Urban wildlife in Lowertown
By Juliet O’Neill
I gave no thought to urban wildlife until one day I walked out my back door to find a family of raccoons looking up at me. I ran back in and they scampered down to their new home under my deck. Don’t laugh; I was worried for my cats. I called the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre. The person who answered did have a laugh.
No, she told me, the Wildlife Centre wouldn’t come and collect the raccoons. Also, my cats would see more raccoons in one evening in the Market area than I would see in my lifetime. And not to worry: cats and raccoons often become buddies.
“Cats and raccoons get along very well,” confirms Donna Du Breuil. Most wildlife does not want conflict with any animal, she said in an interview.
Du Breuil is president of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre, which no longer has a hotline (that used to get as many as 10,000 calls a year) or rehab facilities. Instead the Centre focuses on education, advocating peaceful coexistence with urban wildlife.
The Centre’s web site says that in an age when declining urban green space pushes wildlife onto residential properties, the organization “strongly believes that appreciating the wildlife in our backyards is the first step in conservation and that all major change has to start with one individual’s actions.”
That means that if you don’t welcome the creatures, take proactive steps to minimize food and water attractions on your property, and take a few home- maintenance measures to animal proof vulnerable spots. The Wildlife Centre emphasizes that care should be taken to not separate parents from babies; wait until after they are weaned and have moved along to a more natural spot before you animal proof entries.
“Then, you can relax and enjoy the distinct pleasure of watching squirrels perform their acrobatic feats high up in the trees, be amused by the single file of baby skunks following their mother on a foraging trip through your garden at dusk or a couple of cottontail rabbits playing tag on your lawn,” says a Wildlife Centre blog.
Sound a bit romantic?
Until neighbours complained, a Lowertown couple tolerated, if not enjoyed, a groundhog which had built tunnels under their garage and settled in for what looked like the long haul. They lured the groundhog into a homemade cage with apples and lettuce and delivered it closer to the wild.
Beware that it is illegal under the Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act to trap and relocate wildlife beyond one kilometer from point of capture, the Centre notes. Before you consider trapping and relocating a wild animal, “remember the situation is temporary.”
“The safest option is to give a grace period until babies are coming out with mom, before undertaking animal proofing,” the Centre advises. “It is critical not to trap young inside, as they will perish, possibly falling between walls and requiring expensive drywall removal and causing very bad odours, if they die in inaccessible areas.”
The website www.wildlifeinfo.ca has instructions on gradually luring animals away from your house when raccoon and other animal parents take their babies out foraging.
Lowertown resident Sandra Milton unwittingly created a cozy winter castle for squirrels in her garage by leaving a thick rope neatly coiled in a bucket. She got them out before birthing season.
You won’t be able to predict everything that attracts wildlife to your yard, but take note that seeds from bird feeders also attract mice and squirrels. Pet food and water attracts wildlife, as does garbage that is not well sealed. And don’t forget the grease trap in the BBQ.
The City of Ottawa won’t collect animals you consider a nuisance. Call 311 to report sick or injured small mammals, from porcupine and raccoon size on down. The city recently appointed Miriam Smith, formerly of the Ottawa Humane Society, to help train Ottawa by-law officers responding to calls about sick or injured wildlife.
“It is a positive in that the City is allocating resources to this work,” Du Breuil says. “At the same time, efforts to get information out to help people resolve wildlife conflicts will do a great deal to reduce the numbers of orphaned animals unintentionally created each year while giving people the tools and confidence they need to live with and enjoy wildlife.”
To figure out if wildlife babies are truly orphaned and/or sick or injured, check www.rideauwildlife.org.
The wildlife birthing period peaks between April and June. Good luck!