Keeping Nature Wild How residents can remain curious about wildlife without disrupting it By Rebecca Myers
Everyone is probably tired of hearing that 2020 has been a year for the ages, what with a pandemic altering so many facets of how we exist. But what if you’re an animal who didn’t get the news update? Well, wildlife might not have received an alert straight from the governor, but our animal neighbors have definitely realized something is different. Scientists have dubbed this unique time the “anthropause” – “anthro” for human and “pause” for the break in human activity caused by stay-athome orders that have drastically changed our routines and habits. That pause, in turn, has affected wildlife throughout the world, including critters around Dublin. Animals that regularly have been wary or fearful of humans, or their noisy vehicles, are now being spotted out and
A Dublin Road home hosts a Certified Backyard Habitat. Adding native plants to existing landscaping adds diversity and color to any garden and benefits many types of wildlife. 14 • October/November 2020
Kids learn how to start seeds during an outdoor family activity at Coffman Park.
about more often during the day with the decrease in traffic – as noise impedes an animal’s ability to focus. And animals that rely heavily on human refuse, like raccoons or rats used to feeding off scraps from now-shuttered restaurants, have had to rely solely on natural food since the COVID-19 pandemic began. These are some big changes, says Barbara Ray, the City’s nature education coordinator. “I noticed how quiet the sky was without all that airplane traffic,” she says, “but the animals noticed it too. And that really reduced some of their struggles with having to hunt and find food and talk to each other with all that ambient noise.” Ray points out that some animals, like foxes, raccoons or coyotes, follow a more nocturnal routine not because it’s in their nature but because it’s helpful in order to avoid humans. Nowadays, you might see those creatures and other animals such as rodents out during the day because they do not need to scavenge at night to circumvent people. She also notes there aren’t more animals outside, people are just more aware of the wildlife activity around them. For
some, working from home has meant being cognizant for the first time of what’s happening in their own backyards at different times of day. Ray has received an uptick in detailed inquiries about why animals behave the way they do rather than complaints about what they’re doing. That curiosity about the biology of wildlife is something Ray relishes as a naturalist. “I feel like our community got a little closer firsthand look at how wildlife lives because we were observing it, and we were noticing that (animals) are not really doing that much damage, for one, and they’re not out to get us,” she says. “We can coexist with them – they have been here all along, we just didn’t see them!” In Ohio, people are frequenting parks between 50 and 60 percent more, and Dublin has seen its share of increased parkgoers. Dubliners have built more Certified Backyard Habitats as well as asked more questions about composting and gardening. And don’t forget birdwatching, which has risen by 30 percent in the Buckeye State. That’s according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which tracks sighting reports from individuals. www.dublinlifemagazine.com