Watch: With humans away, Toronto’s wildlife comes out to play

Ken Bower has taken some 200 walks through Toronto's trails and ravines over the past year and has a keen eye for the wildlife that lives there.

During the past few weeks, Bower says he has noticed more activity than usual along his routes, including sightings of white-tailed deer, garter snakes - even a beaver walking along the banks of the Don River.

"I have never seen a beaver on these trails," said Bower, who runs the Midtown Raviners Athletic Club, a walking and hiking club. "I think if people aren't out, and their dogs aren't out, it seems like the animals think it is safer to come out."

As humans are forced indoors in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus, there are accounts of animals taking back the streets around the world: deer gallivanting through American suburbs, goats strolling through a town in Wales and boars trundling through the streets of Barcelona.

But what about in the streets of the GTA?

Toronto residents have turned to social media to post their encounters with deer, foxes and coyotes, as urban wildlife bravely ventures out into neighbourhoods, along trails and into usually bustling areas of the city, as human activity has slowed.

On social media, novice animal watchers share pictures of unique birds and urban critters that have suddenly appeared in their backyards.

But experts say the reappearance of animals, plants and insects in the spring is not unusual. Rather, we may be seeing more of nature simply because we finally have the time to notice.

"We are probably not looking at any increase in wildlife population, but just a redistribution of the populations because there are so many areas that people are using differently or not using at all," said Jason Ramsay-Brown, the president of the Toronto Field Naturalists, a club for nature enthusiasts that has more than 600 members.

"People have a lot more downtime, they are looking out of their windows now and taking time to really notice the things that are around them," he said. "We are seeing things with fresh eyes."

He said there have been reports of members noticing new species of animals and plants all around the city.

Many have described seeing "an abundance of spring ephemerals," which include plants like trout lilies, may apples and bloodroot on trails, in backyards and along fence lines. These often don't do well with heavy foot traffic.

Ramsay-Brown said many people are also asking about unique insects they are coming across, which could be the result of increased leaf litter.

"Our interactions with the natural world have really changed over the last month. There's a lot less picnics, less family outings, and people trampling on plants," he said. "And normally this time of year, we would be cleaning up leaves and tidying up property in preparation for spring, but that activity has diminished as well."

He said there have also been increased sightings of animals like foxes, coyotes and Coopers hawks at Trinity Bellwoods Park and hermit thrush, muskrats and turkey vultures around High Park. There is also "a lot more evidence of coyote and fox predation, and half-eaten animals along the trails," he added.

That may explain why animal services in Toronto and Vaughan have both seen a significant increase in the request for services during the first two weeks of April, compared to this time last year.

From April 1-15 Toronto Animal Services said it saw a 24-per-cent increase in service requests for injured wildlife, according to interim director Esther Attard. This year it received 460 service requests for injured wildlife, such as fox, racoons and skunks, while last year it received 369 requests during the same period.

"The increase in service requests for sick or injured wildlife does not necessarily equate to increase of wildlife, in light of less people out," said Attard. "Other factors, such as the weather (this spring has been warmer and earlier than last year) and location of requests (there are more residential calls now as people are at home more) can lead to an increase or decrease in service requests."

The city of Vaughan said it too has had a busy winter and spring, and has received double the number of calls related to wildlife in the first half of April 2020, compared to the same time period in 2019.

In March, the calls were primarily related to sick or injured raccoons and skunks. In April, there has been an increase in calls about birds and geese.

But it's not only wildlife getting our attention.

Sherwin Baghani, the operational manager for SOS Wildlife Control, a pest removal service based in the GTA, said he has had a 15-20 per cent increase in the number of calls over the last month from homeowners who have suddenly noticed animals in and around their homes.

He said the vast majority of calls are about mice, raccoons and squirrels - which may be drawn to homes because of an increase in organic garbage being thrown out. "More people are home, and so they are hearing more noises," he said. "And now they may have the time to actually deal with the problem."

But Tracy Timmins, a doctoral student in the faculty of environment and urban change at York University said "animals are very sensitive to human behaviours," and are very likely "noticing less humans are out."

She said that we could see an increase in the wildlife population in months to come because reduced car traffic means fewer adult animals are being killed.

"If fewer adults die because there is less traffic, then those babies won't be abandoned and won't starve to death," she said. "So, later in the year you could have more of these babies surviving into adulthood."

Ramsay-Brown said it's very likely we will see more butterflies, more insects and more birds over the course of the year, as they are facing less disruption in their habitats.

"I think juvenile survival rates will go up," said Ramsay-Brown. "It's reasonable that we will see a boost in certain populations, because they will have more time to find food, more time to build nests, and less overall threats that comes with human traffic."

Noor Javed is a Toronto-based reporter covering current affairs in the York region. Follow her on Twitter: @njaved