Oct. 2, 2006
A mourning dove rested on Mary Reilly-Kliss’ backyard bird feeder. With it’s peaceful song and graceful manner, it seemed unaware that – WHAM! It was snatched out of the sky by a screaming hawk in a diving aerial assault.
That year, Reilly-Kliss’s yard became an Air Force training ground as hawks raised their young in trees boarding it. The other birds‘ chirping would shut off like a switch when the hawks called to each other, but she would take them back anyday.
“I’d like it if the hawks had stuck around – it would help control the rabbits,” said Reilly-Kills, a self-described “gardening geek.”
This give-and-take is often typical of the tricky relationship between Washington County‘s human residents and their animal neighbors: If it’s not one thing, it’s the other. Interaction, which is increasing, can range from picturesque to grotesque, according to wildlife workers and residents.
Marnie Brown, director of the Washington County Human Society, said human interaction with wildlife has definitely increased – for better or worse.
“Some people recognize that wild animals are here and they enjoy seeing wildlife around their homes and there are other people who don‘t want to deal with them,” Brown said.
Washington County’s Department of Natural Resources conservation warden Bill Mitchell said he received a baffling phone call from a few weeks ago from a woman perturbed because a deer was in her yard.
“This lady was just shocked that there was actually a deer there,” Mitchell said. “They had just moved here from Milwaukee and they wanted me to do something about it.”
Mitchell was irritated at first, both by the woman’s indignation at the deer and because as a coservationist, chasing critters is not his job. People often don’t realize their proximity to native animals, he said.
Jeanie Lord, executive director of the Pine View Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, said owners of 40 acres recently called in wanting fawns, foxes and mourning doves removed from their property.
“We address at least 100 calls a week about what people perceive as nuisance animals, when really these are animals attemptting to adapt and survive in what used to be their territory,” Lord said.
Washington County Sheriff Brian Rahn said his department occasionally receives calls about deer caught in fenced in areas or problem raccoons.
“As we build a lot of our suburbs in the woods, you’re building your house right in their habitat,” Rahn said.
Many deer seem completely accustomed to being around people, Rahn said, as well as foxes who watch traffic in Slinger before trotting on their way.
Chief of Slinger Police Dean Schmidt said the foxes seems to be showing up more and more, passing by the village hall as it crosses from one swampy area to another. No one has tried to harm the fox, Schmidt said, but the town hasn’t exactly adopted as a mascot either.
Residents do harm animals, however, whether or not it is intentional. Lord said the Pine View Center, which specializes in healing coyotes, birds of prey and reptiles took in around 155 birds of prey, 13 foxes and 22 reptiles, along with more than two dozen other species, such as painted and snapping turtles hit by cars.
Some of these animals were wounded by humans, but simple human expansion has hurt animals simply by taking away habitat, like hunting areas for birds like red-tail hawks.
“In the last 13 days our hospital has admitted 14 birds of prey that are emaciated and dehydrated,” Lord said. “With that land lost, you have more birds competing for fewer spaces, which means fewer food sources.”
Lord has countless horror stories of cruelty to animals from her 25 years of working with wildlife. People angry with woodchucks burrowing under their decks have poisoned them with antifreeze, and hostility has increased toward bats since a 15-year old Fond du Lac girl contracted rabies last year from a bat bite.
Simply torturing animals is unexcusable, she said, and for those who perceive wildlife as a nuisance, “there are human alternatives to a bullet or a broom.”
Russ Roecker lives with his wife on the Skyline Drive hilltop in Barton, and has seen a wide array of animals right in his backyard.
“We feel comfortable with that but not everybody does,” he said. “If people have a problem with animals, before they make a rash decision they should certainly call the DNR or the humane society so that they can help them, before they do something drastic.”
Some animals adapt more successfully than others to changes humans make in the landscape. Deer and raccons for example, thrive in less densely vegetated areas on the edge of forests. As wooded areas are framented by developement, forests become islands of these environments.
Once an area is developed, less areas are available for hunting, which can be an important population control for deer. More grassy landing pads for geese appear as forest plots are cleared and lawns installed. Other animals, such as songbirds like warblers and woodpeckers, struggle as the thick cover the inner forest provides disappears.
Tom Isaac, DNR wildlife biologist for Washington and Ozaukee Counties, said certain animals‘ nature make them better adapted for surviving alongside humans. Deer are social animals who interact with each other and whose territories overlap, he said, which makes interacting with other species less of a burden. Wolves and bobcats, on the other hand, do not live in the area because they are fiercely territorial and private.
Jean Palm, a gardener and member of the West Bend Beautificatoin Committee’s board, uses techniques such as a garlic liquid fence solution to keep herbivores out of her garden. She said it was important to understand ecosystems – using native plants in gardens to appreciating and appreciating the catepillars munching plants to pieces will one day be butterflies.
“I feel that we’re encroaching on the animals and some people feel the animals are encroaching on us,” Palm said. “I just feel strongly that there’s room for all of us here.”