Urban Bestiary – Page 7 – city life with wildlife

City of Toronto Adopts First Biodiversity Strategy

Toronto City Council has unanimously adopted the City’s first Biodiversity Strategy.

The strategy, fully titled Wild, Connected, And Diverse: A Biodiversity Strategy for Toronto, is organized in five sections. There is an intro to biodiversity and ecological integrity; an overview of biodiversity in Toronto; threats to biodiversity in Toronto; and what Toronto is doing. The final section includes a vision, ten principles, and 23 actions organized under the titles: Protect, Restore, Design, and Engage.

The Toronto Biodiversity Strategy’s vision is to “Imagine a Toronto with flourishing natural habitat and an urban environment that supports a great diversity of wildlife. Envision a city whose residents treasure their daily encounters with the remarkable and inspiring world of nature, and the variety of plants and animals with whom we share this place. A Toronto that aspires to be a world leader through citizens who take pride and engage in the protection, restoration and enhancement of our flora and fauna.”

The document points out that there are 38 species of mammals living in Toronto. Though this number is changing due to the effects of climate change and loss of habitat, which forces species to expand and/or alter their natural range. There are 110 species of butterflies in Toronto. And there are more than 200 different species of spiders in our city. (Including the one living under my kitchen windowsill.) There are almost 100 different species of fish. More than 400 species of birds live here in Toronto, and of those, 195 of those have been known to breed here.

City Councillor Mike Layton brought forward the official request to create the Biodiversity Strategy back in 2015. So after the Strategy was adopted on October 2, 2019, I asked him about it. He replied, “You might not think it, but Toronto has the ability to enrich biodiversity,” continuing on to say, “By growing out green spaces, enhancing our forest canopy, ensuring we are planning bird, bee and pollinator friendly plants and flowers, while eliminating invasive species, our city can be a healthy ecosystem and enhance all our lives.”

The new Strategy is based on the following principles:

1. Biodiversity is fundamental to the health of all beings. Biodiversity has ecological, economic, social and cultural value necessary for healthy communities and a strong economy.

2. Biodiversity has intrinsic value. Biodiversity is essential to life on earth and must be respected and protected regardless of its value to humans.

3. Biodiversity is key to resilience. Understand the potential effects of urban stressors and climate change and their cumulative impacts.

4. Use ecological integrity to assess ecosystem health and guide management. Strive to achieve the highest possible level of ecological integrity in the context of the urban environment.

5. Focus on habitat and native species. The foundation of healthy biodiversity is abundant, well-connected, functioning habitat that provides native species with places to forage, shelter and reproduce.

6. Integrate biodiversity into all aspects of city life. There are many things that Torontonians can do to support biodiversity through everyday actions, municipal operations, policies and regulations.

7. Collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders. Achieving healthy biodiversity requires engagement of a broad range of stakeholders in order to achieve success.

8. Develop authentic reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities. Work with Indigenous leaders to integrate Indigenous worldviews with western science to protect, restore and enhance biodiversity.

9. Support equitable access. Increase awareness and appreciation of biodiversity amongst all residents and identify opportunities to enhance biodiversity.

10. Measure and report on results.The state of biodiversity and the success of biodiversity initiatives will be monitored.

How will this strategy affect our city, and our urban animals? One of the key people who worked on the strategy, Jane Welsh, Project Manager in the Environmental Planning unit of the City Planning Division at the City of Toronto, provided a thoughtful and knowledgeable response.

Welsh said, “At a global scale, the loss of biodiversity has reached crisis levels. Biodiversity and a healthy natural environment are essential to the health and livability of cities and ultimately fundamental to supporting life everywhere.

Recognising cities have an important role to play in protecting and enhancing biodiversity, the Toronto Biodiversity Strategy builds upon work that the City of Toronto and its partners are already doing with a focus on managing natural systems within an urban environment. The Strategy will improve the health and robustness of biodiversity in Toronto through an approach that protects natural areas, restores habitat where possible, designs the built environment with nature in mind, and engages resident’s awareness of its importance.

The Strategy’s actions are complementary to provincial and national initiatives, align with other City strategies and contribute to global biodiversity recovery.

As is typical for an urban environment, biodiversity in Toronto has been impacted by urbanization, resulting in a loss of habitat and a proliferation of invasive species. Despite this, Toronto’s ravines and natural areas continue to provide habitat for numerous species including a number of locally, regionally and provincially sensitive species and species-at-risk.

