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fj
The Veluwe is an area in the middle of The Netherlands that is laregly designated as a nature preserve. This doesn't mean it is an untouched National Park like, say, Yellowstone; the Veluwe does have a number of villages and highways crossing through it. It is a visually very flat landscape, although it does contain some of The Netherland's rare hilly terrain. It is a very rural area with no large cities, consisting mostly of meager-looking forests and tundra-like flat fields, punctuated by small villages and isolated farms. Socially it is considered a backwater, but also a great place for a short nature holiday, like walking daytrips -- The Netherlands is too manicured to possibly call it 'hiking' -- or maybe even a long weekend on a camping farm. In poorer times, when half the country hadn't been to Thailand for the summer holidays, families might even take whole camping holidays in this area. 
Now the Veluwe, and in my family's case, a small part of it called the Ginkelse Heide, is where my sister would, when we all still lived at home, on Saturdays take the dog to a spot where lots of people from surrounding small villages would take the dog on a Saturday in the car. They'd all let the dogs run loose on one of those flat fields with all the other dogs, having fun and playing around together.Wildlife-wise, there are course the endless amounts of bunny rabbits, hares, and brown squirrels. There are some groups of deer, very few, but they have been seen. The Netherlands has no large predators in the wild anymore, althought there are some red-tailed foxes on The Veluwe. Besides owls there's always the odd sighting of near-extintc birds of prey trying to make a living there. No snakes, really, no deadly insects of course, for we have none in NL. The Veluwe is a nice safe almost sterile pleasant nature area in the middle of the Netherlands.
And right now, it seems to be harboring a mountain lion.
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Date: 2005-06-20 04:33 pm (UTC)If you're feeling homesick for pumas, rest assured that they exist in the Boston suburbs, too.
When I was a kid our family gardened down by the Sudbury River (much more fertile than our own house's rocky steppe) at the Community Gardens at Lincoln Meadows (http://www.town.sudbury.ma.us/services/conservation/custom/landspages/lincoln.asp).
Every year there was at least one mountain lion sighting. One year I was able to spot one myself, though it was just a blur in the corner of my eye as it ran past me at a distance of about 50 yards. It wasn't until it was a couple hundred meters up the trail and it slowed down that I could tell it was a large cat.
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Date: 2005-06-20 04:42 pm (UTC)Yet no-one has reported one missing.
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Date: 2005-06-20 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 07:38 pm (UTC)I think we have ruled out Michael Jackson's entourage...
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Date: 2005-06-20 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 05:02 pm (UTC)I grew up in a heavily wooded area with both mountain lions and bears. I can count on one hand the number of times I ever saw either in the wild, but my parents made damn sure I knew how to deal with them.
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Date: 2005-06-20 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-21 01:30 am (UTC)this is the training that left you not knowing how to tell which snake was poisonous, or what to do if someone gets bitten by one? What did the training say, "hey! If you see a snake by your front door, go out the back!"?
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Date: 2005-06-21 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-22 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-22 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-22 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 05:13 pm (UTC)It seems that those deforested areas under power lines (like the kind that deliver electricity to Massachusetts from the hydropower dams of Quebec) act as "catamount highways". Catamounts (pumas, cougars, mountain lions, panthers, etc.) like to skirt the edges of these forest clearings for deer and other tasty critters, and follow them all the way down to "civilization".
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Date: 2005-06-20 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 07:59 pm (UTC)/there, I think I've illustrated the entire American knowledge of Dutchland
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Date: 2005-06-20 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-20 08:02 pm (UTC)Actually, during that debate, they did forget the Netherlands. They too were among the coaqlition of the willing.
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Date: 2005-06-20 08:22 pm (UTC)Damnit, I can't sneak any double-entendres past you.
♬ Past the Dutchie on the lefthand side, past the Dutchie on the lefthand side... ♪
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Date: 2005-06-20 08:01 pm (UTC)