Earl Hodnett, Fairfax County’s wildlife biologist, answered a call from a hysterical resident a few years back. A cottontail rabbit had wandered into the man’s Vienna-area backyard, and he felt his family was in peril.
“He said, ‘I have children, and this rabbit is in my yard,’ ” Hodnett recalled. “He fully expected the county to dispatch somebody out there to capture or kill the rabbit.”
Hodnett remembers the man, the “poster child of ignorance,” as an extreme example of what wildlife officials throughout the Washington region say is a profound gap in the public’s understanding of the animal life around it. That lack of understanding is made all the more glaring as man and wildlife increasingly occupy the same space.
The intersection of man and beast has become impossible to ignore. Just last week, a deer darted across Massachusetts Avenue from the grounds of the vice president’s mansion at the U.S. Naval Observatory and hit a white Lexus heading north, smashing the car’s headlight.
Deer running onto the road cause thousands of accidents and scores of injuries each year.
The exploding population of geese also brings with it a host of environmental and public safety problems.
“We used to talk a lot about our expansion into their territory, their habitat,” said John Hadidian, director of urban wildlife programs for the Humane Society of the United States. “We would frequently say suburban sprawl is displacing these animals, they have no place to go. I believe just as strongly that they have finally figured out how to live in cities.”
Conspicuous examples of animals making themselves at home in human space are the carnivorous mammals — the bear and coyote — both of which are making more frequent appearances in the area. While both sound menacing, they have proved far less threatening than more common creatures like deer and geese.
Black bears on the move
Black bears, the only species of bear in this part of the country, tend to wander into the suburbs through long nature corridors such as along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Many are adolescent “yearling” bears being sent off on their own.
In Western Maryland’s Garrett County, such an arrival warrants little attention, said Paul Peditto, director of the Wildlife and Heritage Service in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
But, “when that bear shows up in Shady Grove, we’ll get 35 phone calls within the hour of the first sighting,” he said.
This year has been the most active for bears in Northern Virginia in several years, said John Rohm, a wildlife biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. While there are no exact population counts, he said “we do know overall, the state of Virginia’s bear population has slightly increased.”
The department is taking public input this summer on its hunting regulations, and some residents have suggested broadening the limited bear hunting season in Northern Virginia as a result of the increase of “nuisance bear calls.”
Coyotes settle in
The re-emergence of the coyote is “exciting news,” said Neal Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Audubon Naturalist Society.
The animal has successfully woven itself into the region, even in the District around Rock Creek Park, the National Zoo and other parks, Hadidian said. The arrival is the result of “one of the broadest range expansions of any animal that we’ve ever studied,” he said, with the Washington area the latest stop on a broad, centuries-long migration around the country.
“They’ve been in the area probably close to a decade, but in very, very low numbers and very secretive,” Hadidian said. “And now it looks like the populations have gotten to the point where they’re more noticeable.”
Peditto compares the animals to oversized raccoons, opportunistic eaters with a great sense of smell. While they don’t pose a real threat to humans, he said a small pet tethered to a backyard chain would be easy prey for a coyote.
Problematic deer and geese
One of the most problematic mammals in the region has neither claws nor jaws, but instead is multiplying out of control. In Fairfax County alone, deer are involved in an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 auto accidents each year, causing 15 to 20 injuries, Hodnett said.
The populations have devastated native plant life at parks, hurting birds and small mammals and allowing invasive species to creep
in.
“There is problem after problem,” he said. “The closer you look at deer overpopulation and the ripple effect, some of these are quite long-term problems.”
Local governments also have struggled to deal with rising Canada goose populations, especially in parks and golf courses. In Virginia, some of the birds were introduced for hunting purposes decades ago and have since become permanent, non-migratory residents. The result — ponds and streams are increasingly ridden with fecal coliform bacteria.
By comparison, bears and coyotes have caused few problems, save for the occasional upturned trash can. Neither Maryland nor Virginia has seen a recent human injury from either animal, officials said.
“You don’t need to freak out about your kids getting eaten by a bear,” Rohm said.
Or a rabbit.
