Illinois Raptor Center Newsletter Archive

Preventing Wildlife Problems at Home

Most of the time we choose to learn life's lessons the hardway.

A wild bird or animal is removed from an attic, chimney orfrom beneath a porch. A day or so later, the homeowner discoversa noisy nest of starving babies left behind. These babies oftenend up at The Illinois Raptor Center, and they shouldn't. A freeroaming dog or cat injures an animal or bird that ends up at TheIllinois Raptor Center. It never should have happened.

Homeowners can take a number of simple and inexpensive stepsto protect their property, protect their pets and protect wildlife.Uncapped chimneys, holes in soffits, missing or broken latticebeneath porches, pet food left out at night and unsecured garbagecans can attract wild animals. You may not believe this, but acity may actually provide more nesting spaces per square milethan a square mile of forest. This may lead to an unnatural overpopulationof wildlife in urban areas.

Free roaming pets kill more wildlife than any oil spill. Acat can kill 11 small birds or mammals each day. Before I becameinvolved with the IRC in 1994, I'll admit I hadn't given thesetopics much thought. In fact, I have experienced many of theseproblems at my own home. The idea for this column came to me theother day when a big hunk of my disintegrating chimney crumbledand rained down on my deck. It was a reminder of something I hadmeant to do since moving in four years ago, cap the chimney.

Like most people, I prefer to learn things the hard way. Onlythe prospect of needing a hard hat for yard work spurred me todo something that needed to be done. My cat Georgie brought homedozens of critters of all types before I admitted that the bellson his collar weren't working. One day he got perilously closeto a squirrel and I realized he might really be able to kill one.He now resides full time inside, and is sitting near me as I writethis.

So join me in picking up a hammer, or picking up the phone,and fixing that potential wildlife problem at your house. A pairof inexpensive bungee cords can keep your garbage can secure.A couple of nails will secure that loose piece of lattice. Youwill protect your property value, the health of your pet, andhelp keep your neighborhood habitat in proper balance.

Chris Young/Board of Directors, published Summer 1999.

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