The Animals of Animal Alley
BEARS
This is the very first bear I saw once I moved to Animal Alley. I was sitting in the office working and my cat named Cheese started acting strange looking towards the window. I got up and looked out the back door and saw this juvenile bear sniffing in the dirt. I immediately got scared and closed the door very quickly. Then, of course, my second thought was to get my phone to take a picture. The bear started walking away and I ran to another room and took these pictures from through the window. After the bear left I was so excited that I had seen an actual live bear without going to a zoo or having to drive far away to a National Park. This was the first of many bears I have seen here at Animal Alley.
This is a mother bear and her cub climbing an avocado tree and eating the avocados on the ground. I watched the mother bear climb to the about the top of the tree and climb out on a branch and sit down to pick and eat avocados. She was so big and high up I couldn’t believe it. I seriously thought and was worried that the branch was going to break. Luckily she safely came down after a while. The cub also was climbing the other side of the tree and also trying to get into my garbage bin. Sorry for the shaking video, this was my first time every video recording the bears and I was close to them and slightly nervous.
Leaf Butt - The Resident Black Bear of Animal Alley
Several different bears have passed through Animal Alley, however Leaf Butt is a bear that has been constantly walking through the backyard and patio areas for several years. I named him Leaf Butt because I noticed that he usually seemed to have leaves in his butt fur and this is how I began to identify him. I have posted him on social media and he is a hit. I have gotten numerous comments and inquiries about him mostly very positive and funny. He doesn’t cause any major problems and is just usually just passing through in the middle of the night or very early morning when people won’t bother him. He has gotten into my trash bin and broken it a few times when he must have been very hungry. It is not fun having to clean up after he brakes into the trash bin. There is trash everywhere including cat poop bags ripped open by his claws. I don’t see him for a while during hibernation period and he seems to be much slimmer then. As the year progresses he builds up his bulk again and gets very big and round. He seems to be more or less peaceful. I have never fed him since that is not recommended and might prompt him to stay here or try to get into the house but I have left a bucket of water out for him when it has been very hot for several days.
Bear Poop
The bears, particularly Leaf Butt, have left their poop in the yard or the patio. It is BIG and not fun to clean up. I can usually see big seeds mixed in with it. I have also seen plastic mixed in the poop probably from eating trash out of the bins.
Overall, I really enjoy living around such a diverse selection of animals and nature. The bears are truly exciting, awe inspiring, and just fun to be so close to on a daily basis. I never thought that I would ever live among bears but I definitely prefer it to more cement cities or polluting cars. Every time I see a bear, particularly Leaf Butt, I enjoy the experience of seeing such a large and powerful animal without having to travel anywhere. It is always exciting and a new experience each time which makes it so enjoyable.
PEACOCKS
It took about two years here in Animal Alley before the peacocks showed up. At first I only saw two males that were always walking together. One of them had a very long and colorful tail while the other had a shorter tail. I called them the Blues Brothers because of their deep blue neck feathers. They were paired up for quite a long time before I noticed that the one with the short tail wasn’t with the other one with the very long tail anymore. Initially, I also noticed that I only saw the males walking around. I did not really see any females but I assumed either that if there were males then there must be females around or that maybe these males had just drifted far away from the Los Angeles Arboretum which is not too far away by a car but for a peacock it would be quite a journey. As time passed I finally noticed some Peahens or female peacocks walking around too. They have very short tails and their colors are not as vibrant as the males. I also saw some chicks walking with some females as well.
I wondered how the growing population of peacocks survived because there are a lot of coyotes and an occasional bobcat or mountain lion roaming in Animal Alley and the entire neighborhood. I soon found out the answer and it surprised me. Peacocks can sort of fly. They don’t seem to have full flight abilities like a hawk or crow but they can flap their wings enough to gain flight and they go up to tree branches. Then they flap to jump from branch to branch higher and higher. My neighbor has a very tall tree in his yard and The Blues Brother peacock with the longer tail would go almost to the very top and make it’s “keow” noise every night. This is how they managed to stay away from the coyotes at least. Peacocks are also very loud…and I mean very loud. It seems to mainly be the males that make the most noise but I have also heard and seen females make their noises too. Sometimes the males make a funny short “kazoo” sound before their long loud “keow” sounds. The first few times I heard it I was wondering who is playing the kazoo. It took a few times before I figured out it was the male peacock sound and it sounds hilarious. Here are just a few pictures and videos I have of the Peacocks and Peahens. The first top two videos are the Peacock I named Mr. Moneybags and the last two videos below are the peacocks I called The Blues Brothers.
