Urban wildlife

[Vitamin_N]

I live in Noda, and my property backs up to a little creek. Not much of a creek--unless it's raining, there usually isn't more than a few inches of water there. Anyway, today I was mowing the lawn and was startled by an animal scampering away from the mower. It turned out to be a beaver / woodchuck / groundhog / large rodent of some kind. (I've looked up pictures of all of these, and I'm still not sure what it was). I certainly didn't expect to see something like this so close to downtown, though.

Anyway, after being startled he nonchalantly walked right back up to about 5 feet away from me, gnawed down some high grass on the creek bank, walked back down to the creek, and swam back to a little cubbyhole he's apparently constructed. Are there any wildlife experts who know what this is? I would guess beaver except it doesn't have a wide tail.

[RiverwoodCLT]

About 2 Sundays ago, 2 deer were hit and kill on Sardis Road near Sardis Rd North. I have seen live deer in this area for years.

[swampfox43]

It was probably a Muskrat. Charlotte area creeks are filled with them. They are large and can easily be mistaken for a Beaver from a distance.

[Vitamin_N]

Yes! Just looked it up, and that was exactly what I saw. Thanks!

[voyager12]

How Cool You have a pet! Take a so we can all see.... I saw a possum scampering across the road the other day. In Charleston where I used to live a Big Horned Owl used to hang out on my street, awesome animal but SCARY

[lptk]

Yeah, possums all around. Some people find them creepy, but I'm ok with them - they seem kind of lazy like me. We had a whole family come to visit our basement a few years back. That was all fine until they started investigating an exit through the main floor (rather than the open foundation vent through which they entered). After a couple of days though they found their way back out into the wilds of forest park.

We also had a sizeable clan of chipmunks in our yard. With three old-growth pecan trees I don't blame them. Had a great opportunity to watch their social interactions. The first spring we lived in the house I thought we had noisy birds, but it was the chirping of a 'lookout' chipmunk.

Oh, and we do see the occasional raccoon. Keep those trash can lids on!

[cltheel.sdl]

We have red tail hawks near my house, as well as deer. There are also snakes around, some copperheads, although I think the neighborhood cats keep the snake population down.

[nmcheese]

Out in the suburbs (Huntingtowne Farms) we have a resident owl or two, and some wandering deer. Hope the owls don't leave due to the clear cutting, I mean, new home construction, along Park Rd near here currently.

[queensguy06]

Living in Tega Cay on Lake Wylie we have plenty of muskrats! They are quite known for destroying old boat docks. many years ago when the lake wasn't nearly as popular or populated as it is today (Lake Norman still had room to grow) some of the indigenous residents of the lake resorted to late night extermination by means of a shotgun. Nothing like falling asleep as a kid to faint sounds of a 12-gauge in the distance...ah the good ol' days....

[Charlotte_native]

At my house in Dilworth near Freedom Park where I just moved from we had tons of rabbits, a few possums, at least one racoon, hawks, and muskrats (I lived across from part of the Sugar Creek Greenway). We also had a screech owl one year and always had some other kind of big owls (they tend to come with rabbits).

[PlazaMidwoodGuy]

Lots of raccoons and possums here in P-M, along with the occasional Barred Owl. I used to hear owls much more often until Torrey Homes clear cut an entire forest to build Country Club Parc back in the 90's.

[PlazaMidwoodGuy]

About 2 Sundays ago, 2 deer were hit and kill on Sardis Road near Sardis Rd North. I have seen live deer in this area for years.

[Justadude]

I spotted a barred owl in 4th Ward Park a couple of months ago, probably scouting for rodents and small dogs