Wild animals adapt to life in America's backyards

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1106217,00.html

There are bears moving into the suburbs of New Jersey, and raccoons making their homes in Los Angeles. Wild animals that once fled from humans now live in closer proximity than at any time in the United States' history.

Mountain lions, coyotes, wolves, bears, deer, bobcats, raccoons and a whole array of other once-wild animals find that the suburban sprawl means ever-richer pickings. Many are now as likely to hunt in a rubbish bin as in the forest.

The phenomenon has become so widespread that environmentalists are examining the new relationship between animals and humans, and what needs to be done to hold the line.

Not since the days of the explorers Lewis and Clark, at the beginning of the 19th century, have wild animals and humans been in such proximity. A prime reason is urban sprawl, with the suburbs moving into localities that were wilderness. For wild animals, the ready supply of leftovers in rubbish bins, discarded takeaway food - and even tasty pets - has proved irresistible.

[xchrom]

1. here in norcali

very urban area -- when i walk sport in the very wee hours of the morning -- we have to be on constant skunk alert.
and we have come very close sometimes to getting skunked -- ewww!
oh and racoons too -- racoons can and do kill dogs -- even big ones. they are very tough critters.

[mhr]

4. Never, Never Underestimate A Raccoon, Smart, Adaptable, And Tough

My Mother used to rehabilitate wild raccoons that were found injured or were pets. (they make lousy pets)

One day my Father and I were rounding up the latest batch to return to the wild.

Getting them out of their holding pens and into travel cages was usually pretty easy.

However, one stubborn 'coon was quite recalcitrant that day. Prodding, cajoling, coaxing, nothing seemed to persuade him to move. He was standing his ground. Finally, I had to resort to water and the hose. After 30 minutes or so of this he relented and was ensconced in his temporary travel quarters.

The overland journey was uneventful. Upon arrival, we seeded the area with food and began the release process. All went as planned as one happy 'coon after another scampered for the trees.

Mr. obstinate was last. Like the rest, his cage was placed on the ground, the door opened, and in a flash he made a beeline for me. With determination, he chased me into the truck.

30 minutes later we were still staring each other down. He outside, I inside. Finally after an hour he had enough, his point made.

I'll never forget that day and his determination, his willful intimidation, and his desire to even the score.

The moral, never underestimate a wild animal, especially a raccoon.

[LiberalFighter]

12. Could we release a 1000 raccoons in the White House?

[Avalon Sparks]

19. I love your raccoon story~

The story and the way you wrote it. Really made me smile - I read it three times. :) Thanks

[mhr]

23. Hi Avalon, You Are Quite Welcome. I Enjoy Retelling That Tale Often.

eom

[minkyboodle]

28. that is a great story

I knew a friend who used to feed Coons (bad idea) and he grew to regret it as more and more of them showed up on his steps. Very adaptable and amazing animal.
Scott

[Lorien]

5. Bunk

I have 16 racoons that call my less than 1/3 urban acre home. Even the biggest male is TERRIFIED of the neighbors terrier.Why so many in my backyard? I'm one of the only ones in my neighborhood without a dog! My cat shares his food dish with them and two possums-and my cat only has three legs! Baby coons sometimes play with his tail, but that's the greatest harassment I've ever witnessed from them.

I suspect the dog killing myth started with redneck's who corner and kill raccoons for sport, often using a pack of Coonhounds.Or pest control companies, who also spread absurd myths like "every bat, squirrel and "coon has rabies"!:eyes: I defy anyone to come up with a story of a healthy raccoon randomly attacking and killing anyone's pet!

[alfredo]

8. Raccoons are related to wolverines. They can be formidable foes.

Most likely what kills cats and dogs are coyotes, but raccoons take the blame because they are more visible.

[relaf]

21. different families

Not doubting raccoons tenacity, however they are not closely related to wolverines. Wolverines are in the weasel family, much like otters, ferrets, and of course weasels. Raccoons are kind in their own world, not sure who their relatives are, but it is one of the smaller families in the order of Carnivora. In fact it is the largest land dwelling member of the weasel family.

[minkyboodle]

27. power to the mustelids

my favorite carnivorous order there is. How can you lose with Otters Wolverines and Ferrets :)
Scott

[Khephra]

30. I never thought it would happen

But suburban Indianapolis now has to deal with coyotes! Sheeeesh.

Racoons are pains in the ass! A couple of them tore a hole in our last roof, so that they could live in our attic. It ended up causing a hell of a lot of damage to our house. I used to think racoons were cute, but that was before we had to deal with them directly.

