The city is no place for wild animals. Or that is how some people see it. That is why there are developments growing up on lands where deer used to be free to roam. Highways are laid where turtles need to cross. (or moose, and many others, but there are no moose in Toronto, well, except for the fibreglass ones still on display, but I digress...)
Some animals have clearly gone through a remarkable adaptation. Think raccoons, with their deft fingers, keen eyes, nocturnal garbage hunting ways. They will never go hungry. Run over, yes, but starve, no. Do raccoons ever get sprayed from skunks if they both struggle through the same garbage bag?
Where I live there are thousands, if not millions, of rabbits. This could be partly due to the number of foxes in the area. This number is very low. Not a night goes by that I don't see a dozen or so bunnies. There is one fox I know of, but I haven't seen him more than 3 or 4 times in the last year. At one time, only about 6 years ago, there were many foxes to be seen. We even used to have a 3-legged fox who lived downtown. You'd see him loping up Brant St (the main street) almost every night, window shopping, crisscrossing the street from one bar to the next.
I have seen many possums during my nightly excursions, a few mice, toads, some cats and once, a beaver. The best sighting by far were the deer. The first time was winter just after a long ago Christmas and I was walking up to a house, newspaper in hand, thinking: I'm tired of seeing all these willow deer on front lawns when I suddenly realized, one of then was a real deer. He stood there looking at me and I stood there looking at him, barely wanting to breathe. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a minute, he turned and walked up to the front porch (I should have given him the paper, I know) looked around, then left to walk around to the back. I walked to the porch, turned around and realized there were three more deer just standing on the neighbours' yard. This time I stopped breathing. These animals are HUGE. I have almost run into a group, which was more scary than amazing.
And now, there is a coyote in a beach and ravine area of Toronto that has become rather used to urban life. He has possibly feasted on a few cats (suddenly many cats went missing during a particularly sad month) and found himself a little chihuahua the other day. Now there is some talk of killing the coyote. But, most people in the area are aghast at the thought. It is sad for the little dog (and the missing cats) but the risk of a car hitting a dog is greater than being carried off by a coyote. And the risk of a dog mauling a child is much greater than a coyote attacking a child. And your cat, who roams out all night? Remember the songbirds? Yeah, it could easily have been your cat that got them. Besides, coyotes will help with the mice and rats and skunk population. And the feral cat population. Which will help the songbirds.
I never put together the bunny/fox thing, but we have bunnies in our neighborhood and my husband once saw a fox. We have tons of possums and I actually find them quite fascinating. I don't know why. I guess it's the "so ugly they are cute" thing. I hope you get your songbirds back!
ReplyDeleteWhere I live in town, the wildest animals we have are hedge hogs and stone martens. The last ones are considered to be pests because they invade your home and chew through electric wiring.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in places in California where deer and coyotes abounded, but we were in their territory, so they ruled. If we lost a cat, then that was mother nature's way of reminding us of this fact.
There are places in the Netherlands where wild boar are becoming a problem. It is said that there are too many of them and they want to shoot the excess. Groups of wild boar cross highways and dig up gardens. Hitting one on the highway is dangerous, but having your garden dug up? It's a dilemma.
For sure if you have coyotes in the area, you won't be seeing scores of bunnies for very long. They have decimated the rabbit population where we live. I can't tell you the last time I saw one and we live in a semi-rural area. In summer when we have the windows open at night, you can hear the coyotes calling in the woods. It's very eerie. We see more dead coyotes on the road than dead rabbits.
ReplyDeleteHabitat loss is a scary thing. It upsets the balance of nature.
it's amazing to read about wild animals roaming around just like that...where I live, we rarely see them crossing the street except for pet cats and dogs. Although our folks here are slowly learning to take care of what is left of our wildlife, I'm afraid I wouldnt live long enough to see a deer crossing the street.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post today.Thanks for sharing...
Don and I have seen a coyote, well Don saw it, I pretended I saw it, but I think it was just a bush out back. I would love love love to see a fox again. I saw one in my driveway at a previous farm, and it was skin-ny.
ReplyDeleteI like your post and how you ended it. People get carried away trying to protect everything.
Once I came face to face with a moose the way you did with the deer. I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in my college days, and I was ahead of my friends whipping around a curve, and there he was 10 feet away. We stared at each other until he trotted off (which sounded like an avalanche).
What an amazing amount of wild life you have! And how strange to me in the UK! We have foxes, we used to see them a lot of night, but now we have a dog they give us a wide berth. Hedgehogs are rather rare these days round here, all been run over I think. Rabbits are not nearly so plentiful in the countryside since myxamatosis. We don't get deer here, but when we lived in a more rural place we used to see muntjac. But I've heard of deeer that live in big old cemeteries, and old churchyards generally are good for wildlife.
ReplyDeleteBut birds, yes, lots of them, as we feed them throughout the year, but expecially in the winter. its lovely watching the Redpoll and Siskins, plus all the Tits and finches.
Good to find your blog!
The coyote population has risen as we've killed off wolves. And domestic cats wreak havoc on songbirdd and small animal populations. And of course urban sprawl has gobbled up too much animal habitat forcing wil animals to be in ours. I don't know what the answer is, but it's a problem for the animals (and to a lesser extent, for us).
ReplyDeleteGeewits, I'm also rather fascinated with the [o]possums, maybe because there aren't that many of them and a sighting is rare, therefore exciting (in a grotesque kind of way)
ReplyDeleteI don't live that close to where this coyote is, Susan, so get to miss out on the howling. Which is fine with me. Am not sure how many bunnies are in the east end of Toronto, maybe not enough, therefore the hunt for other delicacies like little chihuahuas.
