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Backyard Zoo - Create Your Own Wildlife Friendly Backyard

Do You Have a Wildlife Friendly Backyard?

No matter where you live, or how big or small your backyard is, wildlife friendly areas can be easily set up to help out local wildlife. Take a look around your own backyard. Do you see any animals like squirrels or robins or butterflies going about their daily business in native grasses and bushes? Do you smell fragrant flowers and trees and hear the sounds of finches and sparrows? AZA zoos and aquariums have learned the best possible things to add to an animal’s habitat to make it top notch, and now you can also learn the things that your local wildlife needs to be able to survive! While different areas of the country attract different species, all wildlife needs the same basic things.

Food – Make sure to add native shrubs, trees and plants that produce food for wildlife (nuts, berries, seeds, nectar, etc) to your backyard habitat. Bird, squirrel or butterfly feeders can be added as well to supplement these natural food sources.
Water – Don’t forget to provide a constant and reliable source of water. If you don’t have a pond or river running near your yard, add a birdbath or shallow dish of water. All wildlife needs water for drinking and many species also use it for bathing.
Shelter – Add shelter for wildlife by adding densely branched shrubs, hollow logs, rock or brush piles. You can also add bird or bat houses or toad abodes. These shelters will protect wildlife against the weather and predators.
Poison Free Areas -Fertilizer and pesticides are often applied to yards in massive doses. Every time it rains, dangerous chemicals and fertilizers can wash off and lead to pollution of nearby streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal waters. Many chemicals used on lawns can also directly harm native wildlife. Check to see if harmful chemicals are being used in your backyard.

Create Your Own Wildlife Friendly Backyard!

Step 1 - Make a list of the species that currently live in your backyard. Use local field guides (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, flowers, trees, etc) to write down as many of the organisms that you can identify. Make note of the time of day, season and temperature as you record your observations. Remember that a cold winter’s day probably will yield far fewer species than a warm spring day. Also remember that many trees will be harder to identify without their leaves.

Step 2 - Take pictures of your existing backyard before you make any improvements.

Step 3 - Think about the basic things that wildlife needs and decide if all of these things are currently available and in great enough supply in your backyard. For those items that seem to be lacking, figure out what can be added to enhance the current conditions. If not enough natural food sources exist, build or purchase feeders. If shelter is lacking, consider planting trees or adding brush piles. Most importantly, make sure enough water is available for drinking and bathing. Consult local field guides to see which foods certain animals prefer. For example, different birds like different kinds of seeds and different insects favor certain types of flowers and bushes.

Step 4 - Now that you’ve come up with all of your wonderful ideas, it’s time to make your new wildlife friendly backyard come to life. Plan a day to plant and install all of your elements. Take pictures of your newly spruced up area and compare them with your “before” pictures.
Step 5 -After the work is done, become familiar with some of the new species that might be coming to your backyard by looking through the field guides. Be sure to assemble all of your photos and plans in a scrap book and add any new photos or descriptions to this as your habitat grows. Each week, record the animals you see in your wildlife friendly backyard. Make sure to note any new species that have been attracted.

Create Animal Homes in Your Backyard

Create A Successful Butterfly Garden

A water dish, flowers, lots of sunshine and an area with dark moist soil protected from the wind are all you need to create a butterfly garden!
Remember to:
- Check your lawn at various times throughout the day to see which area receives the most sun. Butterflies, like all insects, need sunny spots to raise their body temperature.
- Avoid using pesticides around these plants. Butterflies are as affected by pesticides as much as harmful insects.
- Provide the butterflies with a water source. Any type of shallow container will work. Give fresh water often.
- Be sure to include plants for all life stages. This means nectar plants for adult butterflies and host plants for caterpillars.
For more information on creating a butterfly garden, go to www.nwf.org.

Build A Bat Box

By constructing a bat house near your own home, you can help increase their chances for survival by giving them a place to live. A couple of reasons you would want bats in your backyard – they eat lots of bugs and they help pollinate many different types of fruits.

For more information about bats or to purchase a ready-made bat house, contact: Bat Conservation International, PO Box 162603, Austin, TX 78716-2603, www.batcon.org.

Build A Birdhouse

Birdhouses are an easy way to have more birds around your home. There are many ways to build houses for different kinds of bird. As land becomes more developed, birdhouses become more important. Tailoring the house you build to the needs of species you want to attract will increase your chances of success.

For more information on building a birdhouse, go to www.audubon.org.

Create a Toad Abode

A friendly toad will gobble up many harmful bugs that come into your garden. You can try to get toads to move in by making toad houses. Interestingly enough, once toads make their home in your garden, they may live there for the rest of their lives – which can be as long as ten years!
Use environmentally-safe paint to decorate the outside of a four-inch clay pot. After the paint has dried, place the clay pot on the ground, upside down, and prop up one side with a small rock. This is the toad’s house. Now hope a toad moves in.

Home owners guide to amphibian friendly gardening.

Doing More!

By now you’ve really increased the diversity of wildlife visiting your backyard. If you want to be a real wildlife friendly hero, try these activities.

Join Project Feeder Watch – Cornell University in Ithaca New York has developed a wonderful program called Project Feeder Watch (www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/). You can enter bird sightings from your own backyard feeder. All of the data collected helps scientists determine the abundance and movement of certain species of birds.
Adopt an animal from your local AZA zoo or aquarium – Many new animals are using your habitat, but have you ever thought about “adopting” an animal from another region of the world? You can! Most all AZA zoos and aquariums have programs that allow you to adopt an animal. Through adoption, you are helping to pay for the care that the animal needs to survive. To find the AZA institution nearest to you log on to www.aza.org.
Visit your local AZA zoo or aquarium – You may wish to visit your local AZA zoo or aquarium (find yours at www.aza.org) to see how they’ve designed their “wildlife friendly” exhibits to meet the animals’ needs. Consider setting up a time to chat with a zoo/aquarium staff person about the exhibits at their facility and how the needs of the animals are being met.
Learn more about wildlife and wild places:
www.enature.com – This site has a great section called ‘Native Gardening’ that provides information on what to plant, and what not to plant in your area.
www.wildflower2.org – More North American native plant information.
www.fws.gov – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service site. This site covers everything, from invasive species, to regularly used environmental contaminants, to partnering with landowners to restore habitats. This site also contains lots of downloadable information.