# Your local mammals **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 3, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762 "2016-05-03T06:31:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/21 "2016-05-03T15:00:25Z")
In my Los Angeles suburb, I’ve seen in my yard (in order of decreasing frequency): squirrels (they steal my grapes) feral cats (only ones wily enough to avoid the coyotes) rats (living in the hedge row) raccoons (they eat my water lilies) opossums & skunks (snuffling around for whatever) coyotes (looking for unwary feral cats) bobcats (drinking from the fish pool. I thought it was a feral cat, until I realized how big it was, and it’s short tail) Along my block: mule deer Sighted by others, but not me: mountain lions (caused a big ruckus at the local school–they went to lockdown status until rangers chased it away) ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/22 "2016-05-03T15:17:24Z")
Here in our suburban neighborhood in Sacramento, we have squirrels raccoons feral cats possums rats and mice skunks Just a few blocks away there is a wooded parkway along what was once a seasonal creek. On occasion you can find a coyote there, and just a bit farther away there are about 12 gazillion rabbits in a large empty field along the freeway. Along the American River Parkway which cuts through the middle of town you can also find deer, otters, beavers, and the occasional mountain lion ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/23 "2016-05-03T15:17:57Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Hedgehogs, hopefully still three-dimensional. Chuckle. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/24 "2016-05-03T15:24:11Z")
Puget Sound region of Washington State. We have squirrels (two kinds), and some rats. My favorite are the seals, otters, and sea lions. A few raccoons and opossums, but not an infestation. An occasional deer or coyote. That’s about it for wild mammals at my house. We don’t see many bats any more. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/25 "2016-05-03T15:31:23Z")
Northeast Wyoming Dogs Cats Humans Grey Squirrels White-tail deer Mule deer Pronghorn Antelope Cattle Sheep Goats Llamas/Alpacas Badgers Little brown bats Coyotes The occasional fox The occasional bobcat Field mice/deer mice/kangaroo mice Raccoons Porcupines Cottontail Rabbit Jackrabbit If I venture away from home a short distance, I can add: Bison Red Fox Yellow-bellied Marmots Moose Bighorn Sheep Mountain Lions Chipmunks Beavers The occasional black bear Once, while working outdoors, I stumbled on a pack rat den. Very interesting! ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/26 "2016-05-03T15:56:35Z")
Great lists! I left out coyotes and rodents because I haven’t seen them locally. I’m sure they’re out there, but I was limiting myself to mammals I’d seen around here. I forgot opos, them I have seen. 🙂 So, if I go a little further out of town, I add coyotes, bobcats, Sonoma chipmunk. **Sailboat** , [red](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_red_squirrel) and [fox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_squirrel) squirrel are different. Foxes are big, reds are small. We get a different subspecies of the red up in the Sierras, I suppose I should add that to my out of town list… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/27 "2016-05-03T15:57:15Z")
Mammals I have seen in Panama City itself, including Metropolitan Park: [Variegated Squirrel](http://www.gaianicaragua.org/squirrel%20041.jpg) Central American Agouti Crab-eating Raccoon Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Geoffroy’s Tamarin White-faced Capuchin Monkey Mantled Howler Monkey various bats I’m sure there are Common Opossums, Nine-banded Armadillos, White-tailed Deer, Coatis, and probably Paca, Jaguarundi, Ocelot, Tamandua, Forest Rabbit, and Tayra in the park but I haven’t seen them there myself. Within a half hour drive or less, it’s possible to see Collared Peccary, Mazama Deer, Kinkajou, Olingo, Grison, Neotropical River Otter, several other kinds of opossums and rodents, Capybara, Prehensile-tailed Porcupine, Silky Anteater, and Manatee. There are Puma, Jaguar, Bush Dogs, Coyote and Baird’s Tapir around but they are hardly ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Rhodes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhodes/32/273_2.png) [@Rhodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhodes)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/28 "2016-05-03T16:19:17Z")
Houston suburb. I’ve seen 2 coyote in my town - 1 live and 1 roadkill. Occasional deer. One critter that looked like a fox. Lots of squirrels, raccoons, possums, armadillos, and Mexican freetail bats. No rats, and I haven’t seen a mouse in years. Surprisingly few nutria, even out at the state park. There’s a rural area that must have packs of feral dogs. At any given time, there will be 4 roadkill on a 2-mile stretch of road. They look like pit bulls to my untrained eye, but they’re usually as big as rottweilers. At the state park I saw a stampede of about 30 feral pigs. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/29 "2016-05-03T16:22:09Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > How about where you live? If I came to visit specifically to see mammals, where would you take me and what species would we be likely to see? If you specifically wanted to _go somewhere_ see mammals, not just ones in our backyards I’d also add in Tule Elk for the greater Bay Area - you can almost guarantee a sighting at Pt. Reyes. I’d add in our panoply off sea mammals, but I admit I’d go outside the Bay Area proper for the best sightings of everything except [California Sea Lions](http://www.pier39.com/home/the-sea-lion-story/sea-lion-webcam-2/), indolently sunning themselves at Pier 39. