At this time of year, you may hear a few noises come from your attic and not think too much of it. You may push it off as noise coming from on top of the roof or the odd creak of your home. If the noise is consistent enough, you may have a raccoon or squirrel inside your attic causing the noise. Sounds like this at this time of the year are a sign to act now. In approximately two months, mother raccoons will start giving birth to her young which means much more noise! 

Once baby raccoons are born, there will be a lot of chittering noises emanating from the attic. A lot of our customers describe the noise of a crying baby raccoon as sounding like multiple birds chirping at one time. They make a high-pitch chirping noise when they feel bothered or are hungry. While the crying noise will occur primarily at night when the mother raccoon goes out for food, it can also occur throughout the day. Surprisingly the mother will place her babies above the master bedroom, keeping you awake and worrying about the damage.

Female raccoons will typically give birth to 1 to 7 offspring. Although 4 to 5 is more common, we have seen 11 babies in one litter before.

The Canada Goose is a large wild goose species with a black head and neck, white cheeks/chin and a brown body. They are one of the best known birds in North America.

As most people who live in an area with Canadian Geese will know, the gander (male goose) is a fierce defender of his mate and offspring, and will charge any suspected enemy, even one as large as an elk!

There are many risks to allowing a Goose near or around your property, especially a commercial building. Some Canada Geese prefer to nest in the gardens of commercial buildings. Because of their aggressive nature the adult geese will attack any person that comes in close proximity to their nest. This unprovoked behaviour can result in customers and employees sustaining various degrees of injury caused by the attacking geese. The presence of geese droppings in parking lots and walkways is not only unsightly but may create a serious slip and fall hazard. Another concern for building owners may be the loss of business from customers being chased away from the geese.

Canada Geese are migratory birds, protected under Canadian law, making it illegal to disturb, damage or destroy the nest or eggs except by special permit called a Migratory Birds Damage or Danger Permit.

Interesting Facts About The Canadian Goose:

• The female is called a goose and the male is a gander. The young are know as goslings.
• They form flocks to fly south for the winter.
• They fly in a “v” formation, known as the drafting effect. This helps the birds to conserve their energy while flying long distances. The leader in the front splits the air current for the rest of the geese. They will take turns being the lead.
• The Canada goose has webbed feet for swimming.

Rabbits have seasonal molts, which is when a rabbit looses its coat (or sheds) and grows a new coat. The heaviest moly is generally at the end of a winter season when their coat is fully grown and no longer needed for protection from the cold winter months.

Rabbits have the moulting process as an aid in controlling their body temperature to the varying temperatures of their environment (very cold winter months to relatively hot summer months)

This rabbit was found in a drain pump house by Gates Wildlife Technician Chris.

“Have you ever heard of knocking?”

As the days get colder and darker, raccoons are busy packing on their winter weight and have grown their much needed thick winter coat. Their ability to store body fat allows them to live off their fat reserves and stay in their den longer when food is scarce. A raccoon will typically lose up to half their body weight during the winter months.

Our company has been seeing groups of raccoons living and traveling together at this time of year.

Although raccoons are typically solitary animals, they will sometimes den together in groups during the cold winter months. It is likely that this group is a mother raccoon and her offspring from this past Sprint as they will stay together until she mates, which is usually sometime in January. Immature brothers tend to also stick together until they are two years of age.

THE LAST DAY OF MUSTACHES FOR MOVEMBER

We did it! We made it to the end of the month. Our team at Gates Wildlife did an amazing job this much growing their mustaches and doing their part to raise awareness for the cause. Our team has surpassed our target by raising $1370 so far. At the end of the day I will be going over our reviews for the month and will donate $5.00 per review to our donation page.

For our final animal in our series, we bring you the Patas Monkey. These monkeys are long-limbed and predominately found on the ground in the grass regions of West and Central Africa. The adult male Patas Monkey has shaggy fur with a white moustache and white underparts with a build like a greyhound. The email has a similar but less-striking pattern and build.

Fun Facts: 

• Patas Monkeys are the fastest primates on earth as they can run up to 35 MPH.
• They are diurnal and spend the day grooming, interacting socially and foraging for food. At night they spread out in the trees as protection from predators.
• Their predators include hyenas, raptors, cheetahs, jaguars, tigers and humans!
• Their lifespan in the wild is 15-20 years and 21-24 years in captivity.

Damage Thursday

Roof Soffit Intersections can be easily manipulated by an animal looking to establish a den inside the attic space.

