Wildlife/Feral Animals in your city
 

Whether it’s rats and pigeons in NYC, coyotes in LA, or chickens running around Key West and Miami, or even just the regular stray cat or raccoon, what are some of the animals that have adapted to your city and have now called it home?

To start, I’ve noticed that pigeons exist in almost every major city. Apparently they can do well since they usually perch on tall buildings, similar to their natural home on seaside cliffs. They have adapted to eat human food and deal with toxins found in water sources.

My neighborhood on the Northside of Chicago has more bunnies than we know what to do with.

We need more foxes.

We also have copious amounts of the usual urban triumvirate of rats/pigeons/squirrels, along with legions of songbirds.

And an occasional racoon/skunk/possum.

I once spied several coyotes along the lake in Lincoln park.

And deer can sometimes be spotted walking down side streets in the early morning hours.

Capybaras, between the polluted Pinheiros River, a commute railway and a 7-lane freeway:

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Any monkeys out there? Caimans? Jaguars? Fascinated with the Amazon jungle - curious as to what wildlife makes it way to the cities. Peccaries?

^ Jaguars are solitary stealth hunters. They'll avoid big centers of noise, people etc when they can. Though it's not impossible that one might wander into a city.

As for me, where I live in NA you won't usually see anything in the city. Maybe trash pandas, rats, lots of feral cats etc. But if you go a little out, coyotes, wolf's (maybe), bears, maybe even mountain lions can be found. ( Though mountain lions around here are especially rare.)

Due largely to the woods, rivers, and creeks around here, there's a lot of wildlife within the city itself. I'm 4-5 miles from downtown in an area built 60-70 years ago, and we routinely see a lot of wildlife in our yards (especially back yards). Just across the Mopac Expwy, where the elevation increases abruptly to a completely different geography, there are a lot more deer, but down lower where I live, we see the other things like coyotes, especially near creeks. Recently, there have been reports of porcupines in the city, which is new to me. I've had raccoons in my attic, as have most of my neighbors, so we've had to do some work to keep them out. Probably my favorite wild animal is the opossum, which carries its babies around on its back. It's really ugly but cute at the same time. I don't know if mountain lions have been reported in the city, although definitely west and southwest of the city.

I live in the north side of the city of Buffalo, but there are some active and vacant railroad ROW and parks/bike trails that bring some wildlife into the neighborhood.

Lots of rabbits, squirrels, rats. Occasional skunk, deer, fox, and coyote wander the streets and yards. Have had moles in the lawn. Saw what looked like some type of weasel crossing our street once. Woodchuck and deer along the bike path, and saw beaver damage at the park.

Big variety of songbirds, especially robins, sparrows, and cardinals. Some pigeons/doves, many blackbirds, crows, swifts, and gulls. Several red tail hawks in nearby trees and cell towers, along with turkey buzzards circling overhead. Many Canada geese though usually the geese hang out outside my neighborhood since not much open space here. Occasional wild turkey, herons, and other large birds that stop by once in awhile, but rarely stay long. I heard there are eagles nesting on the islands in the river, but I have yet to spot them when I look.

Outside the city there is a much broader variety of everything, of course. Every year a few black bear wander into the suburbs, so far none have made it to the city yet.

The suburbs were chasing an escaped bison around for the past 8 months, so if a wild herd ever found their way to Chicago, they could probably make a living.

American Buffalo Seen Roaming Chicago Suburbs – Again

A buffalo named "Tyson the Bison" escaped in September and has been spotted several times since
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loca...n/2797243/?amp

We have everything here in the LA area due to the mountains. Bears, mountain lions, bobcats, deer, fox, coyotes, hawks, falcons, condors, skunks, raccoons, etc all very common in the foothills and mountain communities and many even in the LA basin. We even have big horn rams in the mountains

Skunks, prairie dogs and elk in Flagstaff.

I live on the northern fringes of Houston so we get everything; raccoons, moles, rabbits, possums, armadillos, deer, coyotes, hogs, bob cats, alligators and turtles. We have all kinds of wild birds, corvids, water birds, Cooper's hawks and a nesting pair of bald eagles in the area.