[aquart]

18. They really really like peanut butter sandwiches.

My mom makes them for the raccoons all the time.

(Early on, they made a deal: she'd feed them and they would leave the trash cans alone. Works well.)

[mhr]

24. Hi Jen6, I Agree, Most 'Coons Would Rather Be Left Alone.

However, if cornered, they will fiercely stand their ground.

They truly are one of Mother Nature's most adaptable creatures.

[Malva Zebrina]

2. this is an area that was once quite rural

and is being slowly paved over. Two pet cats went missing--a fischer got them and the owner killed the fisher--or a fisher. Made me feel bad-I saw a coyote chase one of those same cats. This cat was seen hunting chipmunks and birds--but that is OK with owners, I guess. Chipmunks and birds are not anyone's pet.I saw an ermine two days ago and the tracks of a snowshoe rabbit.

[minkyboodle]

29. that type of things really steams me

I love cats but their owners who let them out can be real hypocrites. They have no probs with the cats feeding on those lower in the food chain but if an animal higher on the food chain kills the cat it is an outrage. If you can't deal with this you shouldn't let your cat out. Keep it warm and protected in your house or deal with the negative consequences of the great outdoors I say. If I ever had a cat I'd have to keep it indoors. Be too nervous having my pet outdoors and roaming.
Scott

[RebelOne]

3. I live in a heavily populated area, but there are deer

in some woods down the street from my house. That small patch of woods is bordered by an interstate highway, another very busy highway, housing developments and a huge apartment complex. I know they are there since I saw a multitude of hoof prints. It amazes me as to how they got there.

[MasonJar]

6. I have opposums living in my backyard.

My dogs always are free to romp around the backyard (fenced for them). but I try to let them out only after I have banged the door several times and seen no opposums. Basically it is only at night that the creatures come out to eat the dogs' food. I love animals.

[truthisfreedom]

7. i live in a suburb of Minneapolis and have red foxes, deer, and raccoons

on my property regularly. Minneapolis' sewer system is filled with raccoons. you can see them every night during the summer rummaging in dumpsters. i've seen a red fox within 4 blocks of the most popular intersection in Uptown, Minneapolis. raccoons have nested in my chimney. the crow population is absurd here as well... i've actually been chased and dive-bombed by a flock of them outside my own apartment building.

[alfredo]

9. My yard backs to a small wood and a large field. I have oppossom,

Raccoon, ground hogs, ground squirrel, and grey squirrel. I have birds everywhere. What is missing is snakes. there may be some in the field, but I never see any in our shady yard.

The oppossom is a garbage collector. They are ugly, but they are immune to many diseases, so don't carry much disease. they do like cat food.

raccoons are playful, read destructive. They will tear up your shingles in search for a snack.

[sendero]

10. I live in north Dallas...

... and there are opossums all over the place in this neighborhood. They are clearly breeding, you see young ones, old ones and dead ones.

There are also quite a few rabbits.

I'm not real fond of opossums but they don't seem to bother much (except if you leave cat food outdoors they will chow down :)) so I don't see a particular problem with coexistence.

[treepig]

11. not only does behavioral adaptation occur,

but so does genetic adapation:

From the 22 May 2003 issue of Nature ( http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v423/n6938/full/423397a_fs.html )

Mammalian microevolution: Rapid change in mouse mitochondrial DNA

Wild mice around Chicago may have switched genotype to keep pace with modern living.

We have compared the sequences of mitochondrial DNA extracted from museum skins of white-footed mice caught in the Chicago area since 1855 and from modern mice trapped alive in the same locations. We found a consistently similar directional change of mouse genotype over this period at each of five collection sites that were separated by 10–70 km. The genotype most common 100 years ago is now extremely rare, indicating that the mammalian mitochondrial genome can undergo rapid evolution.



At four of the five collection sites, the oldest white-footed mice were predominantly of genotype A. At each geographical location there was a monotonic decrease in the proportion of A (Fig. 1). Pooling sequencing data for all five locations, the proportion of A was 5/5 in 1850–99, 18/30 in 1900–49 and 4/73 in 1950–99. The observed frequency change requires less than a 1% per generation advantage of M over A. None of the live mice trapped at these five locations had the A type, and only one A mouse was trapped in 1999–2000.


As the change in the mitochondrial genotype of the wild mouse coincides with a marked increase in human activity in the region, we presume that this caused the replacement of the A haplotype by the M. The M genotype might have become advantageous in the altered habitat, or it could be unconditionally advantageous and have been introduced by people from elsewhere.

