Animals Infringing on Human Territory Something strange is going on. When humans meet wildlife, except for a few exceptions, the wildlife is driven out. The exceptions include squirrels which seem to be able to live with humans, different bird species, different types of insects, some of which look at us as food and a few other creatures. It is not a secret when Americans took over the western part of the country, they almost completely wiped out the Buffalo and it has been a long fight to try and rebuild their herds. They will never be back in the numbers they once were, but they have become viable. What is happening now however, is wild creatures are starting to come back into areas where humans live, and some of them are very dangerous to human life. Why is this happening, does it portend other ominous events which might happen next? This is what some people think, but I am not one of them. I believe it may be getting too hard for some of these creatures to find food in the areas they are in and human garbage is very tempting to them as a quick food source. Recently in the city of Santiago Chile a wild cougar spent the better part of a day wandering through the streets and scaring people. Authorities checked to see if any cougars were missing from zoos, but the answer was no. This animal had wondered in from outside the city. Workers from the zoo were enlisted to capture the animal without hurting it. Officials said this was the first time a wild animal such as this cougar had been so far from the Andes Mountains. It had been seen wandering through many backyards. The plans for the animal are to release it back into the wild after veterinarians examine it. Snakes seem to be even more sneaky when they go into populated areas. The reason for this is they are very quiet, sometimes hard to notice since they are so low to the ground, and because they are very good at hiding. A woman in Australia was shocked when she went home and there was a large giant Burmese python on her porch. Believe me, this is not a site one wants to see. The snake was 15 feet long and an albino. A snake catcher had been called and he told the woman the snake was just a gentle giant and had apparently been somebody’s pet all its life. The snake was turned over to the authorities. A family in California was waiting for a delivery. The delivery was a large box of dog food. The home was equipped with a video camera built into the doorbell as are many homes nowadays. They were shocked when they saw what the bell had recorded. A large young bear had come along and must have smelled the contents of the box. The box contained a 40 pound bag of dog food. The bell recorded the bear grabbing the box and dragging it away. It only took twenty minutes after the box was delivered before the bear spotted it. Apparently, this bear was very near a community of people. A man who has treated wild animals in Africa is having a problem. He lived in a populated area in Massachusetts. He had noticed something kept digging in the same spot in his yard. He couldn’t figure out what it was so we set up some motion cameras and what he recorded shocked him. The camera recorded a video showing foxes, opossums, coyotes, deer, turkeys, a skunk and other animals all which came to his yard and some of which dug in it. Even a skunk who was the main culprit for doing the digging had appeared. He said he was shocked to see such a variety of animals pass through his yard. Apparently, they were doing just fine living near people. It seems some animals prefer living in the suburbs and some theories state it is because of gardens and such. The question is are wild animals becoming more comfortable living around humans and does this endanger humans? The answer to both questions is yes and yes. One might think a deer is not a dangerous animal and that would probably be close to the truth, because they are not very dangerous physically, but where the danger does come from is many of them carry disease. On the other hand, living near bears is extremely dangerous physically because one never knows when a bear might turn on a human being and see them as nothing more than a meal. This is why people who live in the woods are constantly being told never to leave garbage exposed because it attracts bears and other wild animals. Many animals are adopting to their new environments. Leopards have adopted to subzero conditions in Russia and to the semi-arid conditions of the Kgalagadi. Berlin, Germany has become a favorite spot for wild boar. They like Berlin because it has 440,000 trees. Berlin is a very green city and because of this it attracts wildlife. The boars do not seem to be interested in human garbage but instead are able to forage for natural food. Penguins have found Cape Town is a safe place for them. They seem to avoid the mainland because of the predators and can be found at Betty’s Bay and Boulders Beach. People come from all over to see them. The odor from the Penguins is incredibly bad and they make a donkey like braying sound. People don’t seem to bother them there as they go about their business. Mountain lions have appeared wandering the streets of Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is surrounded by mountains. There is one particular mountain lion who has become famous and is known as “King of Malibu.” He got that name because of the bloodied trail he leaves when he kills many other kinds of animals and it has been said he does not always do this for food, but rather because he likes to do it. So far there is no record of him ever going after a person but rather he has gone after sheep, goats and other animals. Sometimes it seems animals are more comfortable with humans than humans are with them. It’s amazing how many of them have adopted to the fact humans are around them, and haven’t went after any of them. Will some of these animals become domesticated just because of the environment? I don’t know the answer to this question, but it certainly seems they are doing things which a few years ago would have seemed abnormal for them such as ignoring the fact humans are around them.
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