Backyard Mammalwatching
I recently was just walking around my backyard and admiring the birds and plants. Then with my constant 24/7 mammalwatching mind thinking what backyard mammals do we get. So I made a list from all of the backyards I have lived in. Currently we have only seen giant pouched rats in my backyard in Harare. We do occasionally get bats but they don’t roost anywhere near us. But in my last house in Virginia we got a lot more. We had white-tailed deer, red foxes, chipmunks, grey squirrels, a white footed mouse that lived in our fence, and eastern cottontails. But it got me wondering what other backyard mammals do other mammal watchers get from around the world. I know how large it is and wanted to see the most interesting species and perhaps the ones that people have only seen once.
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17 Comments
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EllenLinton
Hi Moses! I currently live in Nevada and we’ve had Little Brown Bat, Western Grey Squirrel, California Ground Squirrel, and Raccoon in my backyard plus a Black Bear and Bobcat in our neighborhood. When I lived in South Africa, we had Cape Bushbuck, Vervet Monkey, Large Grey Mongoose, Cape Grysbok, Grey Rhebok, and Four-striped Grass Mouse (Rhabdomys Pumilio). We also had a decent view of the ocean and I saw Bottlenose Dolphins a few times.
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Alan D
Cool topic Moses. As it so happens, we keep a yard list of mammals, herps, and birds. We have lived in 3 locations.
Sacramento area (15 years, 4 species): Gray Fox (once), Douglas Squirrel, Mule Deer, Striped Skunk. So, not much.Tucson area (9 years, 19 species): Desert Cottontail, Hooded Skunk, Rock Squirrel, Northern Racoon, Coyote, Round-tailed Ground Squirrel, Gray Fox, Kangaroo Rat (Banner tailed), Bobcat, White-throated Woodrat, Big Brown Bat, Pocket Mouse (Bailey’s), Western Hog-nosed Skunk, Harris’s Antelope Squirrel, White-tailed Deer, Norway Rat, Collard Peccary (Javelina), Little Brown Myotis, Pallid Bat
Prescott Az (1 year, 15 species): Desert Cottontail, Hooded Skunk, Rock Squirrel, Coyote, Gray Fox, Bobcat, Western Hog-nosed Skunk, Mule Deer, Collard Peccary (Javelina), Black-tailed Jackrabbit, Pallid Bat, Cliff Chipmunk, Hooded Skunk, Mountain Lion (trail cam), Ringtail (Trail cam), Striped skunk.
So far, our Arizona yard wildlife has been spectacular and totally justifies the move. 🙂
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Ian Thompson
Current backyard mammal list in Victoria, BC:
1. Orca
2. Gray Whale
3. Minke Whale
4. Harbour Porpoise
5. Northern (Steller’s) Sea Lion
6. California Sea Lion
7. River Otter
8. Harbour Seal
9. Northern Raccoon
10. Columbian Black-tailed Deer (Mule Deer)
11. Black Rat
12. American Deer Mouse
13. Eastern Gray Squirrel (introduced)
14. Eastern Cottontail (introduced)
15. Humpback Whale
16. American Mink -
Alan D
Well, a movement under the BBQ cover this morning revealed yard mammal #16. A white-throated woodrat. Big guy too. Chewed multiple holes in my BBQ cover LOL. At least there was no nest yet. Also, the house next door had a black bear last month but we didn’t see it and it didn’t walk past any of our trail cams.
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Curtis Hart
Here’s my list for where I grew up and still spend time in southern Michigan. The property is 7 acres.
1. Virginia Opossum
2. Eastern Cottontail
3. Eastern Fox Squirrel
4. Eastern Gray Squirrel
5. Red Squirrel
6. Southern Flying Squirrel
7. Eastern Chipmunk
8. Woodchuck
9. Common Muskrat
10. Meadow Vole
11. White-footed Mouse
12. North American Deermouse
13. Big Brown Bat
14. Cinereus Shrew
15. Northern Short-tailed Shrew
16. Eastern Mole
17. Northern Raccoon
18. Red Fox
19. Striped Skunk
20. Least Weasel
21. American Mink
Species not directly seen
22. Coyote – heard regularly, trail cam
23. Gray Fox – trail cam
24. Star-nosed Mole – One was found dead after snow melt one spring. -
Lars Michael Nielsen
Here in my flat in Elsinore, Denmark the only mammals i’ve observed is dogs, cats and humans. But at my house in Sweden the list is a little better:
1.Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus)
2. Elk (Alces alces)
3. Red deer (Cervus elaphus)
4. Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)
5. Eurasian badger (Meles meles)
5. European hare (Lepus europaeus)
6. Mountain hare (Lepus timidus)
7. Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx)
8. Brown Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auritus)
9. Northern Bat (Eptesicus nilssonii)
10. Yellow-necked Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis)
11. Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)
12. Bank Vole (Clethrionomys glareolus)
13. Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) -
KyleFinn
I am jealous of the pouched rats! I really wanted to see one in Zambia and Zimbabwe! My last house in Pretoria, South Africa didn’t have much, just a couple of bats: Cape Serotine (Neoromicia capensis) and rarely Walhberg’s epauletted bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi). I moved back to the Kalahari Meerkat Project near Van Zylsrus, South Africa and the ‘backyard’ is a 5sq km private reserve.
We have: meerkats, yellow mongoose, slender mongoose, striped polecat (Ictonyx striatus), African wild cat, caracal (very rare), small spotted genet (Genetta felina), jackal (also very rare), Cape fox, bat eared fox, aardwolf, aardvark, pangolin (incredibly rare 3 seen in 20 years), steenbok, bush duiker, common eland, gemsbok, red hartebeest, blue wildebeest, springbok, Cape serotine, Egyptian slit-faced bat (Nycteris thebaica), Egyptian free tailed bat (Tadarida aegyptiaca), Scrub hare, Springhare, Damaraland molerats (my study species), Cape porcupine, Cape ground squirrel, 3-4 bush gerbils (Gerbillurus and Gerbilliscus), veld rats (Aethomys), long-eared mouse (Malacothrix typica), acacia rat (Thallomys nigricauda), and pygmy mouse (Mus indutus). There should also be pouched mouse (Saccostomus), musk shrews (Crocidura), whistling rats (Parotomys), elephant shrews (Elephantulus intufi), and African hedgehog, but I have yet to see them.
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villarule
I live in Birmingham, UK and although I haven’t seen the large number of mammals some others on the post have in my backyard, I am really pleased to have European Badgers and also Red Foxes. I put out peanuts for them and the Fox couple that started eating the peanuts when the vixen was lactating have had 3 cubs who are all frequent visitors to my garden. I knew that I had 4 different adult badgers visit as I’d seen them on my trail camera, but then then this year they had 4 cubs as well (who also visit regularly). It’s been really nice watching them grow up and considering I live in an urban area it’s quite impressive that I think it’s a slow day if I only see 1 Badger or 1 Fox.
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Warren Gilson
Hey Moses. Not counting feral introduced species, here in Australia I’ve had short-beaked echidna, common brushtail possum, Eastern Grey kangaroo, little red flying fox and lesser long-eared bat in my backyard. I now live two blocks from the ocean where I can see bottlenose dolphin and migrating humpback whales!