policy called for the elimination of the wolf by any means necessary including gun, trap, poison, and denning (which involves shooting wolves at their den sites and/or digging the pups out of their dens and braining them with a shovel). But from a bigger picture perspective, even if one found this argument persuasive, it seems that being against wolves in the Southwest for this reason would also logically lead a person to being against elk in Arizona too. For my fellow Arizonans, our native elk (Merriam's elk) were eliminated at the turn of the last century by over hunting and the only reason we have elk in Arizona today is because of reintroduction of Rocky Mountain elk along with strict regulations on harvesting them. But despite the fact that elk were eliminated and only exist because of reintroduction and regulation on their harvesting, none of us publicly suggest that we should S.S.S. when it comes to elk.

Stirring the pot was not my objective. I was trying hear people's reasons pro or con. It seemed to me that many of the other discussions have been more about exasperated venting ending with calls to commit criminal acts (S.S.S.), so that's why I started this thread. (Some people, on both ends of the political spectrum, don't want to talk politics "with" you, they want to talk politics "at" you and the same can be said for the wolf issue. I was trying to avoid that.) So far this has been interesting and very civil. I'll chime in with more thoughts later but right now the grill is going and I have a beer calling my name and an ASU football game to watch. I'm very busy. : )

Well said, Naturegirl, regarding keeping gut piles and bones out of sight. (Even if you don't do it for aesthetic purposes, leaving that out in the open tells other hunters "This is a good hunting spot!") And I've only seen two mountain lions in the wild (and they were together) but if freaks me out to imagine how many have seen me.

Good to see Lark on here. Haven't seen him on here in a while and I'm glad he's back. The article states that "When such lawsuits were initiated, EPA does not disclose the notice of the lawsuit or its filing until a settlement agreement had been worked out with the private parties and filed with the court." I'm pretty sure that all federal lawsuits are public record and available to be read as soon as theyre filed. (And I'm not sure it's the EPA who got sued but that doesn't matter.) And I respectfully disagree with this idea: There have been lots of times where someone has disagreed with me (even Lark) and I've thought "Whoa, good point! I was wrong." or even if I didn't change my mind, I felt that my own position was bolstered by thinking critically about an opposing view. Either way, I'm better for it. Either I change my mind when I was wrong or I'm even more confident that I'm right.

Wow! What an adventure. Thanks for posting the story and the pictures.

Great pictures! And that bull looks rotund indeed. Thanks for posting.

Great finds and awesome looking country! Thanks for posting. And don't worry about the timing. It's always a good time to post shed pictures and this post is right on "shed-ule" (said with an affected British accent for comic effect. : )

Here's a link to Pixman's post on the topic: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/44519-darkened-another-shed-updated/ I've also used Watco Danish Oil in medium walnut (applied heavier towards the bases blended into lighter applied portion towards the tips). Using the oil on them worked well for when I was reconditioning an white-ish elk antler into bottle openers but for a purely display shed I like Pixman's process better.

Me too.

I agree with your brother who said it looks like a predation gone wrong. (Except he said it better and cited the researchers.) Your brother said: "I do not believe that this observation represented an attempt by a gopher snake to prey on an adult Red-tailed Hawk. Instead, I believe that I observed a failed predation attempt on a gopher snake by a Red-tailed Hawk. Indeed, Red-tailed Hawks commonly prey on gopher snakes and other reptiles, including venomous snakes (Knight and Erickson 1976, Sherrod 1978). Presumably, the gopher snake was able to coil around the hawk during the predation attempt, creating a potentially fatal situation for the hawk."

Awesome! (As always.) The chipmunk pictures remind me of growing up in Michigan. Lots of those little buggers up there. Thanks for posting.

This is an interesting article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/03/in-the-crosshairs Chris Kyle was certainly human. He saw a lot. He did a lot. He served our country and ultimately died trying to help a fellow vet. So, to me, he died in service to our country. But none of us humans are perfect. The whole deal is sad. All the way around.

Cool white markings on her feet. Almost white socks but maybe closer to white "footies."

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From my understanding it's tag fee plus app fee for all draw tags leftover or not. And all Non permit tags or OTC tags are just the tag fee no app! I could be wrong but this is always how I understood it You are right! I was wrong. Thank you. I just looked at the 2nd page of the left-over list and it clearly says "Permit Fees required: Resident Deer $58.00"

I thought you just paid the tag fee ($45) not the tag fee + the $13 application fee ($58) because it's just like buying them over the counter. If your tag's available, they cash your check and send it to you. If it's not, they just stick your opened envelope with your application and check in a bigger envelope and send it back to you. (Same if your application gets there on Friday.) Looks like I'll need to bother the nice lady at 602.942.3000 again and clarify.

Great post! Thank you Amanda! It's mazing to think that this type of aquatic life exists in our lovely desert.

Wow Dale! A lot of information here. You put a lot of work into it. Thank you for posting.