Although raccoons do not hibernate, they do hide away in their dens during the extremely cold, snowy periods. They are capable of sleeping for weeks at a time in order to conserve valuable energy. This is a good survival strategy on their part as their food is either buried under the snow or frozen solid. This means that a raccoon living inside your attic will start spending longer periods of time inside, potentially causing more damage for the homeowner.

It is a great idea to schedule an inspection with us before the winter comes  if you suspect you have an animal inside your attic.

Orphaned Baby Raccoons Get Rescued!

Little did we know, that at the beginning of this job, the mother raccoon was no longer in the picture. While doing the removal we never saw the mother and after leaving the trail cam on for two days, she never appeared on camera nor exited our one way door. This is not entirely uncommon as homeowners and our competition will trap and relocate adult raccoons far away from the capture site.

Watch how Gates Wildlife Control rescues these baby raccoons from the attic, where they would have starved as they did not know how to forage for food on their own yet.

Watch the video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax_AdhGYmkE&t=14s

Moustaches for Movember

Canadians really love their mustaches—and with those cold winters, who can blame them? In fact, Canadians have raised $85.8 million (to date) for Movember, despite the U.S. being home to approximately 133 million more men than our northern neighbor.

Internationally:

All those mustaches, from France to Norway, Austria to the U.K., have raised a staggering $769 million dollars combined to date.

Thanks to the money raised during Movember, there have been some major cancer research breakthroughs. For example, there is now a genetic test that helps predict the risk of recurrence among prostate cancer survivors.

Movember isn't just about prostate cancer. Mo Bros have raised money for testicular cancer, mental health, and 1,200 different men's health issues since 2003.

Yes, the mustaches are great. But the Movember Foundation hopes that by 2030, the funds raised by Movember will have reduced the number of early deaths in men by 25 percent. That should be reason enough to put down the razor!

Stove and Bathroom Exhaust Vents make ideal nesting sites for birds and sometimes squirrels. This results in noticeable sounds, odours and insects.

This particular mother bird decided to nest inside the stove vent. As you can see, the vent was full of nesting material, preventing the homeowners from properly using their stove vent. Using a ventilation hood will help prevent a build-up of grease. Proper ventilation also helps prevent the growth of bacteria and mold leading to less toxins and unpleasant odours in your home.

When a family of birds are living inside your vent, you are not able to properly use your vent and therefore may be exposed to odours and bacteria.

Make sure to check the vents around your home to make sure a louver is not missing, which would indicate an animal has broken in. Gates Wildlife offers the service of screening the vents around your home to prevent this from happening to you!

Behind The Scenes!

Did you happen to see Gates Wildlife on City News this past May? Audra Brown interviewed Brad Gates, Owner of Gates Wildlife Control and caught us in action while we removed 5 baby skunks from under a deck in Richmond Hill.

As you can see in our YouTube videos, we try to give our followers a “behind the scenes” view into our jobs. Although, we often don’t think to show a behind the scenes of our photos on our social media. These baby skunks were born under a front deck of a home.  The deck had be rebuilt over top of 2 other decks in the past, which meant we had to break past 3 layers of deck boards to access the babies. At the time of this job, we knew City News was prepared to come film us on a job site so we called them immediately.

The story covers our humane removal process, tips for homeowners and cute wildlife babies! 

You can watch the video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiQSP9pLERE&feature=emb_title

Moustaches for Movember

Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide

Since 2007, more than five million guys have defied cultural expectations, and sometimes the protests of their loved ones, and declined to shave their upper lips, all in the name of helping men living longer.

Did you know Movember didn’t start in America?

Movember has only been stateside for 11 years, when folks stateside joined the cause in 2007. However, the charitable effort originated in Australia in 2003.

It all started with a pair of Australian blokes in a pub, who wondered why men don't grow mustaches anymore. They created Movember as a holiday to celebrate their favorite form of facial hair, and to encourage other guys to grow a mustache for a month.

We have great news! We have raised $645 so far and are so appreciative of everyone who has donated. 

Our donation page: https://ca.movember.com/team/2350164

Chimneys make ideal living quarters for raccoons. When a raccoon sees an uncapped chimney, they see an open invitation to a safe and sheltered space to live in, give birth and raise her young. In the Spring, chimneys make for the perfect play pen for baby raccoons. Baby raccoons born inside a chimney typically take longer to start foraging with their mother as it takes more strength and skill to make the climb up the chimney before doing so.

Squirrels and birds often fall into open chimneys and become stuck at the bottom. In this case they would need rescuing in order to survive. Sometimes these animals enter the living space of the home, which will result in a very scared and frantic wild animal running in all directions looking for a way out. If this ever happens to you, it is best to open all doors and windows to ensure a direct path out for the animal as they will look for the daylight and head towards it.