The Toronto Biodiversity Series collection of booklets chronicle some of the amazing organisms that live in Toronto, including birds, butterflies, bees, spiders, mammals, trees and shrubs, mushrooms, reptiles and amphibians and fishes. The goal of the booklet Series is to help re-connect people with the natural world, raise awareness about the seriousness of biodiversity loss and how it affects them, and help cultivate a sense of stewardship in residents. They are available at your local Toronto library.”

This new Toronto Biodiversity Strategy is designed to align with the Toronto Ravine Strategy, the Toronto Pollinator Protection Strategy, and others, by addressing shared issues. The new strategy reminds us that Toronto was the first city in North America to publish Bird-Friendly Development Guidelines, in 2007, with building design and operation strategies to make new and existing buildings less dangerous to migratory birds. 2018’s “Best Practices for Effective Lighting,” was the most recent update to the bird-friendly strategies.

In a section titled Aligning Biodiversity Actions, the strategy notes that in 1992, the United Nation’s Convention on Biological Diversity identified the need for governments to take action to sustain living organisms, genetic diversity and the integrity of ecosystems.

The UN Convention was updated in 2010 in the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011 – 2020 and the Aichi Targets. In this Plan, biodiversity conservation in cities was identified as a priority, highlighting the links between urbanization, biodiversity loss and the importance of ecosystem services in supporting sustainability and resilience. The UN Convention set the foundation for the development of Canada’s Biodiversity Strategy in 1995, and Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy in 2011.

The Province of Quebec introduced its Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in 2004 and the Province of New Brunswick adopted one in 2009. The City of Surrey created its biodiversity strategy in 2014, Vancouver’s Biodiversity Strategy was adopted in 2016, and Oakville introduced a Biodiversity Strategy in 2018. Calgary’s 10-year BiodiverCity Strategic Plan 2015-2025 is comprehensive, and bonus: it is illustrated like a children’s storybook. (The strategies have similar priorities and action items, but Calgary’s definitely looks different from all the others.) Edmonton is the only Canadian city member of the Biophilic Cities Network, and the City of Toronto’s documents about our new Biodiversity Strategy note that Toronto aspires to become a member.

Many North American cities also have strategies that focus on urban wildlife. Ottawa’s Wildlife Strategy was approved by City Council in July 2013. It addresses wildlife related city planning, wildlife management practices, and public education, with 11 action-item recommendations. And the City of New York launched a campaign, WildlifeNYC, in 2016 with the tag line “City Dwellers Take Many Forms” with images of animals with an arrow pointing to them with text that read “New Yorkers.” NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver was quoted, “It’s important to understand your neighbors – even the feathered and furry ones.”

As the Toronto Biodiversity Strategy states, biodiversity in urban areas is interwoven in complex systems that are made up of natural and built components, with human activity as the most dominant factor.

Top Image: © Owen Strickland, courtesy of the City of Toronto

Green Toronto image and Bees of Toronto cover image both courtesy of the City of Toronto

Red Squirrel babies are smaller and squirmier …

Red Squirrel babies are smaller and squirmier than eastern grey squirrels. Somehow they seem more curious, less escape artist.

I fed red squirrel babies for the first time (my first time, not theirs!) this week. In the last few months, I’ve fed many eastern grey squirrel babies, but these were my first baby red squirrels. They are about the size of an adult chipmunk now, with pretty auburn fur and cute little tufts at the tips of their ears.

Apparently they are sometimes called a chickaree (though chickaree seems to be mostly used for west coast Douglas Squirrels) or Hudsons Bay Squirrel thanks to John James Audubon. And there are 25 subspecies of red squirrel alone.

I was definitely not thinking about subspecies as I was trying to feed these little ones – three female and one male – formula through a 1 cc syringe with small nipple at the end. Each of these babies are orphans and have other issues they are recovering from.

When I go to reach into their enclosure to bring each one out to feed, they are all curled up together in a hammock made from a small fuzzy blanket, and they don’t protest or try to get away. But they get super active and, well, squirrely, once they wake up a bit and have been fed.

It’s important to cover their eyes (with soft pillowcase fabric) so they don’t imprint on humans and can be returned to the wild – but it’s still possible and necessary to watch their tiny little heads and mouths as they are fed. Although squirmy and feisty they all ate well, 5-8 ml of formula. When they get into it, they use their front paws to hold the syringe they are eating from. So sweet.

