There’s no lack of wildlife in Los Alamos. We hear about mountain lions, bears, coyotes, and deer on an almost daily basis. But here are a few other species of critter we see in and around town. If you’ve got stories of animal encounters you’d like to share, please post them in the comments here or on Facebook! I love to hear from my friends and neighbors!

Pepe le EWWWW!

Skunks are NOT considered protected furbearers in New Mexico and here in Los Alamos we have quite a lot of these little stinkers hanging around. According to animal control solutions.com, Los Alamos residents call in a lot of complaints about some pretty specific skunk behaviors that evidently don’t happen as often in other areas.

First off, skunks are shy, noctural creatures that are most active around dawn and dusk when they’re hunting for food. They love garbage, pet food, bugs, and would prefer to dig under your front porch. This obsession with the porch is usually why they become a nuisance to humans. Here in Los Alamos, they apparently dig under the front steps of a significant number of Los Alamos homes. Once they’ve made a cozy den, they have babies. This generally isn’t a huge problem unless the homeowner has dogs. Dogs meet skunk and WHAM, bad things happen!

NEVER attempt to deal with a skunk problem on your own. Call Animal Control immediately and ask for assistance in evicting skunks from your property. Many of my Los Alamos homeowners swear their dogs get sprayed at least once a year. This seems to happen in the late spring or early fall when we’re prone to leaving our doors wide open in the late evening or even overnight to take advantage of the cool breeze. One homeowner in the Urban Park area even reported a neighbor’s dog getting sprayed under her bedroom window four times in one week thanks to a canine vs skunk standoff! You can check out this article by VCA Animal Hospitals regarding what to do if your dog gets skunked.

The Masked Bandits

The existence of raccoons in our area is probably not a shock to you. Although I think a lot of people don’t realize just how many of these little vandals call our county home. I was driving across Omega Bridge last week just after sunset and spotted several sauntering across the road with their weird little jogging gait. Their tracks are really strange and distinctive. I’ve come across them many times, but they are plentiful in the morning up at the North Mesa Stables since the little critters spend nights running from one barn to the next terrorizing cats, making a general mess of barns, and pretty much acting like little the worst sort of delinquents.

What you might not realize is that they consider dry cat food a delicacy and have been known to kill domestic felines to protect what they see as a ready food source (more barn cats and ferals in Los Alamos are lost to raccoon attacks than coyotes). If you look at the different examples above, you’ll notice that raccoons have different front and hind paws. Their front paws are far more like a human hand with creepy long fingernails. This is why they are so handy at opening your containers, trashcans, and letting themselves into pretty much anywhere you don’t want them to be. They basically have thumbs, folks. That’s a pretty scary thought!

If you have a raccoon trying to move onto your property, contact Los Alamos Animal Control immediately and they can advise you on steps to take to either trap the critter or who to call to take care of that for you.

Quoth the Raven “WONK-WONK”

Anyone who has sat at Sonic and nibbled tater tots has noticed the enormous black birds loitering in the parking stalls begging for scraps. Every trashcan in the downtown area is subject to their scavenging. And frequently we hear the loud arguments everywhere from parks to parking lots which sound like a strange combination of maybe a few “caw-caws” and a whole lot of “grrr”, “wonk-wonk”, and maybe some rattles, chortles, and noises no average creature should be making. Although, I suppose we rarely hear the classic “nevermore”…

People sometimes ask me if we have ravens or crows and it isn’t something I’m all that great at being able to identify. What IS the difference between a raven and a crow and do we have both or only one or the other?

I’m learning that most of our birds are ravens although we do have some crows in our region. Ravens are larger (sometimes as large as a red tailed hawk), with a ruff of feathers on the front of their neck called “hackles”. Crows have smooth chests and a finer profile with a smaller head. Ravens are better fliers than crows too. They can soar for far longer and often prefer it, but they can also fly upside down and do all kinds of theatrics in the air. (Remind you of any bird drama you’ve spotted around town???)

The other identifying difference is in the tail feathers. Ravens have a wedge shaped tail and crows have a fan shaped tail. Since a good many of our ravens seem to prefer waddling around town, we don’t always get a good view of those tail feathers, but you can see them in the photos below.

Also, just because I found this interesting, it has always been against wildlife ordinance to feed the ravens or the crows as they have long been considered “nuisance animals”. Lately, I find the deer and coyote more of a nuisance than the ravens!

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

This one probably surprises you. In fact, it’s the reason I decided to write this post. A local contractor friend of mine was out and about this past Sunday morning in Pajarito Acres and had to stop and wait for a small herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorns to move out of the road. There were five and in his opinion, they were much worse to deal with than the deer. Mostly because they just stood there and stared at his truck until he had to practically move them bodily out of his way.

According to NM Game and Fish, prior to the 1900s there were a LOT of these fascinating creatures in the Pecos Wilderness and the Wheeler Peak area. By 1906 they were nearly gone and in the 1930s they started trying to reintroduce them to the Pecos with minimal success.

The Los Alamos Reporter stated there was a small herd spotted near the Red Dot trailhead just this past Saturday (so probably the same ones my friend spotted Sunday morning on the road in Pajarito Acres). Many residents of Pajarito Acres have spotted small herds in the Potrillo Canyon area over the last decade. NM Game and Fish released at least one herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in the Lower Water Canyon region in the last 10 years. Like the deer, they’ve discovered that being closer to town yields more water and potential food sources. So keep your eye out for these unusual looking creatures. Even without the fully mature, curling ram’s horns they can be dangerous to hikers as they’re far less likely to be intimidated by a human walking up on them.

Life in our unique community will always come with exposure to nature in a variety of ways. It’s one of the things folks tell me they love most about Los Alamos! Everyday is an adventure here on the Pajarito Plateau. And when you’re ready to buy or sell your home in this community, give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate broker and I love talking real estate in Los Alamos!