Wildlife in northern suburbs (Detroit, Sterling Heights: houses, subdivision, living)

[syrnative]

So - after hitting 2 raccoons and grazing a deer (in one week), we have decided not to live in such a rural area when we move to Michigan. We have narrowed our search to Rochester and Lake Orion, and my question is - What kinds of critters will be running around and how abundant are they? I realize the deer are starting to run and the squirrels are gathering nuts but I'm tired of constantly slamming on my brakes on the way to the store (which is 10 miles away). The hubby will be starting work in Auburn Hills the first week of November and we hope to settle there soon.

[Coldjensens]

If you do not hit any deer or squirrels, how are you going to get meat?

[Jwo85]

Foxes and I remember a couple times some cougers have been out in the rochester area (no joke)

[MIEng]

Originally Posted by syrnative

So - after hitting 2 raccoons and grazing a deer (in one week), we have decided not to live in such a rural area when we move to Michigan. We have narrowed our search to Rochester and Lake Orion, and my question is - What kinds of critters will be running around and how abundant are they? I realize the deer are starting to run and the squirrels are gathering nuts but I'm tired of constantly slamming on my brakes on the way to the store (which is 10 miles away). The hubby will be starting work in Auburn Hills the first week of November and we hope to settle there soon.

There are lots of deers is the Rochester area and wild life is very common. When I was at Oakland U sometimes I would leave campus very late and it was very common to see deer in the parking lot. At one time there were like 5 deer surrounding my car and I had to wait a while for them to go away. Even where I live now (Sterling Heights) I still see deers running around at night since we live near the Clinton River. Right after we moved into our newly built subdivision 5 years ago, on that first week, one night I saw a pack of like 15 deer wandering in our backyard. They were probably confused wondering what happened to their little forest..

There are lots of water everywhere in metro Detroit so I guess its easy for those animals to thrive. They can be a pain but at the same time I think is kind of nice.

[Coldjensens]

If you want to avoid wildlife, you need to stay in the inner subrubs where the houses are more packed in. Even in Detroit they get wild animals at night. You cna probably avoid them in places like Royal Oak, Ferndale, Downtown Detroit. That is about it. You are going to have wild animals wandering around parts of pretty much anywhere else. In those areas your are going to have a few wild animals of the human variety. You just cannot get away from it.

Even Los Angeles has several hundred coyotes living downtown. I think that you may have to go to the moon to avoid wild animals entirely.

[syrnative]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

If you do not hit any deer or squirrels, how are you going to get meat?

Obviously you are familiar with Wisconsin! I'm not a stranger to wildlife but since we are surrounded by farmland, we seem to be outnumbered by the critters. I would like a more populated area anyways. I'm tired of driving 20 miles for a good grocery store. I'm fine with the occasional deer and fox sightings but the possum under my front porch is getting on my nerves.

[Retroit]

There's plenty of wildlife in Detroit - most on two legs.

[Coldjensens]

try Novi. traffic is so heavy that they have already run down most of the wildlife. If you are in your 20s-30-s you may like Royal Oak or ferndale (or downtown Detroit). Ann Arbor does not get a lot of wildlife downtown. Otherwise, it is hard to think of a decent area that does nto have a deer problem.

[Retroit]

A coyote was in Novi a few days ago (confirmed by DNR).

Coyote sighting in Novi (http://news.yahoo.com/video/detroit-wxyz-20910802/coyote-sighting-in-novi-22432711 - broken link)

[snoopygirlmi]

Rochester Hills has the highest deer-car accident ratio in the state. That being said, it's not like deer are just roaming the streets looking for cars to hit (or vice versa). However, like ColdJensen said, if you don't want the big critters, look at an inner ring suburb. You'll still get the squirrels and the occasional coyote, but nothing too big. On the other side of the coin, a lot of the inner ring suburbs are dealing with rat infestations. Oh, and Pontiac has had problems with bedbugs too...so, yeah....you're gonna have problems with critters just about everywhere. So, it's really a matter of what problem you'd rather deal with.