ReplyDeleteIrene, I think hedgehogs are adorable looking creatures. Wild boar are not adorable looking. Not that that should matter, though it often does. You never want to get a raccoon inside your house .. I've seen the damage they can do, and it is considerable.
ReplyDeleteRuth. I am sorry that there are no longer deer hanging about the area, they were truly lovely to see. I had a friend who moved to a street where they were mostly grazing and we would sit for hours on her back porch silently (sortof) waiting... these guys, moved very quietly, which surprised me because of their immense size.
ReplyDelete(and yes, foxes, are very skinny!)
Glad to see you here, Deandean. What is scaring some people about this coyote is that he is roaming in daylight. And is very unafraid of people. Most of my sightings have been at night (one of my little perks of working nights)
ReplyDeleteGilly, that was one thing I noticed when I was visiting my relatives in England - so little wildlife. Where are the squirrels you go on about, I kept asking. Here we have millions of the pests being cute and destructive.
ReplyDeleteI guess the wildlife feel rather safe with the cemetary residents.
p.s. I had to look up muntjac - it's a small deer, looks not as elegant as our white tail deer.
This coyote has been said to be part wolf, Citizen, as interbreeding is common, apparently.
ReplyDeleteI know I live in the most densely populated area of the country, but urban sprawl is a blight in so many ways.
It always annoys me how people get all upset if there's a wild animal in their environment. Um, people! we're taking over THEIR habitat.
ReplyDeleteso sad....the poor thing that he would have to resort to that. and why didn't the owner of the dog keep it in the house where small domestic dogs belong?
ReplyDeleteIt makes me sad and very sick to see all the condo/housing/walmart developments that literally consume all the land that used to belong to plants and animals. This happens a lot in my area and I'm scared to think what the future will be like. Will there be any true wildlife and forests left at all? :(
ReplyDeleteI was heartened, Jazz when I read that the majority of people who live in the area think we should learn to live with them instead of killing or removing them.
ReplyDeleteWell ... Char, I guess if you are used to letting them run around you don't think...
ReplyDeleteHe is the most vocal of the 'remove it' side, saying they will not let their young kids outside ever again, and even that they might move because of this coyote.
Hannah, yes, it is sad. Where I saw the deer was a large housing development by the hydro lines, which is well known to have been put directly following the deer's grazing path. I hate developers most of the time for their obstinacy and stubbornness in rearranging nature and destroying it. Don't get me started ... oops, too late.
ReplyDeleteWe can feel sad and angry all we want, but every move we make disturbs the eco-system. You are in fact, doing more damage to the eco-system by killing the ants under your kitchen cupboard than by taking out a coyote. The chemicals and pharmaceuticals all of us flush into our water system and release into the air every day is having a much more profound effect on the environment than a new WalMart. Nevertheless, it's still sad to see us gobbling up land so that we'll soon be like those folks from the UK who never see wildlife anymore.
ReplyDeleteI agree, XUP, the loud and angry ones get all riled up over the sensational stories like a dog being taken by a coyote who is hungry and doing what comes naturally to him, but neglect to look after the little things that may have attracted the coyote to the neighbourhood - like the garbage and compost issue.
ReplyDeleteAnd using insecticides and pesticides may give us prettier fruit and neater lawns, but the ultimate effect on the wildlife is often unreversible.
Great post. Yes, that is our dilemma here, too. If your cat goes out and doesn't come home, then the coyote's pups don't die of starvation, I guess. Sad to think of, but that is Nature's way. I keep my cats inside always and I would never leave my little dog outside alone for even a minute.
ReplyDeleteDeedee, I think people who live in the city need to be reminded of Nature's way every now and again. We do get a little complacent in our attitude when we are not confronted with much nature. Or don't see the nature around us.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to all the animals you mentioned, which are commonplace here as well, we also get the occasional brown or black bear that has strayed far beyond its normal habitat down south of Rochester. It is usually captured and then transported back home, but on rare occasions, they had needed to shoot them, as they got too aggressive and threatening.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a joy to have animals thriving amidst a cityscape and more effort should be taken to maintain the green habitats in cities. Let the coyote be a coyote!
ReplyDeleteAh, that thing called the balance of nature! How exotic to have coyotes, thrilling I guess if they weren't so dangerous. I guess they have to go where their food sources can be found, and given that mankind seems hellbent on driving them out of their own habitat it stands to reason they would come to ours! Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI read in our paper today that some "maniac" is going round chopping up people's pet rabbits...makes me rather worried about our own wee Daisy and Gretel. My daughter wants me to put a lock on their cage but that would really only keep the "honest" maniac out. Sigh.
Thank goodness I haven't heard of any bear running around here, Mr Nighttime not yet, anyway. There is some worry that maybe this coyote is too friendly at the moment and will then become aggressive.
ReplyDeleteIt is exciting to see wildlife, LGS that are other than squirrels. I know they rule, but...
ReplyDeleteSagittarian some human animals are more dangerous than the wild animals.
ReplyDeleteThe deer and coyote populations have become a problem in my neck of the woods...the deer have eaten almost all of my ornamental shrubs in the past few years and have jumped into the path of my husband's car recently...fortunately he wasn't injured but this has become a big problem in the area...as for coyotes ....I probably lost a cat to one...enough said!
ReplyDeleteI've seen about everything from foxes in downtown Denver to Coyotes in downtown Chicago, and it does not suprise me in the slightest. What gets me are the people who complain about their pets getting eaten by wild animals when they encroach on the animals enviroment.
ReplyDeleteOliag, oh I am sorry about your cat. Yes, I can see where they can become a problem for gardens and drivers.
ReplyDeleteEd, I have heard that coyotes in cities is more common than previously thought. If you want a house by a ravine you probably want to have the best of both worlds - country and city - and should accept all that comes with it.
ReplyDelete