Urban Wildlife

Cities are emerging as important “novel ecosystems” to which many species of urban wildlife are adapting and within which others already are thriving and finding sanctuary. Cities can be havens for rare and endangered species of animals and serve as focal areas for the emergence of new forms as adaptation to the requirements of urban life drives species evolution

Urban Wildlife in New York City

New Yorkers celebrate and enjoy a “surprising” renaissance of wildlife. Coyotes have been observed in Central Park, and beavers, salamanders, and leopard frogs have been seen in Staten Island, bobcat, mink, and fox have appeared in the Bronx (including a new species of leopard frog), and sea turtles and a baby seal have turned up in Queens. Wild creatures that have not been recorded in the Big Apple for “decades” are returning and making it home. These returns are not just good news; it is excellent news. Any time a major metropolitan area can celebrate the return of an extirpated wild species, it demonstrates that the quality of its environment is improving and moving in a positive direction. As a growing body of scientific literature now indicates beyond refute, nature in the city is good for the health and well-being of its people, making every incremental advance toward greener relevant and significant

Urban Wildlife

Cities are emerging as important “novel ecosystems” to which many species of urban wildlife are adapting and within which others already are thriving and finding sanctuary. Cities can be havens for rare and endangered species of animals and serve as focal areas for the emergence of new forms as adaptation to the requirements of urban life drives species evolution

Wild Neighbors : The Humane Approach to Living with Wildlife

Wild Neighbors provides practical, humane, and effective advice on how to share living space with 35 of the most common species, from alligators to woodpeckers, found in the lower 48 states. Advice focuses on how to: properly and accurately define a wildlife problem; determine what type of animal is causing it; identify the damage; effectively take action for a humane and permanent solution; and proactively avoid future conflicts. This long-awaited, new and expanded edition provides invaluable information to any homeowner who seeks to live in harmony with the wildlife in his backyard and in his community.https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/humspre/1000/thumbnail.jp

Wildlife in U.S. Cities: Managing Unwanted Animals

Conflicts between people and wild animals in cities are undoubtedly as old as urban living itself. In the United States it is only of late, however, that many of the species now found in cities have come to live there. The increasing kind and number of human-wildlife conflicts in urbanizing environments makes it a priority that effective and humane means of conflict resolution be found. The urban public wants conflicts with wildlife resolved humanely, but needs to know what the alternative management approaches are, and what ethical standards should guide their use. This paper examines contemporary urban wildlife control in the United States with a focus on the moral concerns this raises. Much of the future for urban wildlife will depend on reform in governance, but much as well will depend on cultural changes that promote greater respect and understanding for wild animals and the biotic communities of which they and we are both a part

Living with Urban Foxes

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the most widely distributed wild carnivore on the planet, with a natural range that spans the entire Northern Hemisphere. Below the equator, foxes have been introduced to the Falkland Islands and Australia, where they cause widespread damage to domestic livestock and native fauna. Fox predation is a common cause of fox-human conflict throughout their range, leading to a complex relationship with humanity. This relationship varies where the fox is alternatively regarded as verminous, if not demonic, but is also an object of affection and regard — a typically bipolar human-animal relationship.[i

Taking the “Pest” Out of Pest Control: Humaneness and Wildlife Damage Management

Humans have been in the pest control business for a long time. At least 3 major foci of pest control activity currently can be found in governmental and private sectors, with private services focused on both traditional commensal rodent work as well as the more recent control of “nuisance” wildlife in cities and towns. Beyond the traditional approaches and techniques historically employed, animal damage managers are increasingly faced with the challenge of addressing the social context within which their work occurs. An ever-increasing variety of stakeholders have brought new concerns, new thinking, and new approaches to the table in a field that formerly received little if any, public input. A significant, perhaps the most significant, challenge for wildlife damage managers in the future is how to better engage their programs in the pluralistic and often confrontational environments of contemporary wildlife damage management

Cats and wildlife: an animal welfare perspective.

While there is no question that outdoors cats have an impact on wildlife, the extent and significance of this impact is the subject of considerable debate. The controversy surrounding outdoor cats can be traced back at least a century, with contemporary claims of threats to global biodiversity bringing animal welfare and conservation interests directly into opposition, largely over the means of managing conflicts. The irony in this is that cat defenders and cat detractors generally agree that it is in the best interests of cats that they should be shielded from the vagaries of outdoor life. While there are practical and implementable ways to begin addressing the management concerns surrounding outdoor cats the current polarization seems to militate strongly against cooperation. This paper reviews some of the complexity surrounding the issue of outdoor cats and suggests possible approaches to overcoming these conflicts

What is New on the Animal Protection Radar?

American attitudes toward wildlife have often been cast as falling within an urban/rural dichotomy that separates protectionist from utilitarian value orientations. Long held as a major challenge to wildlife managers the urban/rural dichotomy may be yielding to change as new attitude and value orientations arise from direct conflicts people have with wild animals as well as from a generational disenfranchisement of young people who lack direct experience with the outdoors. Both may loom as larger challenges for the future and shift the focus of once opposing interests more toward efforts to establish cooperation. Currently, much of the disagreement over wildlife management practices is disagreement over principles, leading often to values gridlock in which dialogue stagnates. Offering a way out of gridlock, welfare assessments that establish the “humaneness” of management actions may be a direct way to reach better consensus, if not complete agreement, on controversial management practices. Certainly they should be tried, as the need for better communication tools in wildlife management and wildlife damage control grows

Backyard Wildlife

Are suburban yards/gardens good for wildlife? If you are one of the 57 million Americans who feed and watch birds at home that question may seem a little silly. And that number does not include the additional 15 million people who say they enjoy observing mammals such as squirrels (visible, often annoyingly so) as well as deer, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and others (sometimes easily seen, but more often not) in our suburban and urban developments. In fact there are nearly 80 million Americans who are called “around the home wildlife watchers” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which conducts a national survey every five years (the most recent was in 2016) from which these and other statistics are gleaned. The most recent survey also records that there has been a substantial up