Wild Animals Are on The Move I wonder how many people have noticed there seem to be more wild animals around than there has been since we started to develop urban centers. I am not talking about squirrels which have been with us forever. I have to say I like squirrels as long as they stay outside. They seem to have a sense of play and can often be seen chasing each other in some sort of game. I remember when a squirrel was being stalked by a cat. It looked like the squirrel didn’t know the cat was behind it until surprisingly the squirrel turned around facing the cat and stood up on two legs making himself look far bigger. That was it for the cat which ran away. If squirrels could talk can you imagine the stories the squirrels would have told their friends around the campfire? Many of us realize human cities and towns are on land where animals used to have a free reign. They got chased out by us. That is why they vanished from the areas. It doesn’t look like it will stay that way however. In Florida alligators can be seen in many human settlements. They appear on golf courses and even come up to homes. They have gotten into swimming pools and present a clear and present danger not only to adults, but even more so to children who they may look upon as an easy snack. One of the problems is people under estimate their speed. They can run in bursts up to thirty miles per hour but look like they can hardly walk. Recently a US government laboratory in Florida was destroyed. That in itself was not so bad since no one seemed to be hurt. The real problem was there were snakes in the lab which got out into the swamps. The snakes are giant pythons and boa constrictors. They are not poisonous but are extremely deadly and can easily crush a human. Where the snakes appear, all wildlife disappears because they kill it all. Even alligators are not safe since these huge snakes can also crush them. Organizations are frantically trying to understand the snakes so they can get them under control. They have become the top of the food chain wherever they go even beating out the alligators. If they keep up this way and they keep killing the wildlife there may come a time when they get so hungry they will move in on human settlements. Bears are a big worry in some places. A bear can be very dangerous. They usually try and avoid humans but they have been known to scavenge through garbage cans and such. They are hard to kill and even when mortally wounded can still have enough life in them to kill us. People in places like Nova Scotia in Canada are getting worried about their black bear population since it is the highest in many years. There have been nuisance reports of bears doing things but no attacks on humans yet. One development in New York has bears walking through it from time to time and while some of the people there think they are cute, they are really killing machines. Some of the bear’s habits are changing and in some places, they no longer hibernate when a lot of garbage is available year around. Sometimes wolves stray near humans. Despite their looks they are not dogs and should not be regarded as such. Wolves will attack the family pets and domestic animals. To them this is just game. Humans have been guilty of moving in on wolves more than the other way around. Wolves need a lot of room to roam. There are places in Canada and Alaska where wolves are where they don’t bother humans and humans leave them alone and they do very well. The wolf has acquired a reputation among many humans as being very dangerous. A lot of the information about wolves being dangerous to man is not true. Some wild animals have been seen going into cities. It has been estimated there are 2,000 coyotes surviving in Chicago. There is a pack of wild coyotes only a few miles from O’Hare Airport. They have adapted and cut down the size of the area they hunt in. They thrive on small rodents. Some people have said they have seen coyotes crossing the streets of Chicago even at a busy traffic time. I think a lot of people seeing a coyote would think it was a dog. An animal wildlife worker had attached signal collars to some of them so they could find out more about their habits and I think they were surprised when they realized how many of them there were living in Chicago. Some large Canadian Geese have decided some towns and cities are good places to live, especially if they have ponds and lakes. The problem on Long Island in New York has gotten so bad the authorities decided at one time to shoot them and feed them to the poor, but this didn’t work out since they were so riddled with insects. The birds poop everywhere making a real mess and it is hard to walk in some places such as parks. Signs are everywhere forbidding people from feeding them. In the old days people used to give them bread and they would come over and eat it out of your hand. Physically they are harmless. Cougars are very dangerous animals. The hunt by ambush and bring down even the biggest moose. They are starting to come to cities. Studies have been made which show cougars will be coming to Midwest cities in far greater numbers as the climate changes. This will happen because their prey will be headed that way. It is felt that mule deer, which are the cougar’s favorite food, will be heading to cities because their natural habitat will dry up from the extreme heat and this means the cougars will follow. They may look cute, but they are still wild animals. I am talking about foxes. Two baby girls were asleep in London when a fox attacked both biting them. When the mother rushed into the room the fox didn’t run because it was not scared. Foxes were in the gardens and people were being told to keep their windows and doors shut. More foxes are being seen in cities in England than ever before. The only thing the foxes there seem to fear most of the time is man. Fox hunts were outlawed in 2005. The Conservatives want to bring it back. Foxes moved into England’s cities as far back as the 1930s. Wild animals should be left on their own in areas with slight or no populations. Humans should not move into them just as we should not move into areas which are wetlands. When we move into areas which contain wild animals we are not only putting them at risk we are putting ourselves at risk too.
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