Wildlife

The history of wildlife in the Milwaukee region is the story of the complex relationships between animals, humans, and the built and natural environments. The region is defined here by the four human-defined counties that encompass the Milwaukee River Basin and its three rivers, the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic. To the east is the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Nearly 1.5 million people live in this area.[1] Of course the wildlife—large mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and rodents—that inhabits the region lived here long before humans and experienced existential crises and ecological changes before people were here, too. Glaciers retreated and the climate changed; scientists still debate the causes of mass extinctions that wiped out large mammals such as the wooly mammoth and giant beaver around 11,700 years ago: one group argues the arrival of humans did it while others suggest climate change (or maybe disease) was the culprit.[2] The settlement of native peoples affected the land and its animal inhabitants, too, through farming, hunting, fishing, and other activities. On balance though, the historical record that coincides with the last two centuries of European-American activity paints an especially dire picture for wildlife in the Milwaukee region. It reveals that the most recent wave of human settlement subjected wild animals and aquatic life to a number of dangerous and often deadly forces.[3] As the region transformed into a modern metropolitan area, housing, roads, and human activity increased dramatically, altering the ecosystem and damaging a number of these natural habitats.^[4] The consequences of these developments, often unintended, have affected nearly every creature that has ever lived in the Milwaukee area.

Pre-European Inhabitants

Wildlife in the region has been dealing with the presence of human beings for thousands of years.[5] It started with Milwaukee’s first human inhabitants: bands of hunters who arrived some 12,000 years ago.^[6] These Paleo-Indians followed the mega-carnivores—mammoths and mastodons. Although their pursuit of these animals brought them to the Milwaukee area, it is not entirely clear why they disappeared.^[7] Later native peoples who settled that area, such as the Woodland, Mississippian, and later tribes such as the Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, Menomonee, and others, while leaving a gentler ecological footprint than Europeans, also affected local wildlife with controlled burns, settlements, croplands, and hunting. Some of these people built effigy mounds that imprinted the shape of wildlife on the earth itself. Even before Europeans settled in significant numbers in the area, Indians traded for European firearms, which made them more potent hunters.^[8] This meant that populations of elk and other large mammals declined.^[9] For some wildlife, this meant the beginning of the end: accounts note that a human killed the state’s final bison sometime in the early 1830s.^[10] The fur trade, propelled by French exploration in the eighteenth century and dominated by large companies such as the North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company, along with smaller operations, led to a decline in beaver populations, which may in turn have affected the populations of their predators, namely bears and wolves.^[11] Black bears and deer, especially in the southern part of Wisconsin, served as year-round targets for hunters and trappers.^[12]

Wildlife on the Eve of Mass European Settlement

The deluge of mass settlement began in the 1830s after the Indian Removal Act forced native peoples west of the Mississippi. In 1836, European surveyors—particularly Increase Lapham of Milwaukee—took stock of a pre-industrial natural environment, cataloging the oak forests, savannas, and prairies that covered the southwestern portion of Milwaukee County and the forests that grew along Lake Michigan.^[13] Lowland hardwood swamps and wetlands covered the site that would become the city of Milwaukee. The wildlife populating this varied pre-industrial ecological system included elk, bison, cougars, and white tail deer. Wolves were the main predator.[14] One hundred and sixty-six bird species were known to exist in Milwaukee County prior to European settlement.^[15] The wild rice that grew in the marshes drew migrating waterfowl while duck species such as the greater scaup and common goldeneye dropped in for the winter.^[16] In the mid-nineteenth century, the beloved and iconic prairie chicken was still a common sight.^[17] Gulls lived along the lakeshore and, perhaps to the chagrin of Milwaukeeans, have remained ubiquitous. The region’s smaller inhabitants, including reptiles and amphibians, classified as ancient vertebrates that predate dinosaurs, survived major climate change including several ice ages and mass extinctions.[18] A number of carnivorous mammals also lived in the Milwaukee region, including weasels (though these are mostly in the northern part of the state), mink, otters, skunks, rare wolverine, and of course, the badger.^[19] But the large-scale human settlement and the modernization that followed represented an existential threat to these local creatures and their habitats.^[20]

The European settlers who arrived en masse in the middle parts of the nineteenth century brought with them a tradition that valued human domination of the natural world.^[21] Wisconsin’s human population grew from 3,000 in 1830 to more than 300,000 shortly after Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848.^[22] Natural habitats came under attack during an era of exploitation, as timber ended up in mills, shrinking forests.^[23] Between 1836 and 2000, human habitation and logging reduced the amount of forested land from 84 percent to 3 percent.^[24] Humans removed nearly all the prairie lands and only a few swamps still remain. Industrialization scarred the Menomonee Valley, and 94 percent of native plant habitats have been at last partially destroyed by invasive exotics.^[25] In short, humans have devastated the region’s wildlife habitats through a variety of endeavors.

