2011年10月10日星期一

More wild animals are making their home in the city and suburbs

Foxes got into a hen house in Warren. Pheasants roosted in an abandoned railroad station in Detroit. Turkeys chased pedestrians in the middle of Midland. And one distressed quacking mamma duck hovered near a Bay City storm drain, refusing to leave her babies as employees with the Department of Natural Resources worked to free them.

Animals normally thought of as wildlife are becoming more common in cities, despite deer culls, bans of chicken coops and hunts for coyotes accused of attacking small pets from Livonia to Grosse Pointe.

October and November are the two highest months for car-deer accidents in Michigan. And the number of these crashes is increasing -- up 23% in Wayne County, 18% in Oakland and 10% in Macomb between 2004 and 2010,Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly, according to the Michigan State Police.

Though no official records are kept, wildlife experts and others say an increasing number of wild animals have set up housekeeping everywhere from golf courses and abandoned houses to underneath suburban back porches.

"I think the biggest kept secret in Warren is all the deer we have," Mayor Jim Fouts said. "We have, surprisingly, a lot of wild animals in the city."
Wild neighbors causing trouble for humans

A pair of foxes must have thought they were living in a fur-lined heaven, nestled down in a fenced nature preserve with the possibility of dinner in a hen house nearby.

But the hen house owner complained, and,Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a RUBBER MATS . as a result, the owner of the nature preserve, Macomb Community College, had the foxes moved to a rural area in northern Macomb County.

The nature preserve is across the street from what remains of the Bunert-Weier farm in Warren, which dates to 1849. Linda Weier lives in the 1876 farmhouse and still raises chickens, selling the eggs to neighbors and a local church. Only now, instead of roaming around the yard, her chickens are locked up because of the foxes.

"They've killed 29 of my chickens," Weier said.

No one keeps an exact count of increases or decreases in wildlife living in cities, but experts agree that foxes and other animals that most people think of as rural inhabitants are becoming more common in urban and suburban areas. And once the animals realize there's plenty of food and relative safety, they tend to stay, sometimes leading to generations of supposedly wild animals that have never been outside a city.

"If they realize they have nothing to fear from humans, they adapt very readily," said Adam Bump, a specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "Coyotes are very adept at learning that all their prey, and very little risk, is associated with urban areas. We have deer that probably have spent most of their lives at least in urban fringes."

Golf courses, parks, stream and riverbeds and even brushy areas next to interstates provide ideal wildlife habitats in cities and suburbs. Two years ago, Critter Removal of New Baltimore, which moved the college's foxes, removed a coyote from the area of 8 Mile and Groesbeck in Warren.

Once in a city, animals set up housekeeping in abandoned buildings, spaces under porches and decks or in attics.

"You'll get those corridors where it's more traditional habitat that leads into the core of a city, and once they get there, they may not be able to find their way back," Bump said. "Also, as urbanization, sprawl and suburbs spread out, the line between rural countryside and what's developed city is blurred."

The results can be costly. Deer-automobile collisions cost thousands of dollars each year, in addition to the potential loss of life. Bats in a house in Howell caused $130,000 in damage. A church in Burton had to tear down ceilings in the gym and school to repair bat damage. Kay Ellis, owner of Complete Animal Control in Ypsilanti, has answered calls about raccoons in Detroit that have pulled shingles off roofs to get inside attics.Polycore porcelain tiles are manufactured as a single sheet,

Her company also has fielded calls about coyotes in Detroit. The animals have been the target for trapping, especially when a community suspects coyotes are attacking small pets on sidewalks and in backyards. Coyotes are very difficult to catch because they are very clever,then used cut pieces of Ceramic tile garden hose to get through the electric fence. she said. "And you're only removing one animal at a time, anyway," Ellis added, when there could be several in the area.

But Bambi sightings and cuddly looking raccoons have prompted some people to put out food to attract wildlife so they can observe them. But James Sikarskie,Our high risk merchant account was down for about an hour and a half, a zoo and wildlife veterinarian at Michigan State University's School of Veterinary Medicine, advises against that.

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