Official web site of The City of Calgary

Wildlife

Calgary's wild neighbours

Calgary has a diversity of wild neighbours that make the city their home.

Calgary is rich in natural environments, comprising 50% of our city's 8000 hectares of park space. Our network of parks gives Calgarians vital spaces to have fun, be close to nature and also provides important homes for urban wildlife.

A city that embraces nature creates spaces that mutually benefit citizens and our wild neighbours.

The City is committed to planning and managing Calgary's parks and open space as a connected network of habitats and wildlife movement corridors with the aim of reducing roadway collision threats and related human-urban wildlife conflict (Our BiodiverCity, 2015).

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How humans and wildlife co-exist in a city

Wildlife have various strategies for coexisting with people in urban environments. Some animals adapt well to being around their human neighbours, while others avoid us.

Living so close to parks and other wild spaces presents Calgarians with amazing opportunities to interact with nature.

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One way that The City designs park space to allow citizens and wildlife to coexist is to provide off-leash parks to minimize conflict between wildlife and dogs.

Calgary has over 150 off-leash parks, one of the highest numbers for any city in North America. Focusing off-leash activity in key areas is an important way to minimize conflict between pets and wildlife.​

At certain times of the year, city wildlife will be nesting or making dens in our parks, and human or pet presence in those areas can prompt conflicts.

In order to minimize stress and protect the safety of people and animals, The City may close parks or pathways to relieve pressures in potential conflict areas, and allow wildlife parents to raise and move on with their families from these areas.​

Based on 10 years of calls to 3-1-1, the map below highlights the relative likelihood that Calgarians would see bobcats in their neighbourhoods. Yellow and red areas correspond to areas with the highest relative number of citizens-reported bobcat sightings, while blue shows occasional reports. We haven't received any bobcat reports in the areas of the city shaded in light grey.​
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