Bats can hear, taste, smell and even see just like humans do. In the dark, bats use a special sonar system called ‘echolocation.’ This system allows the bats to emit an echo out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. This allows the bat to navigate and find food in the dark. 

Using echolocation bats are able to detect objects as thin as human hair in pitch black conditions. Bats are able to find insects as small as mosquitoes, which bats love to feed off of. A common myth that roots from the saying “blind as a bat” is actually false. Bats are not blind, they just rely heavily on their sonar system to navigate quickly in complete darkness.

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

There are a few instances where a baby raccoon could get separated from its mother. When relocating her babies, a mother raccoon may place her babies in a known safe location to await her return while she either scopes out where she is going next or while she relocates one of her other babies. 

It is not uncommon for a baby to get separated from its mother during their foraging. While the human urge is to want to help the baby, in reality that action can actually do more harm than good. In most cases the mother raccoon will return to collect the baby provided there is no human interference. 

Raccoons are amazing mothers and will come back for their babies. It is common for a mother raccoon to return for her young at dusk or during the dark of night so don’t be alarmed if the baby is still there a few hours later if it is during the day.

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

Female raccoons will typically give birth to 1 to 7 offspring. Although 4 to 5 is more common we have seen up to 11 babies in one litter before. In the wild, it is more likely that a mother will only give birth to two to three babies. 

A possible reason behind a larger litter size in an urban environment could be a result of the female having access to much more food and therefore having more body fat than their wild counterparts. In other words, a female’s biological makeup in the wild may signal her body on how many babies she would be able to support based on her current food intake. This is probably because the wild raccoon wouldn’t have as much fat and cannot produce enough milk for more than a few babies, where as an urban raccoon could.

For example, research has indicated that in the wild, pandas may give birth to a single cub or twins, but only a single baby is cared for. The reason being that the mother can only care for one cub. If she tried to care for twins, the survival of both babies would be at risk.

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

Nestlings often have no feathers at all, just bare pinkish grey skin and will have fluffy down patches instead of feathers. 

Starlings are cavity dwellers, their preference is to nest in the stove and bathroom exhaust vents. The warm, dry, secluded shelter provides protection from other animals and humans, making it a safe place to live. They can cause the infestation of insects, disturbing noises and unpleasant odours resulting from their feces.

In keeping with our humane approach to solving wildlife intrusions, Gates Wildlife Control developed a unique approach to reunite the parent starlings with their babies. To do this the babies are placed in a release jug, fashioned in such a way to keep the babies inside yet allowing continued access by the adult starlings to feed their young. Once the babies have reached flying age they will leave the jug on their own.

Have you ever had a look at your outside wall vents? Do they have flaps missing, nesting material sticking out or feces down the wall below it? If so you may have a mother bird preparing her nest for the fast approaching Spring season. Call Gates Wildlife today if you notice any of these signs. 

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

Raccoons have been given the title of “break-in artists.” They are extremely intelligent and have very sensitive hands with long fingers, toes and nails. Only humans and other primates have similar numbers of receptor cells found in their hands. 

Raccoons are great problem solvers that adapt easily to new environments and objectives. They are very good at grabbing, pulling things apart, scaling buildings, and are adept at figuring out how to open green bins when first introduced in Toronto.

The green bins were labelled as “raccoon proof” but raccoons were quick to adapt to this new obstacle and over time were able to find their way into the bins. They figured out how to undo the latch and gain access to the abundance of food inside. These green bins offered more food than they are used to getting in a week of foraging, which is why I believe they set their sights on these bins. Even with the new green bin design implemented in Toronto, there are videos on YouTube showing a raccoon masterfully turning the handle and gaining access. It’s just a matter of time before word spreads on how easy it is to open this new design. 

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

Following up in a timely fashion on all work in progress is not only important but it can also mean life or death for the animals involved. This is especially important during the spring season when dependent babies may be involved.

Unfortunately, there are some wildlife removal companies that choose to make this essential task a low priority. A one-way-door is installed at the point of entry and a return visit is never scheduled to check if the job in question was proceeding according to plan. What generally happens is the mother animal will exit through the one-way-door and become locked on the outside while her young babies are still in the attic. It is not uncommon for our company to be called out to rescue the babies from the attic because the company that initiated the work refused to return.

During the baby season each and every job should be checked regularly to ensure the mother animal has not been separated from her offspring. A sure sign that this has happened is when a desperate attempt is made to chew or claw their way back in at the point of entry. When a technician fails to return to the site to conduct a follow up inspection the separated babies could die a horrible death without their mother.

The juvenile babies in the attached picture were trapped inside the attic. Notice the screened vent on the roof behind them, blocking the mothers access back into the attic.

