Welcome Mammals Into Your Yard the Right Way

Last week I talked about how you can make your front and backyard wildlife-friendly, and this week, I’m talking specifically about mammals! Lots of people want to welcome mammals into their yards, but don’t do it in the best way. In fact, by doing some things wrong, you could actually end up hurting and even indirectly killing mammals. 

As a wildlife biologist who has studied mammals for nearly two decades, in this episode I talk about what you can do to welcome mammals into your yard in a way that aligns with the animals’ natural ecology. 

I also talk about what kind of mammals you might expect to see in your yard if you live in the Eastern United States and a study I was a part of where we assessed the species richness and biodiversity of mammals across wild, rural, exurban, and suburban backyards in Raleigh, NC and Washington DC. 

At the end of the podcast, I share some results from my study on animals from a different kind of yard: schoolyards. I worked with teachers and their students in four different countries around the world to photograph mammals that visited schoolyards in Kenya, India, Mexico, and North Carolina. We were shocked by what we found!

Specifically I go over:

• The best ways that you can help wild mammals and welcome them into your yard naturally
• Things that people should stop doing that actually harm mammals in the long run
• What kind of mammals you will see if you live in the eastern US and some fun facts about them
• Results from our study on mammal richness and diversity across an urban to wild gradient
• Results from our study on kid camera trappers and what species they found in their schoolyards

Do you welcome mammals into your back yard? Post your photos on Instagram or Twitter and tag me in it. I’d love to share what you find.

For full show notes click here.

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