Antelopes, Elk, Deer, Pigs, Cows and more!

The last 2 days have been pretty exciting. Dr. Susan Baer went out with Tara and the crew on Monday to do a secondary comparative cervical test on 30 cows that were recorded as suspect from the WHT. She knew we were a little slow in the office, so she asked Tara and I to ride with her to western MI to check some facilities for feral swine. Her goal for the day was to just check the premises to see if there were even pigs there, what their living conditions were like, and to talk to the owners if need be. We stopped at 4 locations, 3 of which didn't have pigs anymore, and 1 of those 3 that never once owned swine before.

The first stop was at a place in Clarksville, MI where the owner is attempting to turn his property into a public exotic zoo. He had multiple antelope species from Africa, India, peacocks, alligators, zebras, camels, monkeys, deer, and more! He was very willing to show us his property, but there were no sign of pigs. He did have 2 wart hogs, but they were apparently not considered "feral swine." One of his workers was also interested in buying tigers and lions for his own farm, and Dr. Baer informed him that it was illegal in the state unless they were grandfathered in. We heard a lot about the state's Large Carnivore Act that prohibits them from being brought into the state lines.

Next was a place near Lowell, MI that didn't end up having pigs anymore either. Nothing exciting there...just a man that was angry to be dealing with government folks like us! Then, we headed over to a farm that I'm drawing a blank on the location..... duh....but they insisted they never had pigs on their property, ever! However, they did have deer all over their property and they were very eager and excited to show strange government employees, like ourselves, their property. It was evident that they were very proud of their property and home. While Dr. Baer had a word with the husband, the wife pulled Tara and I around the back of the barn to show us their deer. The first pen had a doe, by the name of CoCo, and the purest white, 2 year old buck you'd ever seen by the name of Blanzy. He was GORGEOUS. The buck was very people-oriented and had no fear to approach the gate and welcome us with warm, sloppy kisses. The doe was a bit hesitant and stayed back. Soon after, the owner went into the little hut they had within the 10 foot fences to have the fawn come out. The buck instantly got terriorial, but wasn't too aggressive with the owner. The fawn ran out and lacked some coordination, but was absolutely adorable. She ran straight back to her mama, so it was difficult to get a picture.

Meet Blanzy

Blanzy, Coco, and her fawn (tough to see, sorry...camera stinks!)

Anyway, in the back of their property, they had acres of woods fenced in and said they had ~30 deer within that pen. Coco, the mother, was found in that pen originally, neglected by her mother, and the owners were sure she wouldn't make it. But, they took her to the solitary pen, bottle fed her, fed her sand, and she's as healthy as ever. Both Coco and Blanzy were bottle raised and are very familiar with the presence of people. It was a wonderful experience for me. I had never seen any captive deer premises before, so it was very eye opening to see the work people put forth to keep cervid species on their property. A pretty cool experience for crawling onto their property on accident, looking for feral swine, ha! However, they have dealt with us before for their deer to be tagged and TB tested.

Lastly, we had an appointment in Dorr, MI, south of GR, with an old wild boar farm. We showed up and the place had junk all over, but the owner was the nicest man to all of us women. We pulled up and he was almost anxious to show us his wild pigs (some of which were bred with Russian boards, which is evident by the striping) and his deer. The pigs were fine, but the owner is looking to get rid of all his swine and cervids. He had a terrible encounter with the DNR officials and wants nothing to do with the enforcements they are trying to place on him. It was interesting to listen to his point of view and it's a shame to see producers having to sell their passions because of rules and regulations...

ANYWAY (sorry, I get side tracked in the "emotional ties" to these events...after all, I was a "Francis" in the class teamwork workshop!), after seeing his pigs, we hopped in the bed of his pick up and headed out back to see the deer. We took buckets of corn to persuade the deer to come feed while we watched them from only 100 feet away. The deer were beautiful, but completely aware that there were strangers present. We sat quietly and observed as mosquitos sucked all the RBCs they could ;o) He had two Sika deer that are rarely seen, a female elk, and the rest white-tails. One doe came up later in the feeding session with twin fawns. They never made it too close, with the exception of one of the fawns (see the picture). Dare devil fawn! haha

Mmmm....food!

Fat Sika deer

Sweet fawn looking for the good food

After seeing the sights there and visiting with the friendly farmer, we took off and called it a day. We arrived back in Lansing around 9:30, only to go home, get to bed, and meet in the car pool lot on I-96 at 5:45 AM the next morning (today).