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)
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
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!
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 and fox 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…
Mammals I have seen in Panama City itself, including Metropolitan Park:
Variegated Squirrel
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.
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.
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, indolently sunning themselves at Pier 39.
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!
You’re right, Pt Reyes is also good for bobcat, coyote, and gophers. Including coyotes eating gophers (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.
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.
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.
Not quite local to me, but Assateague Island in my state has wild ponies. Also, although not mammals, the most spectacular mosquito population I’ve ever witnessed.
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.
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.
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
