Urban Wildlife in Toronto: Species, Threats and Attitudes Towards Human-Wildlife Coexistence

Urbanization has resulted in ever greater human-wildlife interaction, which can lead to human-wildlife conflict. Hotline data from the Toronto Wildlife Centre between 2001 and 2013 was analyzed to understand relationships between the public and wildlife in the Greater Toronto Area. Results indicate that the public are largely concerned with sick, injured and orphaned animals as well as nuisance situations, and animals are admitted mostly due to being orphaned, experiencing bleeding or injury and due to hitting windows. Most species in the dataset can be categorized as urban exploiters. Comparing types of calls, species, threats, location and extracting attitudes towards wildlife, main results show that raccoons are largely disliked in Toronto and perching birds are liked. Perching birds, however, experience the most anthropogenic consequences in downtown Toronto, as shown by admittances resulting from window strikes. To promote human-wildlife coexistence, recommendations include: educating the public about wildlife and wildlife situations, including wildlife in management decisions, increasing green spaces and preserving natural habitats.