In the suburbs, it's wild, wild life

Every week, the principal of the Bernazzani Elementary School in Quincy gets a call. There's a coyote loitering a few houses away. The pack has been spotted sauntering across a neighboring golf club. Students are told to be vigilant at recess.

Meanwhile, another cat is reported missing in the neighborhood. Parent monitors keep principal Richard Hutchison informed.

Hutchison called in officials from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and they visited the school last Thursday as part of a program for schoolchildren. Their solution: teach students the basics of coyote ''cohabitation."

As wildlife encounters become part of daily suburban life, people across the state are learning how to deal with their new neighbors -- the beavers in Pembroke, the fishers in Halifax, a moose in the Hockomock Swamp, an errant bear in Westwood, or, of course, the nearly commonplace packs of coyotes.

And there are more moving in all the time.

Contrary to a widespread belief that development in the distant suburbs is driving wildlife into more populated areas, biologists say it is the new suburban ecology that is attracting them. Lush landscaping, trash bins filled with scraps, overflowing bird feeders, verdant lawns, and house pets that make easy prey -- all are elements that lure opportunistic animals, from squirrels to bears, in increasing numbers, and are transforming subdivisions into the new ''wild."

''These animals are coming onto suburban properties because they're extraordinarily attractive for feeding and breeding . . . the densities of squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, and raccoons is higher in suburbia than it is out in the wild woods, because we're offering them more attractive places to live," said Stephen Meyer, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology political science professor who moonlights on the advisory committee of the state's Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program.

A study by the Massachusetts Audubon Society found that from 1985 to 1999, the state lost an average of 40 acres a day to development. Nearly 60 percent of that land became low-density, large-lot housing desirable to both human and animal families. In the suburbs south of Boston, development swallows up 4.7 square miles -- just over 3,000 acres -- per year, according to a report by regional planning councils.

As the suburbs grow, so do the number of wildlife sightings and encounters. According to data kept by the US Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services office, there were 144,019 human-wildlife conflicts in 2003, 43 percent of which were in urban or suburban environments. In 1999, just one-third of the incidents were in those developed areas.

As the close encounters increase, so do the risks. Tiny ticks that feed on deer carry Lyme disease, which struck Massachusetts residents roughly 3 times more frequently in 2003 than the most current estimate of the national incidence of the disease. Raccoons can carry rabies, which was detected in 57 animals across the state in 1992, but was detected in 327 animals in 2004, including the first case on Cape Cod. In 2003, 201 people died and 10,000 were injured in car collisions with animals nationwide, according to a report from the US Department of Transportation.

''I saw this raccoon or deer in my yard," people complain to animal control officers or wildlife officials, said MassWildlife biologist Marion Larson. ''To them it's crazy. 'Why are they here?' they ask. Well, this is a normal, everyday occurrence."

Coyotes, once rarely spotted, now loiter around yards, roads, and golf courses across the state. Just a few weeks ago, a Northborough man was bitten while defending his grandson from a rabid coyote.

A couple of packs are known to roam Easton, said John Melin, the town's animal control officer; the state estimates that communities south of Boston have an average of two coyote families in residence. One has been caught on camera in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, according to Jason Zimmer, southeast district manager for MassWildlife.

Coyotes are not the only newcomers.

Beavers have moved into suburban wetlands, building dams that flood neighboring houses. The influx has prompted a human reaction: The Legislature recently held a hearing on whether to allow lethal traps called ''conibears" as a control measure. The traps were banned in 1996, with exceptions for particular situations.

Wild turkeys, driven out of Massachusetts 150 years ago by overhunting and habitat destruction, have rebounded since 1972, when the state received permission to reintroduce the species using flocks in New York. With 20,000 birds statewide, their recovery has been celebrated by wildlife officials, but the birds have become a pest to some people who complain that turkeys are raiding their gardens, leaving their droppings, and roosting atop cars or houses.

Not to mention disrupting traffic -- as was the case in Beverly last week, when a particularly pesky turkey who frequented a major thoroughfare had to be forcibly removed before it could cause an accident.

Suburban dwellers are still adjusting to a growing influx of fishers, a member of the weasel family weighing about 10 pounds and notable for its bushy tail and massive claws. Fishers were once driven nearly into extinction and have been surging back. Last year, 21 of the secretive animals were trapped by hunters in Norfolk, Bristol, and Plymouth counties, according to state data. Their comeback has brought lots of puzzled calls to local animal control officers, with residents describing a ''weaselly looking" animal, or a ''small bear in a tree," or one that dashed across the road in a ''beaverish" brown blur.

The influx of fishers also has contributed to a widespread suburban myth: that they routinely dine on pet cats. A fisher certainly might take a cat, authorities said, but cars or coyotes are more likely to blame for the dozens of pet felines reported missing in area towns each month.

But the return of the fishers does come with a message, authorities also said. ''We used to think these animals were forest dwellers and would not be seen around residential areas. That's not so much true now that we've gotten reports from people" across the state, said Larson, the MassWildlife biologist.

As sightings increase -- a den of fishers was discovered behind an Easton school last year, Milton animal control officers reported two recent calls on animals, and they've become familiar sights to hunters -- it has become clear that the animals, like squirrels, raccoons, deer, and skunks before them, are adaptable to living among humans, where their main predators are cars.

''I tell you, wildlife is here, and it's not going to disappear," said Karen Hart, a hunter and taxidermist in Pembroke who has watched coyotes become commonplace over the years, and thinks it won't be long before moose or bear begin to show up.

In the short run, a bear in suburbia like the one spotted in Westwood this summer probably represents a single animal searching for new territory, said Meyer, the state advisory panel member. But in the long run, he said, that bear (which was eventually killed by a car) is most likely the first sign of a slow-moving trend, as more wild animals are attracted to the human-made landscape.

As animals continue to adopt suburban lifestyles -- with a growing year-round population of Canada geese, bears forgoing hibernation because they can find enough food at birdfeeders, and raccoons rummaging for food in garbage cans -- human-wildlife conflicts are increasing.

Animal control officers have grown accustomed to people reporting pet theft by coyotes, or wondering how to get rid of the skunk that has nested under their porch, or calling frantically for someone to rid their yard of some variety of ''vicious" animal.

Recently, Meyer recalled having to calm down a frantic woman who feared that the 8-pound hawk sitting near her house would try to carry away her children.

William Hart, Pembroke's animal control officer, said people are often surprised to be sharing their neighborhood with wildlife. The only thing he can do about many requests to remove an animal, he said, is educate the homeowner about keeping pets inside and trash cans tightly closed.

People also need to learn a little wildlife etiquette: don't be afraid to teach an animal to be scared of humans by yelling or throwing things at it, Larson said.

People have to understand, animal control officials stressed over and over, that nature isn't vicious. When a house cat kills a bird, pet owners think it's natural. When a coyote nabs a house cat, the same basic concept applies, said Zimmer, the area's MassWildlife district manager.

People have either this ''Big Bad Wolf type image, that these animals are out there to get them, these lurking evil creatures, or this Disney-like view of animals, that they sing songs and they're wonderful," he said.

Animals, Meyer said, are just being animals -- even the uninvited dinner guests.

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.