It's A Wildlife

Connecticut is not known for its "wilderness.”

However, as many of you probably know, you don’t necessarily need wilderness to observe a variety of wildlife.

As man has encroached more and more on the "natural" habitat of various animals, many have simply adapted - and even the ones that have not adapted per se - still survive in small "pockets" of their natural habitat and can be observed in suburban areas with relative frequency.

The basic concept of this article is how to live side-by-side in relative harmony with said animals to avoid the old cliché of human-wildlife conflict.

Even most "suburban" wildlife avoids people whenever they can - by coming out at night. But with adaptations many animals have had in regards to manmade environments many have also seemingly adapted to man, and lost much of the natural avoidance behavior necessary to keep wildlife out of harm’s way.

This brings me to my first point: With the exception of wild birds, the feeding of wildlife either intentionally or not is generally not a good idea.

Seeing as though food is the primary motivating factor for most species, this can quickly lead to conflict in terms of wildlife becoming used to such things and either becoming dependent on such sources or simply losing their fear of man through such association.

 Obviously when feeding birds, as many folks like to do these days (and sales at feed stores prove it) you are also bound to attract other animals mainly mammals that also will eat seeds. As long as the rest of your yard is not wildlife "friendly" this is not usually a big deal unless these other creatures start to crowd out the birds that the food was originally intended for (as shown in the photos)!

People often encourage animals onto their property unwittingly by doing such things as leaving food out (pet food, garbage, etc) or providing good habitat such as stone walls or housing construction that is not well maintained/sealed off. Of course many of the creatures in cases like these are tiny and harmless and you may never see not to mention are virtually impossible to keep away.

Possible problems are usually related to the "larger" more conspicuous mammals that are known for passing diseases to humans. Though this an extremely rare occurrence in this state it does pay however to keep your pets fully vaccinated at all times and to always feed in a manner that keeps food from sitting in the open for long periods.

Apart from doing your part to limit the access wildlife has to human provided food and habitats, it is beyond the scope of this article to go into the details of eliminating possible habitats to animals that can become somewhat serious pests on top of it.

You will have to simply use your good human attributes of common sense and good judgment for that. Another IMPORTANT point I will make though is that you should use your discretion to keep your pets themselves safe as there are many animals that can pose a threat to them - and don’t be naive about it.

Lastly and this is a very common complaint: how do you keep deer and other wildlife from decimating your well landscaped vegetation? There are only and yes I mean only two ways of doing this: One is to use plants that are not palatable to the animals (you will need to do your research here) and two, somehow keep the plants confined in a way that wildlife cannot get to it.

Yes there you have it, just two ways - and keep in mind none of the chemicals on the market claiming to be a deterrent for such things work.

Note: Photos contributed by Al Santangelo