Did you know? The long-tailed weasel like most weasels, prefers to settle near a water source.
The world of wildlife beyond birds and butterflies might surprise you. When you create a garden to attract these two wildlife groups, it’s inevitable that other species will move in, too. Be on the lookout to welcome some of these less commonly seen (or appreciated) wild neighbors.
Weasels
Several species of these elusive predators may be hunting in your neighborhood (especially wooded areas), totally unbeknownst to the human populace. The tiny long-tailed weasel is the most common and found throughout North America, while the 7-pound fisher is making a comeback in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest and moving into suburbia. A fisher was even recently documented in the Bronx in New York City!
IGOR CHERNOMORCHENKO Little brown bat
Bats
With more than 40 species of bats found in North America, chances are good that these flying mammals are cruising through your neighborhood. Most feed on flying insects and help keep populations of beetles, moths and mosquitoes in check. Some species, such as the pallid bat, hunt ground-dwelling invertebrates, including scorpions! Attract bats by protecting canopy trees, eliminating pesticides that kill their prey and installing a bat box.
KENNETH CANNING/ISTOCK(2) Blue Ridge two-lined salamander
DARREN MOWER Darner Dragonfly
Salamanders
These creatures aren’t as well known as their frog and toad cousins because they spend the majority of their time beneath rocks, decaying logs and fallen leaves. Even so, they are fascinating and welcome wildlife in your garden. They feed on invertebrates from insects to snails and worms, and they are often brilliantly colored. Amphibians are on the decline worldwide, so attract salamanders by allowing the leaf litter to accumulate under trees, creating brush piles, saying no to pesticides and installing a garden pond for breeding.
Dragonflies
These gorgeous insects come in a wide range of colors. They are also voracious predators of other insects, including mosquitoes. They have some of the most whimsical species names in the animal kingdom, such as the saffron-winged meadowhawk, Comanche dancer and cinnamon shadowdragon. Dragonflies are attracted to water, where they lay their eggs and patrol for prey, so install a pond, then sit back and watch their aerial acrobatics.
DANZ13/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM (5) Ornate box turtle
Turtles
Many turtle species happily call our neighborhoods home if we offer what they need to survive. Box turtles prefer open woodlands and fields where they forage for berries, mushrooms, worms and insects. Desert tortoises are found in southern California and the southwestern deserts. They feed on grasses, cactus and wildflowers. Replace your lawn with native plants and add a shallow water feature, and you’ll invite these shelled reptiles to your yard.
Skunks
These black-and-white mammals aren’t going to spray you unless you threaten them, and can be perfectly acceptable neighbors if left alone. They are omnivores, feeding on everything from insects and worms to fallen fruits and mice. Leave brushy areas on the outskirts of your yard for them to forage and dig dens.
Snakes
The majority of snakes are totally harmless to people and are important backyard predators. Practice tolerance for them in your yard, and you’ll foster a healthy ecosystem.
CRITTERBIZ Baby striped skunks
beth says
I have deer in my suburban yard. They are my enemies. They eat everything…yet I’m not allowed to shoot and eat them. Deer are jerks.
So are squirrels.
Evelyn Ball says
Learn to live with nature. We aren’t the only species sharing this planet and there are more human jerks than non human!!!
A Bee says
Deer overpopulation create a wasteland in the woods, harming all other animals.
dale says
Not deer overpopulation .. people overpopulation.. Taking all their natural habitat.. They have no where else to go
Kelly says
If that were true, North America would have been a wasteland when settlers arrived!
Pauli says
Well said. I feed all the wildlife here at our home in the country. They need to eat as well.
Marie says
Have you tried blood meal? It’s something you can buy at well Farm and Fleet or Fleet Farm. You might even find it at Menards. It’s a deterrent and it works on bunnies and deer. My Grandpa used to use it and he had a wonderful garden.
Bonnie says
PlantSkydd effectively deters not only deer but rabbits as well. It persists for up to 3 months (depending on how much precipitation falls) before you need to respray. It’s how we protect our orchard and grape vines.
a says
Thanks for this great article! I’ve seen the skunks and bats but am still waiting to see the others.
John Regan says
Thanks for a great article. I love this kind of stuff – the unusual and exotic right in our backyard. Here in the northwest we have an odd one called a Mountain Beaver. There secretive and very ancient animals called living fossils. I’ve got pics if you’d like to see them.
