Where the wild things are
Encounters between animals and humans are becoming more common in Mecklenburg
The following article appeared in the December 18, 2023, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
From deer to armadillos and peregrine falcons, wildlife experts say we’re seeing more animal neighbors than we did in the past
Mecklenburg County is home to roughly 50 deer per square mile — far beyond what biologists say is a healthy population density. Here, a buck roams the Stonehaven neighborhood in southeast Charlotte. (Photo by Amber Veverka)
By Amber Veverka
Tony Hill and his dog, Bodie, were enjoying the sunrise on their deck on a recent morning in a neighborhood near Mint Hill. Suddenly, the pyredoodle’s demeanor changed.
“He was acting very strange,” Hill said of his Great Pyrenees-poodle cross. “I caught some movement past the trees and then a second movement and caught the back end of a medium-sized black bear loping away.”
A bear. In Cresswind Charlotte, a sprawling 55+ community near Mint Hill.
Eventually, word of the sighting made its way to Sampson Parker, the state’s only wildlife law enforcement officer stationed in Mecklenburg County.
Parker and others say that while no one group tracks the numbers, calls about human-wildlife encounters have ticked up in Mecklenburg County. More residents are seeing their furred and feathered neighbors than in past years.
Is it good news — a sign that Mecklenburg is doing a better job protecting the lives of its wild citizens? Or is it a sign that development is devouring dwindling scraps of habitat?
The answer, as it turns out, is a bit complicated.
Less room to roam, more food to eat: Parker is employed by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), and when it comes to Mecklenburg wildlife, he does it all. Reached on a recent day, he’d just returned from investigating illegal hunting — turns out there’s a lot of it in the Charlotte area — and was still recovering from “Deer Month.”
That would be November, the biggest month for car-deer collisions in Mecklenburg. It’s the time of the rut, when bucks chase does, and both sexes have more exciting things on their mind than traffic. By Thanksgiving week, responding to calls for car-injured deer would consume Parker’s entire workday if he didn’t get a big assist from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. (And in case you’re wondering, injured deer are euthanized. “A full-grown deer can’t be rehabbed,” Parker said.)
But wildlife calls go well beyond deer, and Sampson’s phone is ringing more often. “It’s increasing every year, for sure,” he said. “It’s deer, coyotes, all the way down to raccoons. In the last six years, I’ve seen a ton of change. Massive subdivisions being built. It’s knocking out these big blocks of woods where these animals used to live.”
Longtime SouthPark resident Lesa Sass has had a front-row seat to the results. “We used to have 30 houses in this neighborhood. Now we have 100-something,” she said. Sass and her husband live in a neighborhood near the intersection of Park and Fairview roads, not far from SouthPark Mall. She’s seen a lot of animals explore yards, including foxes.
She watched one that she dubbed “Redd Foxx” grow from a kit to a healthy adult. Red-tailed hawks hang out in the area, and Sass once saw a bald eagle. Coyotes are regularly captured by her Ring doorbell camera.
“I tell people, ‘Don’t be scared of these things. Get yourself educated,’” said Sass. “I agree that all of the new construction has taken away land to roam. It has also provided the wildlife ample (food) resources.”
With human interaction comes animal wins and losses (and even reports of Bigfoot): While most of the time human-wildlife encounters go unrecorded — except for the ubiquitous “What kind of snake is this?” posts on Nextdoor — some get logged into a state database by Bret Ladrie, NCWRC human wildlife interaction biologist. So far this year, Ladrie has received 1,047 contacts from Mecklenburg residents, most often about injured animals. (Though, it’s worth noting, at least some callers want to report visits by Bigfoot. “Bigfoot — he’s in some people’s yards, he brings some people gifts,” Ladrie said.)
What Ladrie sees is animals responding to new conditions. Take deer, for example. Mecklenburg County is home to roughly 50 deer per square mile — easily double what biologists consider a healthy population density, Ladrie said. Coyotes will take some fawns, but the deer have no real predators except cars. Those deer persist in the Charlotte area, but they also move to adjoining counties where there’s more space. The highest increases in human-wildlife interaction are in Charlotte and Raleigh areas and in the areas that ring them, Ladrie said. “There’s no hunting pressure,” he explained, “and a lot of calories on the landscape.”