Image: ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

Bitten by birds!

Bitten! First thing on my TWC shift this week. Before I dropped off my coat and bag, I was invited into ICU to help with a duck. As I was holding it while the intern was getting ready to provide a fluids injection and tube feeding, it nipped me – twice! Apparently it bites hard and the bites hurt. My hand must have gotten out of the way in time because it just nipped me.

Not long later, I was in the songbird room to feed fruit flies to the warblers and kinglets, then clean two enclosures and weigh the birds and put them back in their clean enclosures with fresh linens, branches, food, and water.

The first was an enclosure for a rose-breasted grosbeak – who bit me with her strong triangular beak, as I held her briefly. Fair enough, I said to her. I don’t blame you – I’d probably do the same thing!

The next bird was a yellow-bellied sapsucker. A beautiful woodpecker with red, black and white head. This one didn’t bite me – it has a broken top beak.

Woodpecker patients are housed in a different kind of enclosure that is more secure for the bird but a bit harder to clean. I gently took out the yellow-bellied sapsucker to weigh it and clean its enclosure. When ready — all clean and with some maple syrup, fresh berries, mealworms, suet, and water – the sapsucker was returned. It went straight back of its enclosure to hide behind a thick piece of bark. Exactly where it was when we started.

Image: ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

Turtle wipes her face as she eats

One of the painted turtle’s enclosures was very low on water. This turtle has been there a while and has a half-moon chunk of bone missing from the back of her carapace. She is usually the most active of all the turtles in care, often climbing the incline of her large bin. And making noticeable thumping sounds as she does.

I checked the chart and “normal setup” was indicated, which meant there should be more water than there currently was in her enclosure. And upon checking her chart, I realized that she was also due for a full cleaning and feeding. So I got to it.

I moved her to a smaller plastic critter carrier and covered it with a pillowcase to reduce her stress. Drained the last of the water from her bin, moved all of the rocks and washed them and the gravel, washed the inside walls and bottom of the bin. Replaced everything, and as the bin was filling I went and got her meal for the day: 4 mealworms, 2 earthworms cut in half (I always feel badly and apologize to the earthworms), 3 commercially-made turtle pellets, and a large pinch of very fine tiny lettuce pieces.

So once the bin was refilled with temperature-correct water, and the food was added, and floating or swimming in her water, I returned the turtle to her hospital home.

She was hungry! First thing she did was go after the earthworms. As I watched, she used each of her front feet to wipe her mouth.

It took me a minute to realize that as she was taking a mouthful of earthworm, she was swiping the remaining worm – the part wiggling outside of her mouth – off! In effect, cutting off the parts outside her mouth so she could swallow what she had more easily. She would then eat the pieces she had swiped off a moment earlier.

She used feet on both sides – sometimes swiping with her left, the next bite it might be her right. Very effective of course. Like wiping her mouth after each big bite!

Image: ©Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark

Book Mark: Wild City by Doug Bennet & Tim Tiner

I was fortunate to meet Doug Bennet recently, thanks to a serendipitous listserv error. Doug and his writing partner, Tim Tiner, have authored five books together, including the popular series, Up Nor th, Up North Again, and The Complete Up North: A Guide to Ontario’s Wilderness from Black Flies to the Northern Lights.

Plus another one that caught my eye: their wonderful 2003 book, Wild City – A Guide To Nature In Urban Ontario, from Termites to Coyotes.

Wild City is more entertaining than a field guide and more concisely informative than an online search. It has encyclopedic fun facts, fascinating history, and thorough descriptions, all written in a wonderfully irreverent style. Not over the top, but humour and everyday language delivered through short story vignettes that make each section a fun read.

The section on Bees, Wasps, and Hornets, is subtitled “Societies with Heavily Armed Females,” and the first line reads: “Generally considered armed and dangerous, even when they keep to themselves, bees, wasps, and hornets are generally the most feared of the city’s diminutive habitants.”

The section about Raccoons, “Icons of Urban Nightlife,” starts like this: “The iconographic face of urban wildlife in Ontario wears a black mask and appears when the sun goes down, calmly tripping the light fantastic along thick telephone cables above patio barbecue parties, even in dense downtown neighbourhoods.”

Obviously thoroughly researched, Wild City offers around 1 – 4 pages per species, each with an illustration. There are birds, creepie-crawlies, fish, mammals, reptiles & amphibians, and sections for plants, trees, the day sky, and the night sky.