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/30 "2016-05-03T16:33:38Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Variegated Squirrel](http://www.gaianicaragua.org/squirrel%20041.jpg) Cool squirrel! My brother sent me pictures of an albino turkey that visits his feeder and I’ve seen crows with varying amounts of white feathering as well as piebald deer. Looks like your picture is actually a species of squirrel, _Sciurus variegatoides_! ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/31 "2016-05-03T16:50:10Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > If you specifically wanted to _go somewhere_ see mammals, not just ones in our backyards I’d also add in Tule Elk for the greater Bay Area - you can almost guarantee a sighting at Pt. Reyes. > > I’d add in our panoply off sea mammals, but I admit I’d go outside the Bay Area proper for the best sightings of everything except [California Sea Lions](http://www.pier39.com/home/the-sea-lion-story/sea-lion-webcam-2/), indolently sunning themselves at Pier 39. You’re right, Pt Reyes is also good for bobcat, coyote, and gophers. Including [coyotes eating gophers](http://imgur.com/0tGId4E) (I watched this one catch FIVE in about 10 minutes, there were also herons and egrets hunting them! It was awesome!) And if I’m heading to Monterey, I could add sea otter, harbor seal and CA sea lion at Moss Landing. Oh! I’ve seen muskrats in Sunnyvale, and beavers in Martinez, although I believe the family denning there are no longer around. Sad. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/32 "2016-05-03T16:53:35Z")
Far SW suburbs of Chicago (Plainfield/Oswego/Yorkville), stuff I’m most likely to see: Wild: Grey squirrels, cottontail rabbits, skunks, striped ground squirrels, chipmunks, racoon, opossum, white tail deer, coyotes, red fox, woodchucks and the occasional muskrat (see their mounds much more often than the critters). Back when I had an outdoor cat, I’d get gifts of mice, shrews and once a mole but I never see them in a living state. Domestic: Cats, dogs, horses & sheep. My route used to have a few cows on it but I think their farm got rid of them. The sheep are new though. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/33 "2016-05-03T17:02:39Z")
On and around my property (a farm adjacent to a Great Lake) I’ve got deer, fox, coyote, porcupine, skunk, mink, groundhog, squirrel, chipmunk, mice, voles, bats, opossum, muskrat, rabbits, and even a black bear wandered through a while back. And of course we have feral cats, dogs, cows, horses, goats, llamas, and ferrets within a mile. Fairly typical for a rural neighborhood, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/34 "2016-05-03T17:04:40Z")
Not quite local to me, but Assateague Island in my state has [wild ponies](http://www.assateagueisland.com/wildlife/pony.htm). Also, although not mammals, the most spectacular mosquito population I’ve ever witnessed. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/35 "2016-05-03T17:05:55Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Including [coyotes eating gophers](http://imgur.com/0tGId4E) (I watched this one catch FIVE in about 10 minutes, there were also herons and egrets hunting them! It was awesome!) Nice catch! > [@](#): > > Oh! I’ve seen muskrats in Sunnyvale, and beavers in Martinez, although I believe the family denning there are no longer around. Sad. And [river otters](http://www.riverotterecology.org/maps-of-bay-area-sightings.html) - can’t forget them ;). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/36 "2016-05-03T17:06:13Z")
Fun wild life observation: beavers are much larger than you’d think. In fact, one swimming directly underneath your canoe is approximately the size of Moby Dick. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/37 "2016-05-03T17:15:50Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Fun wild life observation: beavers are much larger than you’d think. In fact, one swimming directly underneath your canoe is approximately the size of Moby Dick. [Imagine wading in a stream, fishing, and being attacked by a rabid beaver.](http://www.realtree.com/small-game-hunting/news/rabid-beaver-warning-in-pa) ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/38 "2016-05-03T17:20:31Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Southern Victoria, Australia. > > POSSUMS (not your ugly US opossums) we’ve got ringtail and brushtail possums, the cutest little critters ever. > > 😃 As an American who has traveled the world, I have noticed that possums in other countries are way cuter than ours. Other countries have way cuter rodents too. This seems unfair. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/39 "2016-05-03T17:34:15Z")
Austin , TX squirrels-- on the UT campus, they will walk up and take your lunch if you don’t watch it white tail deer skunks opossums armadillos racoons ringtails and the largest urban bat colony in the world > **[Our Work - Bat Conservation International](https://www.batcon.org/our-work/)** > > Bats are under unprecedented threat from widespread habitat destruction, invasive species, hunting, accelerating climate change, and other stresses. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762/40 "2016-05-03T17:46:07Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Southern Victoria, Australia. > > POSSUMS (not your ugly US opossums) we’ve got ringtail and brushtail possums, the cutest little critters ever. You call this ugly? > **[Austin Wildlife Rescue](https://www.austinwildliferescue.org/#!untitled/zoom/c1i6a/image_kmn)** > > Austin Wildlife Rescue rehabilitates and releases orphaned, sick, and injured wild animals and educates the public to coexist with wildlife. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-local-mammals/753762.md?page=3)