Hunting led to the regional eradication of the grey wolf, previously perched atop the region’s food pyramid; they now reside only in the wooded sections in the central and northern parts of the state.^[26] The Wisconsin state government also placed bounties on wolves from at least 1865 through 1957, and the result was predictable enough: hunting, killing, and then disappearance.^[27] The early fur trade that affected the beaver population in Wisconsin also negatively affected the wolf populations and led to the extirpation of elk, which along with moose, provided food for wolves.^[28]

European settlement also meant trouble for the region’s reptiles.^[29] The removal of savanna, prairie, and wetlands amounted to what zoologist Gary S. Casper calls an upheaval similar in scope to another ice age.^[30] Much of the land in southern Wisconsin underwent conversion to agriculturally productive farmland. Urban sprawl, pollutants such as mercury, global warming, and invasive species (a list that as of 2009 included over one hundred plants, fish, animals, and insects such as the mountain pine beetle and the emerald ash borer) also represent the more recent problems for Milwaukee’s reptilian wildlife.[31] Casper’s research suggests that only two of original seven salamander species remain; eight of eleven species of frogs and toads are gone; and seven of the twelve snakes that lived in Milwaukee County prior to European settlement have disappeared, due mainly to deforestation and loss of wetlands.^[32] Four of five turtle species remain, a lone bright spot, probably owing to their armor and broad diet.[33] In all, many of these species’ numbers continue to decline as suitable habitats diminish in number and size.^[34]

The geographical area situated where the Milwaukee, Kinnickinic, and Menomonee rivers meet has provided a habitat for a number of different bird species that have experienced population eradication, decline, and on occasion, re-introduction. Predictably enough, some of these species have disappeared. By 1918, the Carolina parakeet and the passenger pigeon had already become extinct.[35] In 2017, 246 bird species were observed in Milwaukee County.[36] The remaining birds proved more adaptable to new environments. Some, such as the red-winged blackbird, which had traditionally been found in wetlands, began to make their homes in fallow fields and forests in various stages of regrowth. Bird populations that still exist in Milwaukee’s diminished wetlands, such as yellow-headed blackbirds, yellow-crowned night herons, moorhens, and least bitterns, breed irregularly due to habitat decline. Others such as red crossbills and pine siskins appear in winter but breed elsewhere. Researchers have discovered that threatened birds that have become scarce throughout the Midwest are even rarer around Milwaukee. For example, the only birds classified as “threatened” that one can see in Milwaukee County include the Henslow’s sparrow and the yellow-crowned night heron. But not all species have declined in number. Wild turkeys, for instance, were introduced in the northern Kettle Moraine State Forest and re-invaded Milwaukee County. The milder-than-usual winters in the 2000s brought the Carolina wren and northern mockingbird back to the Milwaukee area. Other re-invasive species include the bank swallow, which nest on bluffs along Lake Michigan, where belted kingfishers also live.[37]

As commerce and industry developed, this negatively affected aquatic wildlife as the byproducts of industry polluted rivers, ponds, and waterways. The development of the city’s harbor in the 1840s filled in marshes and altered the flow of rivers. Business boomed, and the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers functioned as municipal sewers until the city developed an actual sewer system for the city in the 1860s and 1870s. Still, increased human activity upstream dumped waste and caused erosion, polluted the rivers and made the rivers uninhabitable for fish. The low point probably occurred in 1951 when Lincoln Creek, a tributary of the Milwaukee River, caught fire after an oil spill—the type of disaster that helped bring about the national Clean Water Act of 1972.[38] Things did not improve overnight, though. In 1987, the area was designated an Area of Concern due to the levels of pollution from various sources such as agricultural runoff and industrial dumping.[39] Of course, all this pollution affected the rivers’ inhabitants, which include, among others, carp, steelhead and rainbow trout, bluegills, and catfish. Mercury and man-made chemicals found in the rivers’ fish have led to “do not eat” advisories from the city in the 1890s. Things had improved by 2014, although consumption limits remain on several fish and Milwaukee’s rivers remained polluted and do not meet state water standards.[40]

Nuisance Wildlife

The presence of wildlife in a densely populated region leads to irritation and expense. While Milwaukeeans probably welcome the re-introduction of formerly eradicated species to the area, other species remain classified by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as cosmopolitan wildlife or nuisance animals.^[41]

Following the eradication of the grey wolf, the populations of midsize predators such as coyotes, skunks, and raccoons grew in number.^[42] Some of these have earned the nuisance moniker over the decades. As in other North American urban and suburban areas, raccoons’ presence is often problematic for humans; they are perhaps the most infamous nuisance animal in southeastern Wisconsin. Indeed, the adaptable raccoon may be the wild mammal that can most readily live in the urban environment.^[43] Yet, despite sharing the common designation of “nuisance animal,” raccoons possess a certain visual appeal and “charisma” that sets them apart from mice, rats, and similarly classified mammals. First Lady Grace Coolidge even had a pet raccoon!^[44] Living throughout Wisconsin, raccoons can subsist nearly anywhere due to their tolerant palettes. In urban areas like Milwaukee, this includes trash and pet food.^[45] Raccoons often construct their dens in decks, attics, or in the walls of humans’ homes.^[46]

