Bald eagles come to visit their friends at the Oregon Zoo. People spot them in the trees outside the cage and ask the zoo to check if some of their animals escaped. Maybe you've seen a bald eagle: they're prevalent in and around Portland. Along the zoo's Cascade Canyon Trail, I walk with Amy Cutting, assistant curator of the Great Northwest exhibit. She tells me the first time a bull elk showed up on the other side of the fence they were pretty surprised. The Oregon Zoo is in the southern end of Washington Park––right along highway 26––and it's amazing to see such a large animal appear in the woods outside the zoo.
The Oregon Zoo's Great Northwest exhibit has regional wildlife in protected confines that match their native habitats. The zoo trails meander through exhibits built into the wooded hillside. Connecting to Washington Park along the Tualatin Mountains west of Downtown, Forest Park forms a substantial amount of habitat.
The wildlife corridor in the West Hills of Portland creates a range for animals to co-exist in the urban and suburban landscape. An ecosystem supports a vast array of life from microscopic to mammalian, and the ability of all species to survive in the water and soil around Portland is a measure of our own health.
Metro Area Wetlands Home to Variety of Wildlife
Metro area wetlands support amphibians, beaver, river otter, water fowl and other birds. In 1988, Oaks Bottom became the first official urban wildlife refuge in Portland. Thanks to Metro's Greenspaces and private citizens banding together to protect habitat, we have a more diverse suburban ecosystem than many communities. "The good news about Portland and the metro area is all the hard work that people have done to restore some of those green spaces," Cutting says.
There are many great places in the Portland Metro area to look for wildlife:
Tryon Creek State Park is host to bird walks and nature hikes and streams with steelhead trout.
Smith and Bybee Wetlands is where to look for beaver, river otter, black-tailed deer, osprey, bald eagles and western painted turtles.
Birds
Birding is one way people gain a greater appreciation of nature. Audubon Society of Portland has a forest trail where you can spot birds and a Wildlife Care Center with opportunities to observe and learn about area wildlife.
The majority of animals in zoos were either born in zoos or they are "rehab" or orphaned animals. A pair of injured saw-whet owls went to Audubon for attempted rehab. Audubon found the owls couldn't fly very well and so they placed them in the Oregon Zoo.
"They're molting at the moment. You can see feathers over there," Cutting says, pointing to a spot beneath their perch. The Saw-whet owls appear as little tufts on the tree branch. "We have them right here in the Northwest and you definitely would find these in Forest Park. They're in people's backyards."
Audubon birding classes are a good opportunity to learn where and when to look for birds. The green-headed male and brown female ducks are an urban species you can easily identify. Most people are familiar with mallard ducks, but we have more than a dozen native water fowl that frequent this region. You might see bufflehead, teal, shoveler, pintail, or wood ducks in the Portland area. They migrate along flyways and could stop in any small body of water for a short time.
One curious duck to watch for is the ruddy duck. Its bright blue bill is easy to spot. The zoo has a glass-walled aquarium where you can see them swim underwater. The blue bill is usually seen in spring. Early spring is breeding season and ducks are at their most pristine; the males sprout attractive feather patterns and the females try to blend in to the habitat. The ruddy duck's bill dims as it changes into summer colors.
Ducks' colorful plumage fades as they come out of breeding season. "That's a wood duck but he's not in his breeding plumage so you'd hardly know it," Cutting says. "He looks almost like a female wood duck right now."
Beavers
Whether you're a duck fan or a beaver fan, there are some waterways where no one wants a beaver lodge. "They dam up irrigation ditches and create problems," Cutting says. If you have problems with beaver, or any wildlife on your property, contact the Audubon Society. They'll let you know some non-fatal ways to work with wildlife.
Beaver dams create still areas in the water that is good habitat for songbirds. There are more insects in quiet water and that's more food for nesting birds to feed their young. "One thing people don't realize: beavers are a key part of the ecosystem," Cutting says. "When you have fast moving water it's a very different environment than when you have little ponds."
If you see a beaver, look closely: it's easy to confuse beaver with nutria or river otter. Nutria are a smaller mammal with a longer, skinnier tail than the beaver's flat paddle. Beaver and nutria are both herbivores, but river otter prefer eating fish and amphibians. "One of our otters was an orphan that was found injured along Johnson Creek," Cutting says. "River otter are very common in our tri-county area.” People kayaking on the Willamette occasionally see river otter emerge from the water. You can also them along the Tualatin River.
Amphibians
Amphibians have a hard time coexisting with urban development. To expand urban and suburban areas, one of the first things builders do is fill in the wetlands. Marshy areas aren't good for building. And, they're not necessarily favored for recreation. "Some of the first species to go are the ones that depend on a wetland ecosystem," Cutting says.
Oregon spotted frogs, rough-skinned newt, western painted turtles, and western pond turtles are native to Portland area waterways. Most amphibians breed in water and small bodies of water can concentrate pollutants. "They do seem to be indicators of toxic levels of pollutants in our environment because they're so sensitive to waterborne chemicals," Cutting says.
Bullfrogs are another threat. An invasive species, bullfrogs eat baby turtles and native frogs. "None of our native amphibians grow anywhere near that large," Cutting says. "That's one of the biggest problems we've had with maintaining our native turtle populations."
Coyotes
The food web is so interconnected that even as people hunt the large predators further into the wilderness, the turtles feel a bite. Without top predators, the coyotes and raccoons expand their populations in urban areas. And they’ll eat whatever they can find, especially turtles nesting along the Willamette and Columbia.
Coyotes live in the hills around Portland. Without wolves, grizzlies, and cougars to worry about, the coyotes just stay out of the way of humans and burrow into the urban landscape. You might never see them because coyotes are active at night, and they stay out of sight.
Urban Wildlife: Your Friends and Neighbors
Some of the animals in the Oregon Zoo's Great Northwest exhibit are your neighbors. If you see a garter snake, you might be tempted to kill it. Garter snakes are actually a friend to gardeners. "They eat slugs," Cutting says. "A lot of people don't know they are super-handy. One of their favorite foods in the world is slugs."
With many species in the the food web displaced by civilization, the ecosystem creates a different equilibrium––allowing some species greater opportunities and extinguishing others. The loss of biodiversity is a call for greater awareness of our interdependence on a healthy ecosystem.
Resources
For a comprehensive guide to Portland's natural areas look for Wild in the City, edited by Michael C. Houck and M.J. Cody, and published by the Oregon Historical Society Press.
To learn more about accessing the river system and seeing wildlife, there is an excellent book from the Tualatin Riverkeepers, Exploring the Tualatin River Basin.
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