Dr. Stan Gehrt of Ohio State University spoke to more than 300 attendees at an Audubon Society meeting tonight. This was Gerht’s 3rd trip to the area in the last six years. I caught his presentation at the 2007 Urban Ecological Research Consortium conference and was deeply impressed. This evening’s meeting was also a winner. Gehrt has been researching urban wildlife in the Chicago area for a decade now and is considered by most to be the world’s leading expert on the subject. Good science and good times. The Fanno Creek watershed most definitely has a vibrant population of the critters in place and I have tried hard to capture sight of one working the territory for a couple of years. Closest I’ve come in the past was a quick glimpse of one trotting through the neighborhood late one evening in 2002. Deer, skunks, possums, raccoons, snakes, fish, reptiles and amphibians, and birds till hell won’t have it…but nary a glimpse of Coyote. Here are a couple of links to Gehrt’s material:
It would be wonderful if someone in this area were to conduct similar research. It’s an important subject now and will merely increase in importance as the millennium progresses. If anyone reading this posts knows of similar studies of urban wildlife particularly focused on this portion of the Tualatin Basin I’d appreciate the reference information.