Urbanization has brought wildlife in close contact with humans, and on occasion these run-ins lead occasion to fear or annoyance. Residents in Milwaukee, for example, have complained of coyotes, which have lived in Wisconsin for more than 25,000 years.^[47] During the spring mating season they become a more frequent presence; urban residents report the animals wandering through the streets, howling at night, and killing small animals.^[48] Other residents have reported coyotes killing dogs.[49] Laws protect these animals from hunting and trapping by unlicensed individuals.^[50] They are resourceful animals that have, for example, been observed constructing dens from brush along rivers and creeks.^[51]

Other wildlife instills different fears in residents. White-tail deer populations have swelled on occasion in the Milwaukee region, leading to damaged gardens and automobile collisions. The state Department of Natural Resources estimated that about 1,200 deer lived in Milwaukee County in 2018.[52] Skunks are known to burrow in gardens and are of course capable of spraying an unpleasant scent.[53] Though lacking the odor, squirrels damage lawns and gardens, steal bird feed, and take up residence where they are unwanted.[54] Like raccoons, foxes have endearing traits and can flourish in urban areas and even function as pest control themselves by eating rodents and rabbits.[55]

Beginning in the 1970s, giant Canada geese have thrived in the Milwaukee area, much to the chagrin of the city’s human inhabitants.^[56] Once facing eradication from the Great Lakes region from overhunting, successful re-introduction induced soaring population growth.^[57] Residents have since complained that these large, loud birds—which can weigh up to eighteen pounds and live for over twenty years—damage grass by eating the roots and make messes of picnic tables. Wildlife management has attempted to deal with the population numbers in several ways.^[58] For example, in Thiensville, workers collected the birds during their molt period in July and donated them to a poultry company that passed the meat on to a food pantry.^[59] In Milwaukee County in 2003 authorities covered eggs with an oil that prevented air from reaching the embryo, resulting in termination.^[60] Border collies have also been used to drive the geese out. Still, these tactics have not halted the exponential growth, and between 1990 and 2002, the number of Canada geese residing in Wisconsin increased from around 17,000 to nearly 120,000. Over 5,000 of these lived in Milwaukee County by the early 2000s.^[61]

Gulls, another nuisance bird, number around 10,000 in Milwaukee in the summer and over 50,000 during their migratory period.^[62] Young gulls use the breakwater and beaches along and Milwaukee harbor as a winter vacation spot along with some ducks (lesser scaup).^[63] Zebra mussels, an invasive species that has flourished in the Milwaukee region and throughout Lake Michigan, provide sustenance for these birds. In early winter, the mussel beds attract as many as 20,000 gulls at North Point and South Shore.^[64]

Sanctuaries and Accommodation

Wildlife sanctuaries represent an effort to offset the harmful effects of human encroachment and to offer wildlife a refuge from the forces of destruction.^[65] Researchers note that Americans’ attitudes toward wildlife changed in the twentieth century, as “traditional” interactions with wildlife like hunting and fishing have been surpassed in popularity by activities such as observing and photography.^[66] A number of areas exist in the Milwaukee area that support these activities.^[67]

The popular Kettle Moraine State Forest-Southern Unit provides a protected home for a range of wildlife.^[68] Visitors hike along wooded and meadow trails where wild turkey and deer live.^[69] Birds viewable in the area include, among others, woodpeckers, blue-gray gnatcatcher, wood duck, and barrel owl.^[70] Less than 10 percent of southeastern Wisconsin’s original wetlands remain, a sample of which is preserved at Vernon Wildlife Area in eastern Waukesha county.^[71] Human-managed flowages (bodies of water created by damming) and grasslands surrounding the Fox River feature wildlife such as the yellow-headed blackbird, common egret, and blue winged teal, among others.^[72] Frogs and turtles, along with dickcissel and bobolink, appear in the summer.^[73] The oak woodlands, marshes and savanna of Nashotah Park in Waukesha County provide habitats for various songbirds and waterfowl.^[74] Cooper’s hawk and great horned and barred owl prey on the rabbits, mice and songbirds found in the woodlands.^[75]

Even in the highly urbanized Milwaukee County, the Wehr Nature Center provides protection for wildlife from human expansion.^[76] Migrant birds, including the yellow-rumped, black-and-white, and Wilson’s warblers, appear in spring while muskrat mounds pepper the water.^[77] The Milwaukee County lakefront, which has become  a network of parks and greenways, feature an abundance of wildlife.^[78] As a migration passageway with protected bays and forested ravines, the area draws songbirds, waterfowl, gulls, and terns.^[79]

To paraphrase Wisconsin’s Aldo Leopold, human beings have not, despite all their accomplishments, learned how to live on the land without spoiling its capacity to support life.[80] And as the research on Wisconsin’s wildlife has demonstrated, ecological change and habitat destruction, along with the loss of species, happen gradually, and have often gone unnoticed by a public too busy and disconnected to notice or care.[81]