I first borrowed a copy from the Toronto Public Library, loved it, and ordered my own copy to keep for both reference and enjoyment. Everyone who is interested in urban wildlife (and more) should have a copy of Wild City in their home library.

Autumn is baby season again

I am happy to be in the nursery again – tonight I fed four squirrel babies through syringes with nipples, and they all ate like champs! Every one of them put their tiny little front paws on the syringe and didn’t want to let go with their mouth or feet when I had to remove the nipple to refill the syringe.

Each of them ate about 12ml of Esbilac, which is 4 syringes full. Most of these babies would normally be fed a special formula but the TWC was out of formula, so all of the squirrel and chipmunk babies were getting puppy Esbilac. They loved it!

When I was first learning to feed baby squirrels in April and May, a baby grey squirrel kicked my ass. He was squirmy and bitey and got his little claws into my hands. (No blood, just scrapes from his clingy antics.) The little guy’s tiny heart was racing and he was shivering with fright as I tried to feed him. And he pooped constantly – tiny little yellow-brown balls of fear. Little feisty acrobat.

But back to this evening: I also held two babies for fluid injections to hydrate them. Many of the patients of all species are dehydrated and require fluids this way.

I also held warm tiny chipmunk babies. First time I’ve held a chipmunk at all, and the three I held were tiny little babies about the side of my thumb. One, the newest arrival who came today, still hasn’t opened its eyes yet. They are fed four times per day currently, alongside baby squirrels who are being fed two to four times per day, depending on their size and age.

At the end of the night I fed a little brindle girl squirrel who was so sleepy she had a hard time eating. She would eat from the tip of the syringe with the nipple on it, then fall asleep. I put the nipple of the syringe more fully into her mouth and she didn’t fuss but some of the formula just dripped out – she was sleeping instead of swallowing.

It is important for them to be fed, even if they are sleepy – like all babies – so I kept trying. She didn’t take as much as she eats in the daytime, but she managed to get 12ccs of formula (about 4 syringes worth) before being put back into her enclosure for the night.

Right now the squirrels are so young, it’s not difficult reach into their large wire enclosure, open the shoebox, and find the correct squirrel to be fed, from among the pile of mostly sleeping babies all curled put together.

Its also time for turtle babies!

Today I checked on two tiny baby painted turtles that had just been born (hatched) earlier that day! They were alert and active, and swimming and hiding. Their little carapaces are just smaller than a loonie, with red colouring all around the outer edge, and their tiny little baby heads coloured with bright yellow patterns. In an adjacent enclosure, there’s also a tiny baby snapping turtle who was born 5 days ago. More to come, as the eggs in the incubators start to hatch!

Mink Sang to Me

The little black mink sang to me! Ok, she chirped at me. I was doing PM checks and went to check on her. She was resting in one of her hides, and she came out and right up as close to me as possible, hanging on to the top of her enclosure wires. And starting talking / singing / chirping. Loudly!

She has a very distinctive voice, so an hour or two later when another volunteer was in her enclosure to feed her, I could hear her sing from across the other side of the building. Of course, I went to see why she was calling out, and to ensure she was ok – and that’s how I found out she was singing to him, too. Apparently she chirps whenever people get close to her.

She is the first mink I’d ever seen. The first time I saw her, a few weeks ago, was when I was doing my PM checks. She was in an enclosure in a walk-in space, in the small mammal room where the cottontail bunnies are kept. When I went in to check on her, she came out of her hide box and over to the other side of her enclosure where I was, and climbed up the wire mesh, so we were face to face. She was quiet then. Her fur is a deep shiny black, and her face is almost feline, like a miniature black panther. Super alert black eyes.

She is not a patient, though. She was cornered and kidnapped by a guy who thought she was an escaped pet ferret. I can see why people mistake a mink for a ferret – their body shape is similar. They belong to the same overall scientific classification family, along with weasels, otter, and marten, but are a totally different animal. Mink are all still wild. And they are semi-aquatic – they eat fish and other creatures like crayfish, as well as small animals and birds. They can be seen in various places in Toronto, such as Toronto Islands and Tommy Thompson Park.

So the guy who caught her got bit in the process. Of course. Not realizing he was cornering a terrified a wild animal, not someone’s pet. And then, because the mink had bitten someone, she had to be in quarantine for a set period of time before she could be released and returned to her real home. That is why she has been at the TWC long enough for me to hear her sing.

