I live in the desert about 10 miles west of Tucson. Its a beautiful area with a lot of wildlife. This morning I went out into my back yard, which is fenced in to keep the Javalina out. Something had seriously trashed my pond. Ate plants, ate 15 out of 18 small fish, and left no indication of what it was. I suspected bobcat, but didn't think they'd eat the plants. They left a seed population of fish to grow into another meal in a month or two. A biologist friend said he thought it was probably raccoon. I've never seen raccoon out here, but he said they are definitely about, that home ponds get ravaged now and then by them. They are good at nabbing fish out of the ponds, and would eat any edible plants available. Huh. I'll keep an eye out. Apparently they are expanding their range. He said possums are around as well. We have deer (saw one in the yard day before yesterday), rattlesnakes, coyotes, javalina, king snakes, bull snakes, coral snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, kit fox, gila monsters, scads of pack rats and the kissing bugs (conus) that associate with them. Big centipedes, like 8 inches long. Too many other critters to list them all. Its wild out here and I like it. I've lived on this property for 22 years altogether, tho not consecutively. Deep roots here.
Later...