{"id":24188,"date":"2019-07-04T18:18:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:18:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24188"},"modified":"2019-07-04T18:18:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:18:56","slug":"inside-aurora-wild-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-wild-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Wild Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on recent news reports,\nit seems Aurora\u2019s being overrun by wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, for the most part\nthese animals, or at least their ancestors, were living here first. It\u2019s not\nlike they read the Town\u2019s press releases and just decided that this was a great\nplace to move to.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exception to \u201cbeing here\nfirst\u201d may be the opossum, whose numbers have increased as this marsupial\u2019s\nrange has moved north into Aurora in recent years, thanks in part to global\nwarming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But paving over large tracts\nof green space in Town and our neighbouring communities, and increasing our\npopulation by a few thousand people a year has made not just opossums, but\nanimals of all sorts more noticeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases they\u2019re being\nencouraged. The new bridge recently opened over the East Holland River in\nSheppard\u2019s Bush was designed in part to allow trout to more easily navigate\nupstream for spawning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over near Bathurst, the Town\nspent $7k adding flashing lights to the existing turtle crossing signs on\nHenderson to reduce potential instances of reptile road kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without human support,\nmany animals are increasing in numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seems to have been a\nhuge spike in rabbit populations this year, and I\u2019m seeing more and more red\nsquirrels in our neighbourhood. On the less cuddly front, I believe rat\nsightings are also on the rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most obvious example\nof an increased wildlife presence is the coyote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have always been\nsightings of this canine in Town, especially in spring when the pups are\ngrowing and extra hunting is required by the parents to help feed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it\u2019s expanded\ncommunication via social media, or perhaps it\u2019s the increase in rabbits and\nother prey species, but coyotes seem to have a more visible presence these\ndays.  There was even an unnerving video\nof a young girl being knocked over by a coyote in her backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most wildlife encounters are\nnot in people\u2019s backyards, but this does reinforce the fact that all wild\nanimals are, obviously, wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, not all species\nhave the natural \u201ckeep away\u201d reputation of say, a skunk.  The cute animals may make one want to get\nclose to feed or pet them, but even the fluffiest of wide-eyed bunnies,\nracoons, or chipmunks can bite or scratch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encouraging wildlife to stick\naround Town and not get run over is not limited to improving fish habitat and\nputting up fancy electronic crossing signs on our streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development has been halted on\nsome green spaces, such as the lots on Henderson, which were spared proposed\nmonster home developments after a concerted pushback by neighbouring residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the east side of Town, the\nIvy Jay Nature Reserve is receiving millions of dollars in investments in\npreparation for its opening next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even with an abundance of\ndesignated green spaces in Aurora, it\u2019s unlikely that all of the Town\u2019s\nundomesticated critters will decide to base themselves within these unfenced\nreserves. Not when increased numbers of Aurorans are generating so much litter,\ncompost, and other temptations in neighbourhoods all across Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the wild animal populations\nin Aurora continue their steady rise, and human-animal interactions become more\nlikely, we may need to go beyond just reminding people to be on the lookout for\nturtles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, all of our roads, parks,\nsidewalks and trails may be covered with flashing signs warning folks to watch\nout for coyotes, groundhogs, foxes, deer, salamanders, ducks and all our Town\u2019s\nother wild residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Based on recent news reports, it seems Aurora\u2019s being overrun by wildlife. To be fair, for the most part these animals, or at least their ancestors, were living here first. It\u2019s not like they read the Town\u2019s press releases and just decided that this was a great place to move to.  The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6i8","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 01:07:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}