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

All female mammals have maternal responses. Even if that maternal instinct is there, it is up to the individual animal whether or not to listen to it. As we see on various job sites there are many fierce animal moms that will go to extremes for their young and we can’t blame them for that!

Although we see strong maternal instincts in all animals we deal with, squirrels are notorious for being extremely persistent if they are ever separated from her babies. Our customers will report seeing the mother squirrel on their roof all day long calling out for her young. Upon our return visit, we are appreciative for the mothers strong instinct. We often rely on a mother’s behaviour cues that inform us that her babies were not old enough to exit through our one-way-door. In such cases when we can not locate the babies in the attic, we will let her back inside the attic to continue raising her young until they are old enough to forage with her. 

With this aggressive mother showing her desire to get back to her babies right away, we placed her young on the roof for her to collect. She quickly made her way over to them and relocated them off the roof one by one to her secondary den site in the neighbourhood.

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

Do you remember how much fun it was to play with Styrofoam as a kid. Some people get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about touching styrofoam but most kids loved building, constructing and best of all breaking it apart.

I can remember getting my hands on the chunks of styrofoam used as packing material from purchased items. I would break each block into a million pieces. So satisfying!

Styrofoam is also used to insulate the top of attic hatches. It is ideal because it is rigid, can be cut to the exact size and it is a great insulator.

As I began my career in wildlife control I was surprised to learn that humans are not alone in their desire to manipulate Styrofoam into small pieces. Raccoons cannot resist clawing and rolling it between their paws. Raccoons have extremely sensitive forepaws. If you have ever watched a raccoon in a stream, without looking down they use them to “see” food underwater by feeling with their fingers.

While I am fascinated that raccoons also find it gratifying to destroy Stryrofoam, I absolutely hate the fact that they do it above the attic hatch (see photo). Case in point, when we need to access the attic to conduct a search for babies, the attic hatch is pushed straight up in order to clear the framework it sits in. Because the raccoons residing in the attic have literally reduced the Styrofoam to the cellular level, a billion pieces proceed to fall directly onto my head, down my shirt and cover a 3 foot swath directly below the hatch. What a mess and there is no way to avoid it.  Cleaning it up is certainly no easy task. The homeowner will walk in the room, think that we did it and say “what did you do?” And it doesn’t stop there, I will continue to shed particles of Styrofoam into my truck and at other customers homes. I will even arrive home at the end of the day, remove my uniform and find pieces stuck to all parts of my body.  

Only now can I fully appreciate my dad’s distaste for having to deal with the aftermath of my styrofoam obsession.

By Brad Gates, B.Sc.

Brad Gates is the owner and president of AAA Gates Wildlife Control. He has over 35 years experience in the humane wildlife removal and prevention industry.

In April 2018, Pickering Animal Services received a call from a homeowner that noticed a baby Great Horned owl on the ground in their backyard. The homeowner was concerned for the baby owl as the area is frequented by coyotes.

Animal Services officers Nick and Jen immediately responded to the call and performed their due diligence to determine what was needed to do to save the baby owl. With advice from a wildlife rehab organization they purchased a large Rubbermaid container, bungie cords and lined the container with sticks. Great job Nick and Jen! The only missing piece of the puzzle was finding someone who had a ladder and could secure the container high in a tree.

Nick knew who to call. Within 20 minutes I was on-site and excited to help get this vulnerable baby back safely up in a tree, where its parents could continue to care for it.

After securing the Rubbermaid container 25 feet up the baby was carefully placed inside. We then walked the ravine in case there were other babies that had fallen from the nest. No other babies were found.

The homeowner agreed to monitor the situation to ensure the parent owls are reunited with their baby.

Finding an albino is rare, but the chances of finding three in a litter of four? Try odds of one in 10 million.

In Spring of 2009, Gates Wildlife Control discovered a litter of four baby raccoons, three of which were Albino. When we arrived on site we discovered a raccoon of normal colouration and one albino baby in the garage of the home. Upon a further search in the attic we discovered one more albino baby, all about six weeks in age. 

This was an extremely rare find. Only 1 in approximately 500,000 raccoons are born Albino and for three of them to be born in one litter is even more uncommon.

Our company removes about 1,500 litters of raccoons from homes each year. In 35 years of business, I’ve only seen five albinos. In each case, the raccoons were young and still supported by their mothers. After that, experts say albinos have trouble thriving.

The executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre, Nathalie Karvonen, said Albino raccoons are likely to have problems with their vision, hearing or other body systems.

All four babies were placed in our heated release box on the roof and their mother picked them up one by one and relocated them to her secondary den site in the neighbourhood.