Marie says
I would!
Kelly says
I would too!
Janyce Wolf says
Here in suburban New Jersey, we see possums and raccoons, too
kathy says
And red fox and coyote, too.
Harrie says
I live in town and I know we have skunks, opossums, snakes and occasionally I will hear an owl hooting at night. I am sure there are other creatures I have not seen.
kathy says
I got a cage at Wild Birds Unlimited that goes over the tube bird feeder. That keeps out the squirrels and the bigger birds, too.
Kelly says
Wonderful article. We recently saw a mink! Not great news for our little chicken flock. Our girls are like family. We love the natural world around our home!
Betty Hansen says
I know how awful weasels can be on chickens. I’m not a fan of them so much. They break my heart.
Diana Marotto says
Sorry but we hate those rodents with bushy tails known as squirrels. We put safflower seeds in our feeder for the cardinals. We put seed on the ground for our ground feeding gentle morning doves and they devour that too. They are aggressive and destructive.
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Heather Stover says
I have a love/hate relationship with squirrels! I like to watch them in the winter. I have a squirrel feeder that I keep corn available in the winter. They are not much interested in it in the spring,summer,and early fall. However,in the summer,I hate those obnoxious rodents! We have peach trees and the peaches hardly begin to form before they have the trees stripped of every peach! The only time we have not had a problem with squirrels eating the peaches was several years ago when we had a neighborhood cat that hung around our house. He often sat or lay on our roof and prowled the yard regularly and we very few squirrels and we actually got to eat our own peaches that year!
Rachel Brandenburg says
We have it all here in the rural part of northern Kentucky. Possums, skunks, raccoons, (bandits living under our deck, moms and babies, that winter over here and leave for the most part in the Spring). We also have feral cats in the area, groundhogs, coyotes, squirrels, snakes, bats, owls, wild turkeys and hawks. We have the occasional Bald Eagle pair that comes by a couple times a year too. We have all the small things, chipmunks, frogs, turtles, and several kinds of birds, including some hummingbirds. We love the country so we can observe them all. They all seem to get along pretty well. Been here 20 years now and love it. So different than living in the city. Our neighbors have all the usual barnyard animals, and there is a nearby alpaca and llama farm. Almost feel like we are in a working zoo of sorts. If we want to see other animals, we can go to the Cincinnati zoo, Newport Aquarium, or the New Noah’s Ark zoo in Williamstown, Ky. We are never bored…just love nature’s creatures.
Sylvia says
We love all wildlife as well and live in east Tennessee now. for many years. I can’t stand all the complainers who think it’s the animals’ fault when they eat things or come in their yards They need to remember that the wildlife was here first. There are many kind ways to cut back or prevent many of them from coming in your yard or just discouraging them from comin back all the time. For instance we have a large property with woods etc. A barbed wire fence will obviously not keep them out which is on the outer perimeters. but we did have a chain link fence put up around the area of our house, garden and sheds for our pets to be safer.This also prevents deer or other larger animal like stray dogs, from having access to that large areas too, but it was not our original intention.. Our smaller vegetable garden gets a vinyl, flexible fence put around it each spring and is held down by lighter metal posts.. As far as other animals like squirrels, they are just looking for food. So I put up baffles on the metal poles for the bird feeders. but it did not stop the raccoons from climbing and getting past the baffle anyway. Often they totally emptied the feeders or even damaged them. I tried to remember to bring the feeders in at night but then tried to use grease, or vaseline ( plain kind) all over the surface of the poles and it worked. The racoons gave up as they kept sliding back down. One or two may still come around to find food and they do get some on the ground but they are not nearly as numerous nor do they come nightly anymore. a ai get some foxes who have found a low spot under the fence and get through but they do not bother with my cats and are afraid of them and of humans.They are so cute and yes, I do give them those all natural, no preservatives, no color, etc. hot dogs or some all natural bacon at times or they would probably not come back at all. I can also simply block the gap under the fence too. If one tries there is always some kind of solution and hating animals is not the way to solve anything and makes no sense.
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Papa says
“Skunks make perfectly acceptable neighborsif left alone”. I disagree! Not when they dig up your lawn looking for grubs and are known to sometimes carry rabies. Not to mention blasting your dog with their putrid spray.