Urban wildlife in your city

[middeljohn]

I've been meaning to make this thread for months, just never did. Partially because I didn't think this is something that could vary a lot throughout the country. And then I moved to Edmonton which has completely different urban animals.

A fun little comparison between at least Toronto and Edmonton:
Toronto has lots of raccoons, skunks, Canada geese and seagulls. I haven't seen any of those in Edmonton. At all.

Edmonton has lots of arctic hares (WAY bigger than the little bunnies we have in Ontario), tiny red squirrels, and magpies. I can't recall having ever seen any of these in the GTA before. Further, Alberta as a whole has far more crows than I ever saw in Ontario.

I'm curious about other cities, especially places like St. John's (due to being physically isolated), Vancouver and southern interior BC (due to them each having different climate types not found anywhere else in the country). I'm also curious about the territories, although I don't believe we have any forumers who've lived there.

[MonkeyRonin]

Toronto's most common (non-avian) animal inhabitants are by far squirrels and raccoons. Less common but still widely present critters include bunnies, opossums, chipmunks, and skunks. You'll also get deer, foxes, and sometimes even moose and bears that wander in through the ravines and will occasionally come up into the city.

[SignalHillHiker]

There aren't as many as you might expect. I, too, was surprised by the proximity of wildlife to prairie cities. I fed deer by hand in Manitoba. Also, squirrels. Everywhere. I can't even remember the last time I saw one here. Do we even have any?

In St. John's, there are a few animals that are commonly seen year-round:

Seagulls, pigeons (not tame, but close), fish hawks, crows, moose, feral cats, foxes, rats, shrews, mice, muskrat, and hares.



A few young, small moose in suburban St. John's this morning (via Twitter). This is the time of year when yearlings figure out where they can't go, so it's especially bad for running into them.



There are also animals that are commonly seen but only (or mostly) at certain times of the year:

Robins, bald eagles, Whiskey Jacks, various songbirds, whales, capelin (a type of fish that comes up onto the beach to spawn).

Most people think you have to go out in a boat to see the whales (it helps), but they scratch themselves on the shoreline:



And then there are other animals that are not commonly seen, but come around often enough that most of us have seen them a few times:

Bluejays, dolphins, porpoise, coyotes, and seals.

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[Architype]

In Vancouver, I see, most commonly; raccoons, skunks, and squirrels. I have seen coyotes a few times - and I am referring to right on the street, not in parks etc.. I've also seen eagles, and tons of birds in general. Not really wildlife, but we don't have many houseflies or mosquitoes here.

[Chadillaccc]

Calgary has tons of urban wildlife. In the inner city we have those big Hares, Squirrels, Beavers, Magpies, and other birds. In the parks in the suburbs, we have copious amounts of deer as well. Every time we drive past Nose Hill, there are herds of deer foraging through the brush. They are also abundant in Fish Creek Park. Both parks mentioned are two of the largest urban parks in the world.

[Denscity]

Castlegar: Raccoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, bald eagles, ospreys, a few different types of owls, golden hawks, crows, ravens, gulls, stellar jays, pigeons (who doesn't?), Canada geese, blue herons, deer, wolves-(only heard them never seen them in town), black bear (brown and black in colour), elk, coyotes, swore I saw a badger once, there are moose in the area but have never seen one in town.

[Calgarian]

A few Calgary ones that haven't been mentioned: Hawks (usually Red Tail), Falcons (they sometimes nest on top of a skyscraper), Coyotes, Elk on occasion, Moose, a billion Geese, Skunks, Owls of all sorts and every once in a while a Cougar. There used to be Pelicans that hung out at the weir, but I don't know if there are any now that the weir is gone.

I've never seen a Raccoon here, or a Fox (though I'm sure there are some), a Bluejay (or any type of Jay), Rattlesnakes (there are some an hour away in Drumheller).

I could go on.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Denscity

swore I saw a badger once.

Never seen a Badger in the city, but there are tons of them at my parents place in the country (about an hour north of the city).

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Castlegar: Raccoons, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, bald eagles, ospreys, a few different types of owls, golden hawks, crows, ravens, woodpeckers, gulls, ducks, stellar jays, pigeons (who doesn't?), Canada geese, blue herons, deer, wolves-(only heard them never seen them in town), black bear (brown and black in colour), elk, coyotes, swore I saw a badger once, there are moose in the area but have never seen one in town.

I keep thinking of more or are reminded of what else we have here by other forumers so the additions are here in bold ^.

[middeljohn]

SHH: What the hell, moose in the city?!? I had never considered that as a possibility before.

Speaking of raccoons, it seems the prairie cities are the only ones who don't have them. I'm sure they exist somewhere, but you can pit your garbage out whenever you want and the only disturbance to it might be a homeless guy looking for bottles.

I've never seen a place with as many skunks as London though. Literally every night I smelled one somewhere in the city. As opposed to every couple of nights in the GTA.

Supposedly there are quite a few coyotes here in Edmonton, but I haven't seen any. I also haven't seen a single blue jay.

