Animals run amok drive towns over the edge

Encroachment by humans into the natural habitat of animals is going to have adverse effects. We mess with their system causing them to adapt to survive. While living fairly close to urban areas we are still fairly rural here. We've always fed the squirrels here, peanuts mostly. Everything has be peach until this year. We've had a BIG construction boom and now the squirrels are fighting the blackbirds and Blue Jays for the food. This has NEVER happened before. I'm surprised at the boldness of the birds, not just because they are going at the squirrels. They don't even care if we are on the porch when they drop in.

The really worrysome occurences are when a mature black bear or cougar decides to commute from normal ranges into the suburbs.

I don't think you'll be wanting to stay on the porch and watch them ambling through.



Only a decade ago, I would have thought it would never happen, but in recent years there's been several black bears within yards of my house (ravine lots) and 2 times when cougars were spotted in the area.

Normally, these animals would never stray near towns and villages.

edit to add...

excepting black bears and the local garbage dump, of course

[edit on 20/5/07 by masqua]

Originally posted by spines

*Usually one racoon driving around at night.
[edit on 5/16/0707 by spines]

I am simply STUNNED That New Jersey gives drivers licenses to racoons.......this is amazing!!! Take a picture and show us all these racoons that drive around at night please...............

Oh, don't get me going on raccoons.

As to the black bears masqua, that was an every day occurance when I lived in Kenora. Then again, that town is in the middle of no where.

Was there a link to the original post. I am just wondering if this is about encroachment or if it's more to do with something affecting their sense of where everything should be, like a shift in where they think things should be? Just like how the birds and some other animals are being affected.

I wonder if this would not be a good post in the nature forum of this website? Just a thought.

Things are getting more worrying with black bears...

Jeff Herrington, a cook at a luxury resort in the heart of Muskoka, was preparing a late-night meal at about 10 p.m. last Wednesday when a guest told him that a bear was at the back door of the kitchen trying to get in. Herrington walked outside to find out for himself.

That almost proved fatal.

Black bear encounters with humans in southern Ontario have exploded this summer, according to resort owners and Ministry of Natural Resources statistics.

- and, on a sidenote to this story

Recent Ontario encounters:

Bears have been seen wandering in downtown Bracebridge and Peterborough. In recent weeks, Bracebridge OPP have shot two bears. Bracebridge Public School cancelled recess the last two days of class due to sightings.

At the Wigamog Inn Resort in Haliburton last week, kids had to be locked in the tennis courts while a bear was scared off.

Resorts from Clevelands House in Minett, Ont., to Cranberry Marsh Cove Resort in Bala, to the Delta Sherwood Inn in Port Carling have had brushes.

At Parry Sound's Delta Rocky Crest Resort, general manager Alan Boivin says most sightings are on the golf course.

source

It's not forest fires, nor is it evolution, but something is driving the bears to become more brazen. In my gut, I feel it is an exploding bear population due to the cancellation of the spring bear hunt. On top of that is the yearly invasion of tourists into areas normally quiet.

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[edit on 11/7/07 by masqua]

I know I'm not gonna contribute much, but I like to share my fair share of animal encounters I had, ALMOST ALL in my house.

So apparently their was this huge hole in the basement underneath my house low-rise patio, so we didn't see it. i don't know why we never discovered the hole, it was pretty big and when you went down to my house's second basement, which used to be a bakery you see...a big hole. I guess my dad was to lazy to patch it up.

But yeah, I once found a Raven and a Hawk (separate time of course) perched on my this wooden rail (used to ensure people won't fall down the steps) in my attic, I mean it was pretty cool, but I was scared. Wouldn't you be when you have Big Bird staring you down. But, I'm sure they got in through the windows I always leave open.

Another time I found a family of opossum under my bed, I just heard some rattling noise, and it kept me awake for hours, so I decided to check on it, when I gained enough courage, luckily it just turned out to be a momma opossum w/ her babies clanged on her, apparently she was making a nest with junk I left under my bed. (What? I was young and messy at the time!!)

And the coolest thing I ever encounter was a white coated fox while I was doing laundry during a cold winter night, but that doesn't mean I wasn't scared-sh@#less. When it started growling at me, I felt so expose and vulnerable in my boxer (I had no clothes left), so I did the only thing I could ever do, run LIKE a little girl. I was happy to say that both my parents saw it too!! My dad chased it, my mom, well she did what any typical mother would do, she ran.

Other animals I encounter but in my backyards, were like a pairs of rabbits that lived their for 2-3 summers, my dad was really annoyed that they were eating all of the vegetables and fruits he was growing. And this cute sluggish animal which I believed to be a groundhog. I know it was a bad thing, but I used to feed that little bugger. (well big, he was at least 25+ inches long).

Well while I know it was great and all for me to encounter such amazing animals I wouldn't encounter anywhere else, It made me realize what most people said already, about how the growing expansion of the human population has greatly disturbed many animals natural habitat, subsequently forcing them to go live on ours. Its all about adaptation.

[edit on 11-7-2007 by skyblueff0]

[edit on 11-7-2007 by skyblueff0]