We usually think of cities as the exclusive abode of humans and their pets. It seems that this is true, until you think a little deeper about the subject. I will never forget when I heard a so called expert state that there were more rats in New York City than people. Disgusting thought, but it is probably true for all cities. One animal that has always fascinated me, because not only is it very cute, but it can co exist so easily with us, is the squirrel. I had some company over from Europe and they were truly fascinated by the little animals. It seems that they didn't have them where they came from. I remember thinking that everywhere I ever lived had squirrels. There was even one squirrel. that used to come over to me when I sat outside and it would sit next to me. People would look at us in disbelief as they walked by. These creatures are usually very shy and always stay away from humans, but for some reason, this one got used to me sitting outside and somehow knew that I wouldn't hurt it. It even got to the point that if I ate a piece of fruit, I would give a piece to the squirrel. and he would sit there and enjoy it. I made sure that I didn't let the squirrel rely on me for food however, since he would hang around too much. I had a diamond shaped window on my front door and one day I decided to look out and see what the weather was like. I walked to the window and put my face in position and at that moment I got the scare of my life. Pressed against the glass on the other side was the squirrel's face. Apparently it was looking for me and knew I was inside. When you are face to face with a wild animal, they look a heck of a lot larger than they are, even when they are small. This was a scare because it was unexpected, not because I was scared of the animal.

Fox

In the British Isles they have the usual wild animals in their cities and towns such as birds, rats, mice, etc. From time to time they get something a little more exotic and that is a fox. A fox is not a dog, even though it resembles one, just as a wolf is not a dog. There are many stories of foxes being seen walking down the streets. You certainly have to keep your distance from one of these creatures. They look nice, even pretty in fact, but a bite from one of them can not only be painful, but cause you to have to be treated for rabies. As cities expand, they move into territory that was once woods and the home of these animals. The urban sprawl forces animals out of their homes. Sometimes they have nowhere to go and this is when they are seen in inhabited places. The animals themselves would prefer to be in the woods, but the woods are gone. Foxes are usually nocturnal and even though they use buildings for shelter and eat our garbage, they are not usually seen since even if one is spotted at night, it is usually mistaken for a dog. Foxes sometimes eat people's small pets. It is not unusual for a fox to eat a kitten or small animal. There are many cases of small animals disappearing out of yards in Great Britain. Most wild foxes will tolerate people coming within a certain distance, but it is foolish to get to close.

Bear

A growing problem in the northeastern part of the U.S. is bears. These creatures are fine on their own, but you certainly don't want to be near one, or have them in your town or city. A bear is a animal that is extremely strong and hard to kill and very, very, dangerous. There are several different types of bears. Lately the population of bears seems to be on the rise and there have been many cases of bears being seen going into towns in New York State and New Jersey. The bear problem is certainly not limited to these areas. In towns in Montana there has been a policy put into effect. If a bear is caught 3 times in a town, it is destroyed. They had to do this, because when a bear is caught they are driven out into the woods hours away. If they keep coming back, then they are a threat to the human population. In Montana they have the Grizzly. These bears can reach up to 1500 pounds of muscle and run at a top speed of 35 mph. A human doesn't have a chance against this beast. Here is the strange thing, when these bears are born, they usually weigh only about one pound. Having a bear around is a very risky proposition. In 1975 this animal was an endangered species. Even small bears, such as brown bears are far lager than a man weighing somewhere in the area of 450 pounds.

Elephant

Sometimes elephants get into towns in India. That in itself is not so bad, because they usually can be either led away or kept to perform heavy lifting and hauling. The problem is that not all elephants are so docile. Sometimes an elephant becomes a rogue. If an elephant kills a human, sometimes it looses fear of them. At this point it will go out of its way to try and kill more of them. There is one rogue in particular that I am about to talk about. This animal hated humans so much that it actually went after them while they were in their homes. The homes were not too substantial and the enraged animal was able to crash through the wall, pulling down the home down around its inhabitants. We all know the size of a full grown elephant, it must have been like a tank crashing through. This animal really hated humans for some reason. The animal hated humans so much that when it got one, it would tear them apart. Maybe it had been mistreated or maybe it was just crazy. It was able to get away with terrorizing the area for over a year before the hunter hired to kill it, caught up with the elephant. It is extremely hard to kill an elephant. You need a clear brain or heart shot. In this case, the elephant saw the hunter hiding in a bush and charged him. He had hardly any time to aim. The elephant was almost 10 feet tall with long hard tusks of at least 3.5 feet each. The hunter managed to get off a perfect shot and the elephant fell dead in front of him. It had been a close call, too close.

Tiger

A project was launched in 1973 to save the tiger population in India. This sounds like a worthy project until you see what the result has been. The project has come at too high a cost. Thousands of people have died since the project was launched. These people were killed by tigers, tigers which were protected by the project. Fines for killing tigers were established. The fine for killing a tiger was set at three times the amount a widow of a tiger victim would get. Hey didn't anyone notice that there was something wrong here? Apparently not. It is nice to protect animals but not at the cost of human lives. Can you imagine, you are in your village or town and a tiger comes running down the street? The street is full of people, all scrambling to get away. No one want to kill the tiger, because if they do, they face financial ruin. The tiger grabs a screaming resident of the village and runs away with them.

Hey, give me mice any day. In some places gators show up once in a while and in others gorillas. Then there are always animals like deer or moose that make an appearance. The Racoon is known to be in a lot of places and wolves show up in some areas once in a while. If you look hard enough, you will find almost every type of animal in a populated area. As we spread out we just overrun more and more wild territory displacing our animal friends. Ultimately, urban sprawl must result in the extinction of many animal species.