In terms of trees, tons of spruce and what I believe to be Elm. I don't think Maples can grow here. I was actually surprised at the number of deciduous trees that grow here, however they are generally much smaller than back in Southern Ontario. There are far fewer of them that I would describe as something kids could climb. On the flip side, there are friekin gigantic coniferous trees here.

[SignalHillHiker]

Oh, lots of ducks here also. Swans too. We definitely have Canada Geese in Newfoundland (just checked) but I don't recall seeing them commonly in the city? If so, just one or two at Bowring Park.

[MonctonRad]

My own backyard in Moncton is quite popular for wildlife. Of course, we have a double lot with a mini forest in the back end of the property. We also have a pond and waterfall feature in the backyard which helped to attract the critters - especially songbirds, ravens and crows who like to take a bath on hot summer days.

We see lots of cats from the neighbourhood in our backyard as well as squirrels and raccoons, but oddly no skunks or chipmunks. Originally we had eastern red squirrels but they have been chased away by the larger grey squirrels who are gradually expanding their territory in the Maritimes. We know we have mice, voles and moles because our cat occasionally leaves offerings to us on our back step. The backyard is fenced which keeps out the dogs (and coyotes, who are also known to be in the neighbourhood). I have seen several pheasants in the backyard and have seen deer hoof-prints in our (unfenced) side yard.

And yes, the odd moose does make it's way into downtown Moncton. It happens several times a year. Moncton is surrounded by forest, and the nature trails along the Petitcodiac River form a natural highway for the moose to reach Main Street.

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Oh, lots of ducks here also. Swans too. We definitely have Canada Geese in Newfoundland (just checked) but I don't recall seeing them commonly in the city? If so, just one or two at Bowring Park.

Canada Geese and seagulls are a major nuisance anywhere around Lake Ontario. Seagulls shit on you from the sky, and Canada Geese leave their green, fibery shit anywhere close to the lake, making it annoying to walk there.

[Vertigo3000]

I've seen an otter at the waterfront in Toronto near the foot of York (I think)

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

SHH: What the hell, moose in the city?!? I had never considered that as a possibility before.

It's a daily occurrence.

Our traffic reports are hilarious. This is all from the morning commute on a single day last week:

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by Vertigo3000

I've seen an otter at the waterfront in Toronto near the foot of York (I think)

Otters and beavers are quite common at the inlets to the lake. I used to see them all the time at 16 mile creek in Oakville.

[1overcosc]

In central Kingston, raccoons and squirrels are common... nothing especially unique though.

[Boris2k7]

Coyotes are super common around Fish Creek. I grew up next to the park and you can hear them out there damn near all summer. Their yipping is quite distinct.

Aside from the huge amount of deer, the other (non-avian) things around the park being beavers, hares, the aforementioned (if rare) cougars, and the (not mentioned yet, and also somewhat rare) black bears.

Moose wandering around Calgary have been quite noticeable. There was a calf all be itself in the northwest a few weeks ago, and another incident of a calf walking around downtown in 2010. Sometimes things don't go so well, such as the case in 2008 where a police sniper took out a moose on Deerfoot Trail.

[giallo]

Growing up in Kelowna, and having a giant forest as a backyard to my neighbourhood, I saw some cool things that may or may not be unique to the region in Canada. The most notable were scorpions, rattlesnakes and praying manti (sic). We'd also found all kinds of strange bugs while playing in the sand dunes. Some of them we only saw once.

Other than those, it's your standard deer, bears, cougars/pumas (my dad saw one run across the street last year. First person I know to have actually seen one in the wild), coyotes, moose, big-horn sheep etc.

One cool thing that you can see in the Okanagan (and probably Alberta as well) are wild horses.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Yeah moose love to wander into the city from the nearby forests to the south, north, and west of the city. Sometimes they can even make it pretty deep into the city (a few years back a moose went down the road in my old central'ish neighborhood. And I remember one getting all the way downtown a few years ago).

Coyote's are kind of common these days, though it's been a while since I've heard of one roaming through the city. Most people are frightened to death of them, but tbqh they're usually pretty timid/completely afraid of you and will run away immediately.

There are a few foxes around but they're no where as common as they used to be back in Charlottetown PEI, where there's probably more urban foxes than people

Other common/nuisance animals are your typical rats, mice, feral cats, sea gulls. There's mention of Canada geese up in the thread earlier; I haven't seen many in the city here itself but if you leave the city limits they're way easier to find. I haven't seen many squirrels in the city, and I've only seen chipmunks on the west side of the city away from my place.

And I still have this odd feeling that a random raccoon (ie. maybe one of the 4-5 who make it on to the island via. cargo ships a year) got into my garbage last week. One of the last things we need in this city island are raccoons.

Compare that to my parents home out in the middle of no where.....rabbits, squirrels, moose, caribou, foxes, coyotes, lynx, minks, etc. everywhere. It's actually really nice just to sit down and just watch (as long as the squirrels stay away from the garbage box)