I have read for several years now about smaller creatures like opossums and raccoons that have been finding easy food in the suburbs, and have gradually been moving closer into the urban areas of towns and cities across the nation; but now, many of the predator species are also moving into the cities and, apparently, thriving there.
Chicago has an estimated 20,000 coyotes living on the downtown streets, and eating the rodents that they catch, as well as garbage they find dumped on the ground.
Other areas have bears that are also becoming used to seeing humans, and are now looking for food and shelter closer to towns. I recently watched a video about a bear that was wandering through a California neighborhood, appearing to be going from house to house, checking out the trash cans at each home.


These predators have greatly multiplied because of conservation efforts to keep people from shooting them; and as a consequence, now we have not only more of the predators, but ones who are no longer afraid of humans.


This lack of fear, combined with the wild animals living in such close proximity to people, is very likely to cause more attacks on humans, and our little pets, as well.


http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/urbcoyot.htm

happyflowerlady (02:31pm Sun, Aug 31, 2014)

I have read for several years now about smaller creatures like opossums and raccoons that have been finding easy food in the suburbs, and have gradually been moving closer into the urban areas of towns and cities across the nation; but now, many of the predator species are also moving into the cities and, apparently, thriving there.
Chicago has an estimated 20,000 coyotes living on the downtown streets, and eating the rodents that they catch, as well as garbage they find dumped on the ground.
Other areas have bears that are also becoming used to seeing humans, and are now looking for food and shelter closer to towns. I recently watched a video about a bear that was wandering through a California neighborhood, appearing to be going from house to house, checking out the trash cans at each home.


These predators have greatly multiplied because of conservation efforts to keep people from shooting them; and as a consequence, now we have not only more of the predators, but ones who are no longer afraid of humans.


This lack of fear, combined with the wild animals living in such close proximity to people, is very likely to cause more attacks on humans, and our little pets, as well.

That sounds amazing. I think that the rangers will have their work cut out for them.

We have to keep in mind that our houses could've easily been build on territory that WE invaded. I know if someone kicked me out of my house that I'd be reluctant to leave as well.

Benster, what you are saying is at least partly to blame. As more cities have developed into suburban living areas, and working urban areas, the new houses have pushed the animals out of where they used to live. However, it is NOT that we are short on uninhabited areas where these animals could go to and live.
Moving further into the woods is what the wildlife have been doing ever since people have started living in this country.
A lot of the reason that this is happening now is because the animals are no longer afraid of humans. It used to be that varmints and predators were killed when they got too close to where people lived. Now, mostly the animals just wander around unharmed, and they have gotten used to seeing people nearby, and no longer consider it a threat.
Some people even put out food for the wild animals, so they have started looking for the easier sources of food; and now, they are raising young that will grow up even less afraid of humans.
These coyotes are living in downtown Chicago, not along the edge of the city; so it is not like we just moved into their territory. That part of Chicago has been there for the last hundred years or more.
These are coyotes that have discovered easy living, easy food; and basically, no natural enemies. They are thriving in town, and animal services are not trained to really deal with feral animals; just lost dogs and cats.
It used to be the country folk that had to worry about being attacked by a pack of wolves; now it will be the people who live in cities who will have these problems to deal with.

I couldn't blame the animals. Cities all over the world, not just in the U.S., are expanding more and more as years pass by. As a result, animals are running out of places to live. They are forced to scavenge for food and look for shelter among humans. If you look at this way, the animals are not the invaders - it's us humans.

Umbrella, I think you are not understanding what I am trying to convey with this topic. I do understand that as we have expanded our cities further and further out, the animals have had to move back into the deeper woods.
However, there is still a lot of livable places where these animals can and do live. And it is not like they are still just staying around the perimeters of a city, where they lived before the city expanded.

The real issue here is that wild animals are losing their natural fear of humans, and are actually intending to live in the most inhabited parts of a city; right in the very downtown part.
Even though they can continue to live out in the woods, they  choose to enter the cities, and live in co-existance with people.
When the interloper is something like a raccoon or an opossum; then this is not a serious problem. However, when the intruders are predators like coyotes, wolves, and even bear; then the problem becomes much more serious and dangerous for the people living in the cities.
They have no natural enemies in the city besides humans; and there is not much we can do to control the population explosion that is happening all over with these urban predators.
If this continues; our cities will be over run with coyotes.

Well, this situation looks like it might be taking an even worse turn next. They already killed one dog because the owner had ebola. We also know that some animals, such as monkeys and fruit bats transmit the ebola virus.
They are predicting that the virus will continue to spread, and once it gets into some of the big cities that are also infested with the wild foxes, coyotes, and wolves; then those animals would also be transmitting the virus.
I don't know if they have even checked to see about rodents, since most of the experiments we have done already were on monkeys in Africa (where the virus started from); but if it turns out that rats and mice can also transmit the ebola virus, then there is a serious problem.
The predators would eat the rodents, and then they would also be infected, and they are starting to attack pets, and eventually, will be attacking people as well.
The ebola could certainly turn into an even worse situation should this happen ! !

I live in Africa and we have monkeys running around all the time. There are no lions or other wild animals that come into our territory but the visitors that come into the city, feed the monkeys because they think it is cute. This has made the monkeys move closer to the housing for food purposes and it is so bad that they can open doors and fridges to take what they want. It has become that bad that they are not afraid of humans anymore and will not run away when you chase them. I feel that humans have destroyed the yin and yang by interfering with nature which is at a cost to humans.

Tasha, you may have a different set of invasive animals than we have here in the United States, but it sounds like the basic effect is still the same. Animals that belong out in the wilds are invading cities, and not afraid of humans anymore, like they once were.
I have seen videos of the monkeys in cities, and they were stealing all sorts of things, and like you said, tourists think they are cute. Since we don't have many monkeys here , and those are either pets or in zoos, seeing a wild monkey is a unique phenomenon here, and is interesting. At least up to a point, and when the monkey takes something valuable to a person and they cannot get it back, then probably the idea of monkey-watching is not so appealing.
I imagine that you would be the same over there in Africa if there were a few moose wandering through the town, and no one had ever seen a moose before. They can also be quite dangerous if disturbed, and happily will eat your  shrubs and flowers right out of the front yard.
The wolves have become so much of a problem here in some places that the deer, elk and moose, which normally live high in the mountains, have had to come closer and closer to the towns, jut to keep from being killed by the wolves.
Now, they are also seen wandering the streets of outlying towns, and have become used to people and vehicles.

Wolves would be a dangerously scary thing to see roaming around, like Lions in Africa, many people chose to live near the game reserves or in places where the animals are free to roam but humans do not understand the dangers of a wild animal, they are wild and cannot or will not be tamed even if you try to befriend them. It has had bad effects on people and tourists coming here have had deadly outcomes due to the fact that they think it is cute and nothing will happen.