Species that are moving around for a variety of reasons include eastern chipmunks — common enough around here, but now being spotted for the first time east of I-95 — and armadillos, whose movements the state is asking residents to report. Feral hogs are shifting from South Carolina into N.C.’s Union County, Parker said.
Densely packed human development favors some species over others.
“You’re going to see our wildlife become more homogenous,” said Chris Matthews, division director of nature preserves and natural resources at Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. That means “animals that adapt well with people — and less of the rare stuff.”
In some special cases, Mecklenburg animals are succeeding because we, their human neighbors, are protecting what’s theirs.
In October, a Stevens Creek Nature Preserve trail cam captured a shot of a family of river otters. Otters don’t hang out in dirty water, so this is a big win. “The increasing presence of river otters in Mecklenburg County is due to a variety of factors,” Matthews said, “including the purchase and preservation of large open spaces like Stevens Creek Nature Preserve, stream restoration efforts to improve habitat and reduce sedimentation, efforts to control stormwater and improve water quality and the elimination of the need for hunting for fur.”
Otters, like these photographed by Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, are on the rise in Mecklenburg County.
Mostly, however, it’s the opportunists like coyotes, deer, raccoons and barred owls that adapt to human-made landscapes. Even some specialists, like peregrine falcons, find a way.
“There is a resident population of peregrine falcons in uptown Charlotte,” said Sean Bloom, geographic information systems director and biologist for Catawba Lands Conservancy. “They live on top of skyscrapers because it simulates (their natural habitat). Peregrine falcons do well in urban environments.”
Bloom agrees the species that are generalists are adapting to encroachment. “What woods were left are even getting developed now,” he said. “So, deer are being pushed out of what pockets they had left. I think some wildlife is becoming more urbanized. More comfortable. I know for myself for the first time ever I saw a live skunk. I was out with my dog in our backyard and there goes a skunk walking across our backyard like nothing’s going on.”
So, three things are happening: An animal “housing crisis” with fewer corridors between still-wild areas. Abundant artificially introduced food. And some species’ growing comfort with humans.
Which brings us back to bears.
‘They were here before we were’: Anyone who’s spent time in Asheville recently knows the state’s black bear population is booming. The headlines on stories from 2023 attest to it: “Black bear family has a night on the town,” “Asheville man and bear give each other a scare,” “Can Asheville learn to live with bears?”
Black bears are a big comeback story for the North Carolina, which saw record lows in the mid-1900s. Today, there are roughly 20,000 statewide, in the western part of the state and at the coast, NCWRC’s Ladrie said. They can range more than 1,000 miles, though it’s unusual to see them in the Piedmont outside of late spring and early summer.
But Tony Hill of Cresswind is confident of what he saw a couple of weeks ago, and he has the credentials to back it up. He grew up in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, tagging along with his uncle to observe black bears from the time he was 6. Hill’s uncle was a bear hunter guide and assisted state biologists in tagging hibernating cubs. Hill rattles off facts about the habits of N.C. bears like the self-described “country boy” he is.
Ladrie isn’t surprised by the sighting. “Bears have been slowly moving into counties where we haven’t seen them before,” said. “I tell people … any county in North Carolina could potentially be bear country.” Bears will likely “make their way back to places they used to inhabit, like the Uwharries.”
Brooke Bunting, senior community association property manager for Hill’s neighborhood, said wildlife encounters are common, in part because the powerline right of way nearby serves as an animal avenue. “At the beginning of spring I sent out a list of what to do if you find this baby animal or that baby animal,” Bunting said. She’s invited reptile experts to educate residents about snakes and explains how to live with the presence of coyotes, especially when their singing unnerves some.
Hill doesn’t need persuasion. He and his wife, Kathy, appreciate the close encounters with wild neighbors. “They were here before we were,” he said. “It’s their land.”
Amber Veverka is a freelance writer and editor. She can be reached through her website, amberveverka.com.
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