A tiny black and yellow head looks out from between my fingers

A tiny little black and yellow head looks sideways at me from between my index and middle fingers.

This impossibly light and fragile little Canada warbler is hanging on to my fingers with all her might, her necklace of black feathers against her yellow breast are hidden below my fingers. She is an excellent patient though – relatively calm and when droplets of medication were placed on her beak she swallowed it right away. Even opened her beak when a droplet was ready for her.

Its unfathomable how this tiny beautiful creature can fly all the way to south America for the winter, and back all the way to Canada again next summer. She is smaller than a golf ball!

A house sparrow outsmarted me.

I’m sure it was terrified at first, then when it realized how much quicker it is than I am, it was probably laughing as it dodged me in its enclosure. Cheeky thing even landed on the rim of my net just to make a point. Then it escaped its enclosure.

The staff person who was there with me caught it on the floor of the room. In another room an hour later, I was able to catch a different sparrow using a net, and transfer it to hold in my hand for treatment. It was then placed in a brown paper bag to be weighed and to wait as I cleaned its enclosure.

When its space was clean and food and water was replenished, I released it from the bag and back into its enclosure. Carefully.

Slapped by a pigeon! Twice!

This pigeon clearly did not want to be handled. It wing-slapped me – twice – as I went in to capture and hold it gently for meds and tube feeding. You may think it was just coincidence.

Sure, pigeons flap and try to get away when someone is too close for comfort. But this was clearly deliberate. This pigeon was not panicked, it looked at my hands coming toward it, and it slapped by hand down with its left wing. And when I tried again, with perfect aim and clarity – it slapped my hand again.

I had to laugh and give it credit. And then of course I gently captured it, held it up for the intern to give it medication and food, and then I returned it to its enclosure.

Pigeons are definitely underappreciated, highly intelligent birds. (More on that in a future post.) One of the interns told me she was a not a fan of pigeons before working at TWC, and now they are her favourite bird.

They are sweet tempered, smart, and their plumage is beautiful. I held 6 pigeons this evening, to be given medication or tube-fed. I reach into their enclosures, cover them with a pillowcase, and gently bring them out into the room. I often have to do the first part one-handed as I am holding the top of the enclosure open. It is heart wrenching when they cry out and try to hide in a corner. So scared.

As I hold them, sometimes they shake with fear. Literally vibrate. Their head is gently covered with the pillowcase to reduce their stress, but I can feel their little heart racing. I try to give them part of my hand or a finger to hold on to with their feet. Holding on, as if perched on my hand, seems to make all kinds of birds feel a little more secure.

Pigeons are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet, able to undertake tasks previously thought that only humans and primates could do. They are of course well-known for their ‘homing’ superpowers and their history of carrying messages over long distances to accurate destinations. It’s also been shown that pigeons can also recognize their reflection in a mirror, and can be trained to recognize all 26 letters of the English language. In scientific tests, pigeons have been able to not only differentiate between photographs, but even differentiate between two different human beings in a photograph.

All of our feral city pigeons, a.k.a. rock pigeons, are descendants of domesticated rock doves.

How do you keep a snapping turtle from biting you?

How do you keep a snapping turtle from biting you? With a face-plunger of course.

I have held painted turtles before and its not difficult. Hold them gently and firmly on either side of their bodies, letting their legs and head be free. But a snapping turtle is another thing altogether.

They are large and they are strong. And they have a painful bite. Their bite cannot take your finger off or snap a broom handle, despite the myths, but it would hurt. Their beaks are made to cut their meals. Sharp and powerful.

So to pick up a snapping turtle to move it, one hand is at the base of the tail, where the tail meets the body, and the other hand is slipped underneath the carapace – from behind, with the turtle facing away from you.

And when you have a turtle that needs an injection of antibiotics, it works very well to gently but firmly place the face of the turtle in a clean animal-use-only toilet plunger. (Not a sink plunger. Sink plungers are often red, with an umbrella-like bell. Toilet plungers are often black and have the wide bell and a narrower tube-like part that is at the bottom underneath the bell.)

Once the turtle’s strong beak and head is in the plunger, it can’t see and it can’t bite. But it can breathe just fine, and there is space between its head and the plunger. Clearly, this is just for a minute or two, and does not hurt the turtle. And this way, the people around it remain unharmed too.