In the Chicago region, the white-footed mouse (Fig. 2) has displaced the prairie deer mouse from the few remaining prairies9, 10. We suggest that the M haplotype has not only spread through the white-footed mouse population but might also have contributed to the displacement of the prairie deer mouse by the white- footed mouse.

ok, let the diatribes against monsanto begin (they inevitably pop up whenever the topic of human modification of any organism's genome is discussed on du . . . )

[alfredo]

13. A cartoon on the subject.

At first I thought it a rip off of Pogo, but I now see it is Pogo gone to seed, totally corrupted by suburban life.


Here are a few examples of Over The Hedge

[BiggJawn]

14. We get Raccoons, Possums, and I have seen Coyote in town.

Sure, it's a farming community, but Coyote were not that common until about 10 years ago.
We had to trap and relocate 4 Raccoon who thought the garage was a great place to hole up in.

[Barrett808]

16. A few years ago, a coyote wandered into the Federal Building here

in dowtown Seattle. Bot trapped in an elevator. It was surreal seeing the surveillance camera footage of the coyote pacing in the elevator.

[BiggJawn]

25. Well, it didn't set off the metal detector so it was ok, right?

:evilgrin:

When I lived in downtown Indianapolis, I was watching the alley cats eat one night when they scattered suddenly. Down the allet came one of the LARGEST possums I had ever seen, and being an old country boy, i've seen a few.

This was 20 blocks north of the Circle. Used to get Deer running down Fall Creek, too.

[Khephra]

31. You're Indiana, right?

See my post above.

[Retrograde]

15. Mountain Lions at Stanford

no, not a football team: a mountain lion was spotted a couple of years ago on the Stanford campus - about 2 miles from where I live (Palo Alto, CA, older small city, plenty of wildlife in my c. 1920 neighborhood). There also deer closer to the hills and the usual racoons everywhere - although I haven't had any problems with the racoons since the skunks showed up. My street is a battleground between the gray and the black squirrels, who occasionally stop their screeching (yes, squirrels screech) to rip up my plants.

OTOH, I'm seeing a lot more red-tailed hawks then I used to. They like to perch on signs near freeway entrances. One moved into my neighborhood recently, and I'm rooting for it to take out the crows, who recently displaced the mockingbirds. All this 3 blocks from downtown!

My favorite local wildlife has always been the turkey vultures, who like to ride the thermals that rise up off of 101 on hot days. Nothing like seeing a pair of vultures circling rush-hour traffic.

linda

(and we won't even talk about the jackrabbits, roof rats, moles, gophers, rattlesnakes, lizards, quail, woodpeckers and the omnipresent jays)

[Tansy_Gold]

17. Best place to watch coyotes is. . . .

. . . .the golf courses in Sun City, AZ.

It's quite freaky, really. Sometimes they will chase golf balls. They're almost -- but not quite -- tame.

Sun City residents are warned to NEVER leave a small pet outside unguarded. If the coyotes don't get them, the hawks that perch in the palm trees will.

The prohibition on use of DDT has allowed a lot of predator birds to rebound over the past 20 years or so. Enjoy them while you can, because I think the * regime is gonna bring back DDT. . . . . .

[Robb]

20. There's a mountain lion "killing field"

up here...I mean, obviously we're in the sticks, but there are enough houses up on the mesa now that it's a little alarming.

It's this strip from semi-high country down to a lake, the strip is maybe a half mile wide and three or four long. You know you've hiked into it when you suddenly begin to see deer bones and carcasses every fifty feet.

Aaaand, the odd pet skeleton. People just don't get that you can't let Sparky run free in the back yard when the "back yard" is the wilderness. Every time I see a "dog missing" sign I wonder what planet these people moved from. :eyes:

[BadGimp]

22. mmm tastes like chicken

[PartyPooper]

26. A neighbor encountered a mountain lion in her back garden

a few months ago.

I have seen coyotes and foxes roaming nearby. I don't dare let my dog wander freely. Plus, I wonder about rabies, etc.!

:scared:

[Polemonium]

32. My problem with this article

It is true that many animals are adapting to living in urban and su-urban environments. We have in effect created a huge bottle neck for wildlife populations, and some species are apparantly getting through the bottleneck just fine. Unfortunately, most of the species are becoming increasingly threatened with extinction as this bottleneck is more than most can adapt to. The implication of this article ignores the fact that the majority of wild species have not yet adapted, and might disappear.