I am that guy who feeds the wildlife, I toss food and left overs out in the back yard all the time at night so we have a steady rotation of raccoons, possums, cats and various birds. Plus, I have several large bird feeders.

In my part of Austin (SW) we see deer, coyotes, rabbits, raccoons, armadillos, skunks, red fox, squirrels, and, every once in a while, a bobcat. Supposedly there are feral pigs out and about, but I've yet to see one around this part of town. I've had a couple of coyote encounters (they took off running thankfully) when out with my dogs. The coyotes kick up a lot of racket at night down in a greenbelt below my house. Lots of yipping and wailing. I rather like the sounds. My dog Mike had more than one encounter with a skunk. Not fun for Mike. Not fun for me. A few different kinds of hawks are regularly circling in the sky year round. Lots of other birds as well, with grackles being the most obvious and noisiest. We also have rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, and coral snakes. Lots of dogs get snake bites in this part of the country. I expect to see a lot of wildlife this summer since it is so very dry and hot. They are going to be foraging for scarce food and sources of water, so they are likely to come a lot closer to homes than they otherwise might.

That means they made a kill. Kind of unsettling actually.

In SF/Oakland: the typical rats, and mice and squirrels. Raccoons, gophers, moles, skunks, opossums, feral cats, coyotes, and all kinds of birds. For example, pelicans, osprey, red tailed hawks, crows, ravens, seagulls, night herons, california quail, vultures, geese, parrots, hummingbirds, scrub jays, etc. Salamanders, tiny lizards, garter snakes. There are rattlesnakes in outer parts of the Bay Area, but I doubt you'd find one in the city.

Some other animals you might find in the less inhabited areas of the Bay Area are deer, wild boar, bobcats, and turkey. There are bats too! For example, they like the area around Golden Gate Park/Ocean Beach/Lake Merced, in SF.

There are also mountain lions, which are mostly in uninhabited areas, as you would expect. But every now and then one is spotted in the city. One was caught on camera near the Presidio for example, and another was spotted walking down the sidewalk not far from SF city hall lol. Another time one got lost in Mission Bay, and animal control was able to capture it. Between that and the now constant coyote presence, you gotta be more careful with pets these days. It's not rare for a dog to get snatched, or for a bunch of posters for different missing cats to suddenly appear in the same area.

As for sea creatures, there are dolphins, sea lions, seals, the occasional whale (usually humpbacks, I think), and great white sharks. There are frogs, toads, turtles, and river otters too, including some that have been spotted in both SF and Oakland.

Yeah, I live in the hills and in the past year, I've seen coyotes, foxes, bobcats, opossums, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, all the birds of prey, doves, an oriole, stray cats, etc.

One time a huge falcon landed just a few feet from the house, and lied in wait for smaller birds to show up (we feed regular birds and also hummingbirds). Fortunately, the tree squirrels were going crazy, wildly waving their tails to warn the birds. I can only assume there was also quite a racket going on out there--none of the usual birds showed up.

I don't know how dangerous they actually are, but opossums are truly the creepiest of the bunch. They slink up late at night, trigger the spotlights, and then just sit there staring and looking freaky. The stray cats stare at the lights--the opossums stare at us.

Nice to see that many areas have a nice wild diversity. One thing that I didn’t mention in the OP was that there are also wild donkeys or burros in the Inland Empire. They travel as a herd through the hilly park system south of Loma Linda, San Bernardino, and Redlands. I haven’t gotten close to them but I often see their shit on the trails in the same park.

There are a lot of foxes in London (over 10,000). They avoid central London but since most of the city is relatively green Victorian suburbia they’re very common. The weirdest thing is when you hear them “crying” at night.

There are also deer of course but these are confined to parks.

Foxes are awesome. Though I do hear they stink.

Brazilian cities are much denser than American, so big wildlife in urban areas are way more rare.

Monkeys, on the other hand, might be found on the outskirts or green areas. Caimans are much more rare, but they might make appearances on urban park lakes.

Jaguars are more solitary, but anacondas, cougars and peccaries appear in city outskirts.

And of course for birds, it's way easier. Pretty much all Brazilian bird diversity can also be spotted on urban areas as well.

A selection of bears in Asheville:

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