Animals in Seattle: Urban Ecologies

Seattle’s vibrant urban wildlife has many niches where they can thrive. In this list, I want to combine my personal observation of animals around Seattle with reflections of what I want to learn more about. In addition to the photos and gif’d videos of animals, I throw in some research, because more research is always needed.

I sometimes teach an enrichment animal behavior and neuroscience class where we watch animal videos, dissect brains, try to make sense of what we observe, and then ask more questions. We do some preliminary research, pose tentative models, and push our thinking. Even though I’m typically working with younger elementary students, they can grok concepts as well as some of the high school and undergraduate students I come across. I always frame the class as a “college course” since they take it in one of the campus classrooms. I combine Ambitious Science Teaching with STEM Teaching Tools.

I know this list does not include any cold-blooded animals, invertebrates, and anything that lives in waterways. I also didn’t list geese since they’ll have a special place in hell… I also don’t have any photos or recordings of the various singing white-crowned sparrows. They sing incessantly in the springtime, but now I miss them. The neural mechanisms of birdsong fascinate me. Here’s a research review: Birdbrains could teach basal ganglia research a new song (Doupe et al., 2005).

Dogs

I only know two dogs by name, and Cessna the family dog is pretty and pampered. The other one I know is our mascot, Dubs II. Dogs do that cute head-tilt, and here’s some research on that: An exploratory analysis of head-tilting in dogs (Sommese et al., 2021).

Cessna!

Dubs II gets his diploma (June 2023).

Cats

The only two other animals I know by name are two cats with the same human parents.

Whenever I teach my animal neuroscience class, the topic of cats falling out of windows emerges from cats always landing on their feet. Here’s a technical paper: Design of a Practical Cat-Righting Reflex (crr) Model (Manerikar and Anandpara, 2015).

A handsome orange loaf.

Rabbits

Throughout the parks and gardens around Seattle, even the sculpture garden outside the Chihuly glasshouse, rabbits seem abundant. Here’s an article that shows the hippocampus associates a conditioned eye-blink response in rabbits: Hippocampectomy disrupts trace eye-blink conditioning in rabbits (Moyer et al., 2015).

 

I wish I could track their family trees.
There are a lot of these floppy-eared grass eaters.

At Chihuly Garden (2023).

Squirrels

There are a surprisingly high number of wholesome squirrel-based fictional characters: Squirrel Girl from Marvel, Marshal from Animal Crossing, and Sandy from Spongebob Squarepants. In real life, though, squirrels seem to have a reputation of being pests that swarm. Research suggests squirrels are taking over our urban centers: Urban grey squirrel ecology, associated impacts, and management challenges (Merrick et al., 2016).

 

A muscular squirrel flexing.

Not sure if avoidant or just into eating.

Racoons

I saw what these critters can do. Look at High Evolutionary. They’re not too concerned about being eaten, apparently: Racoonvigilance and activity patterns when sympatric with coyotes (Chitwood et al., 2020).

 

Usually found on paths near water.

Gulls

These glaucous-winged gulls often have beef with the other animals. Here’s a study that meters how much plastic was found in gulls, but with increasing impacts as more and more plastic gets into the environment: Plastic consumption and diet of glaucous-winged gulls (Larus glaucescens) (Lindborg et al., 2012).

This fight escalated right outside my office.
Five gulls, one squirrel, and one crow
fight over a bag of chips.

Crows

I secretly want to start a trading system with crows to see if they can help me find loose change in exchange for some treats. These birds, an offshoot of dinosaurs, evolved social and perceptual intelligences: Abstract rule neurons in the endbrains support intelligent behaviour in corvid songbirds (Veit and Nieder, 2013).

 

I wonder if they have different talents and dreams.

Ducks

These represent one of the UW's athletic rivals, but I'm not sure if that's true anymore with the Big 10 changes. These ducks are far better visitors than the geese that land in our ponds. Here is a review of birds imprinting, a form of learning: Visual imprinting in birds: Behavior, models, and neural mechanisms (McCabe, 2019).

Drumheller Fountain on Rainier Vista.

A very polite duck. Other people passing by
also took pictures.

Coyotes

I’m one of the sole students who might stroll into my office before 5 a.m., but on W Day this year, I saw three coyotes in front. I think I could take one, but I waited for them to pass by. I’m more scared for the tiny critters they may eat. Here’s a link to the Seattle Coyote Study.

 

Of all days to choose to go in early
(W Day, 2022).

Discussion

The animals around Seattle get me to think about how much we know about, how much we don’t know about them, and our relationship to our shared environment. I also marvel at the methodological repertoire of the sciences to better understand this world and the beings that inhabit it.