road runner, for real......

[sun]

For those of us that love the road runner, I got this bit of trivia, in email, and thought I would pass it on. I have missed the boards for a month and a half, hope to be back on a regular basis very soon.......Hello to all --Stuart


Is the real road-runner anyting like the creature in the cartoon?

The roadrunner's real-life behavior is every bit as eccentric as its animated counterpart in reel life. No wonder that the roadrunner also goes by the name of the "ground cuckoo."

The roadrunner builds its nest in a cactus and will dine on a snake by first banging it against a rock and then wolfing it down whole. The two foot-long roadrunner, half of which is tail, actually plays chicken on the roads of its southwestern habitat, running ahead of speeding cars and then veering off at the last minute. It flies when it has to, but much prefers to run at up to 15 miles an hour, usually without Nikes.

But don't expect to hear it go "meep, meep," as the celluloid version does. More appropriate for a member of the cuckoo family, it goes, "coo, coo."

Source: THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA

[Joe Tully]

Thanks oldtoonguy, I've been wondering where you went.

I've had the opportunity to see a few Roadrunners during visits to New Mexico. I chased after one of them, and boy, did he zoom off pretty quickly. I guess I was lucky. If I'd gotten at all close to him, I probably would've wound up falling off of a cliff. I think that the little guys can only "fly" for very short distances, more like gliding than flying.

[sun]

Originally posted by Joe Tully
Thanks oldtoonguy, I've been wondering where you went.

I've had the opportunity to see a few Roadrunners during visits to New Mexico. I chased after one of them, and boy, did he zoom off pretty quickly. I guess I was lucky. If I'd gotten at all close to him, I probably would've wound up falling off of a cliff. I think that the little guys can only "fly" for very short distances, more like gliding than flying.

When I was in New Mexico in 94, I specifiallly went 150 miles out of my way to get to Monument Vally, where all those huge rock formations are, which are a backdrop to a log of old westerns, including all the road runner cartoons. As was said in "The Empire STrikes back, "impressive, very impressive." Something I was really glad to see. The Navajoe Indians never sold that land to the National Park service, so that section is owned by them, and is really a Navajo National park on their reservation...

[DR. BELCH]

--or chaparral bird, is New Mexico's state bird. Is it only 15m.p.h.? I thought I'd read once that it can reach twenty or twenty-five...maybe on a good day, if the wind's right and it doesn't eat heavy....

[Joe Tully]

I've read somewhere that the top speed is at about 18 mph. I think that this was the back of a postcard, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

[J Lee]

About 20 years ago when I went to see ther Buffalo Soldiers exhibit at the Fort Davis Historical Site in West Texas, they had a little laminated flip book display there mentioning all of the native wildlife in the area. That included a description of the road runner, followed a page later by a description of the coyote, with specific care being taken to inform visitors that THE COYOTE IS A CRAFTY ANIMAL! apparently to counter the bad reputation Mr. Jones and Mr. Maltese had created over the years (actually he's crafty in the cartoons as well, but is hampered by his insistance on dealing with a bad mail-order company...).

[sun]

Originally posted by J Lee
About 20 years ago when I went to see ther Buffalo Soldiers exhibit at the Fort Davis Historical Site in West Texas, they had a little laminated flip book display there mentioning all of the native wildlife in the area. That included a description of the road runner, followed a page later by a description of the coyote, with specific care being taken to inform visitors that THE COYOTE IS A CRAFTY ANIMAL! apparently to counter the bad reputation Mr. Jones and Mr. Maltese had created over the years (actually he's crafty in the cartoons as well, but is hampered by his insistance on dealing with a bad mail-order company...).

Coyotes are very intelligent, resourceful animals, probably more successful then our friends Maltese, and Jones let us believe.(as you have pointed out) ..They are not declining, instead , they adapt to suburban life, and have been found all over the midwest..A couple of years ago, one made it down some growth near railroad tracks to downtown Chicago, and got himslelf caught underneath a Taxi--(I dont think that would be too unlike our friend Wily or is it Wiley?) There was a picture of this scared animal in the ChicagoTribune, with lots of questions how it could survive in order to get to the center of large city intact..They released it into a forest preserve after capturing it....I swear this is the truth...Lets hear it for coyotes. I think their diet consists of small rodents and rabbits generally, Bugs probably has more to fear then the road runner....? Stuart- oldtoonguy

[J Lee]

They also caught a coyote a couple of years ago in Van Cortlandt Park, which is in the far northwestern section of the Bronx in New York City. Apparently he was hunting for Bugs on the rabbit's home turf...