Not that it does them any good.
For years, caretakers have tended to injured wildlife displaced by development, which has replaced lush treetops with sprawling rooftops. Now, local suburban wildlife centers face a secondary complication of having a shortage of secluded acreage in which to release rehabilitated animals as islands of shrinking forests in the Houston area dwindle.
“That’s a big issue for us now. We’re running out of places to release,” said Lisa Wolling, Friends of Texas Wildlife executive director.
It’s another price of progress in blossoming counties like Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery, where growth increasingly puts humans and animals in conflict. The result is typically a death sentence for animals and a safety hazard for residents, according to local and state wildlife officials.
“Majority of the animals that come to us are the result of some kind of human interference,” Wolling said.
In the most serious examples, Texas Department of Transportation records reveal that wild animals on the road contributed to more than 2,000 accidents and two human deaths since 2009 in the greater-Houston area. Statewide, they’ve caused more than 24,000 accidents and 103 deaths, often along rural roadways where development is stretching.
In other cases, raccoons and opossum turn up injured at centers when residents trap them in attics. People bring fawns to the center, mistakenly believing the animals were abandoned by their mother, Wolling said.
“We call them kidnap victims,” she said.
Most of these encounters are unnecessary and could be avoided if homeowners were armed with the proper information, experts said. Struggling wildlife centers, already operating at capacity, are making the push to educate residents and developers on how to coexist with wildlife whose habitats they are threatening.
Displacement has been significant, as a recent report by Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources shows that Texas lost nearly 1.1 million acres of privately owned farms, ranches and forests from 1997 to 2012.
I don’t see that trend reversing any time soon. Good luck with the education aspect, but count on steady business from roadside accidents. Consider this another argument for density over sprawl, and about as effective an argument as all the others have ever been.