Arachnophobia anyone?

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Partymember

it depends on the intelligence factor, are they smart? The coydogs up here are more wolf than coyote, they hunt in packs. Large packs. I really really have been trying to get one, but they are wiley animals. They only show up when they want to, and no amount of scent block and wounded rabbit calls can bring them out. I think if the hyena is as smart as a coydog, which are smart animals, then they could take them. Of coursem, the coydogs might not last long now that the wolves are coming back up here.

How big are your coydogs? Ours are wolf-size.

Coydogs here tend to be roughly Pointer-sized, around 40-50 lbs. Many of the specimens from northern states are very likely carrying a high percentage of Timber Wolf genes, which is why they are so large, and this is going to become even more of a factor now that wolves are re-entering their old stomping grounds once more. We do not have wild wolves here in South Carolina-Dingoes, yes, but no wolves. But, yes, hyenas are intelligent, and are also pack animals. I think that the one factor which would prevent them from surviving up where you are would be the winter weather, which is very different from sub-Sahara Africa! Still, the NY law is not so much to prevent non-native species from establishing there, as to protect humans from ourselves-Big Brother in all his glory. It's based on the assumption that if something has even the remotest chance it could hurt someone, ban it, for our sakes, without of course bothering to find out if something is a legitimate threat or not. A bite from a native Wolf spider, while not life-threatening, has a longer-lasting and more painful effect than a bite from Rosehaired tarantula, and is MUCH worse than a sting from an Emperor Scorpion, but the latter two are banned as being "dangerous". Ditto for a critter called a Solfugid(the infamous "Camel spider" of Urban Legend), which has NO venom at all; I guess it was banned based on its looks alone-"if it LOOKS scary, ban it!" All laws like this serve to do is to promote the often-erronous beliefs that things like spiders are inherently evil and horrible and always deadly, which counteracts any attempts by people like the late Steve Irwin to try to educate the public.

pitbulllady