Ventura County has been blessed with an abundance of birds and wildlife. Over 300 different and distinctive birds either live in or travel through the County. Snakes are a presence in every city and neighborhood. Native predators include bears, mountain lions, bobcats, fox and the coyote. Skunks, opossums, and raccoons are frequent visitors in every neighborhood and bats are an important contributor to our local mosquito abatement efforts. There are deer in the foothills, feral pigs in the canyons, and rabbits in abundance everywhere. Our coastline is home to a variety of seals and sea lions and it is common to see frolicking dolphins and spyhopping whales from our shorelines.
With all of this wildlife and over 800,000 people in our County, it is inevitable that there will be clashes of life styles. Marine mammals such as seals and sea lions beach themselves regularly for a variety of reasons but unfortunately they are not always discriminating about their choice of beaches. Sick and injured cetaceans occasionally come ashore to die and bears, coyotes and deer are frequent victims of speeding cars. Skunks and raccoons seem to enjoy taking up residence under houses and opossums just can’t get out of harms way fast enough. The Ventura County Department of Animal Regulation will respond to calls where wildlife is posing an immediate threat to public safety or is seriously injured, but does not handle wildlife nuisance problems, such as skunks residing under your house or opossums raiding your pet’s food from the porch. It is crucial that incidents of domestic dog, cat or livestock encounters with wild animals (particularly bats, skunks, raccoons and coyotes) be reported immediately to The Department of Animal Regulation and your Veterinarian. The volunteers of Camarillo Wildlife Rehabilitation assist with the rehab of orphaned and injured wildlife, birds and raptors. Sick and injured marine mammals are referred to NOAA Fisheries and their web of rehabilitators.
The most important advice that we can give regarding wildlife is to learn to coexist with them. Remember that it is us who has intruded into their habitat but it is they who are struggling to exist in our urban environment.