Raccoons at the Dinner Table

Tracking wildlife in urban communities with Dr. Nyeema Harris

–By Sam Bower

Bathing in the heat of the African savanna a pride of lions stalks an antelope. Before the animal has a chance to comprehend this situation, the hoofed animal is on her back. Lions surround her. Bones crack as she inhales her last breath. From her abdomen slides a lifeless body. Most people would have turned around, closed their eyes, and clenched their teeth in an effort to forget this grisly scene. But Dr. Nyeema Harris isn’t everybody. Harris was 13 when she witnessed the thrill of this hunt while on a trip to Kenya. “It was a twofer!” Harris pronounced, her eyes shining as if she were back in Africa observing it for the first time. This hunt was a turning point in Harris’ life. “That was a pivotal moment. I knew I wanted to be outside. I knew I wanted to study wild animals and carnivores.”

Growing up a city girl in Philadelphia in a family that didn’t actively seek any ties to nature left Harris wondering how she could craft her budding love of animals into a career that would challenge and educate her throughout her life. “I didn’t know what type of job or career exists from that [loving animals]. I had to be either a zookeeper or a vet. Those were the two jobs available to me,” she said. Harris got her first job at the Philadelphia Zoo in the education department where she routinely helped host birthday parties with the animals. While this exposure at a young age helped confirm her interest in wildlife, the trip to Kenya reinforced her desire to study wildlife and partake in conservation efforts. Now as an assistant professor leading the Applied Wildlife Ecology Lab (AWE), at the University of Michigan in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Harris has immersed herself in the study of wildlife, and is committed to encouraging the next generation of biologists.

Currently, Harris is finishing up a multi-year research project known as the Mesoniche Project, with four study sites spread across Michigan. This project’s goal is to build our understanding of mammalian carnivore interactions between one another, their prey, and humans. From the remote Huron Mountains in the Upper Peninsula to metropolitan Detroit, the exposure of wildlife to humans is drastically different. The project hopes to illuminate how increased human interaction with wild areas impacts food and space availability for carnivores, the animals they eat, and the places they live.

Harris’ research relies heavily on camera traps, motion-activated cameras placed on trees that snap photos of wildlife as it passes by. Projects like this are well-planned and deliberate. “Sometimes people think we go strap a camera on a tree, no big deal,” she said. When you factor in four sites, projects like this are ambitious undertakings. “Sometimes we have arrays of ninety-six cameras placed one kilometer apart across a mountain, across a river, around a hill. To get ninety-six cameras is a massive effort. And that’s just one site.”

In urban settings like Detroit, animals such as coyotes, deer, raccoons, and fox are moving into neighborhoods and similar places typically thought of as purely human. “There is a fear that wildlife is not supposed to be in the city. It is supposed to be in a distant land,” Harris said. She hopes to change those fears by showing local communities how coexistence with wildlife is not only important, but is also an unavoidable truth. Harris’ goals include highlighting ways in which animals are affected by human activity in parks and neighborhoods, and among plastic bags blowing around in the wind. “We want to promote a sense of harmony between nature and humans,” Harris says of her decisions to include communities in the deployment, checking, and retrieval of her cameras.  This approach to research ensures that individual interests and needs are met. “These communities know you are working on something and want to know, ‘Hey, what did you find?’ There is a more vested interest.” Harris believes that structuring projects with local communities in mind would lead to more impactful applications of the work scientists do.

The presence of the Mesoniche Project in urban communities pushes boundaries of what it means to be an ecologist. But on a more personal level, Harris’ presence challenges expectations of who scientists are. “People are not used to seeing people of color, let alone a woman of color, talk about wildlife,” Harris said.  The preconceived notions of who a scientist is supposed to be requires her to open up dialogue long before she even begins to talk about the wildlife she studies. Environmental scientists and issues regarding natural resources, ecology, and conservation are not often on the table for communities of color or underrepresented communities. In a way, Harris must convince local communities of the work she does and her role as an ecologist. “I have to articulate my passions and why I am doing these kinds of things. In urban settings I can say I’m from Philly. This passion arose regardless of geography,” she said. When Harris does get to start the conversations about the cameras, the wildlife she expects to see, and the ways in which the communities can get involved, they often become more in line with animal control. Harris may be an expert in mammalian carnivore ecology, but she doesn’t have all the answers. “Someone will ask me about snakes but that’s not my area of expertise. ‘Oh, I’m trying to get rid of these mice, but I don’t want to use the kill trap, so what do I do?’ I don’t have the knowledge and the answers regarding every animal. It’s interesting to get these questions,” she says.

Harris doesn’t intend for every person she interacts with to become a carnivore ecologist. In fact, she doesn’t think the world needs that. She wants to demonstrate the importance of conservation at any scale. “In the research that I do, we want to instill awe for a reason—the awe around enthusiasm and excitement and wonder,” she said. What the world does need is for people to understand that their choices have real life consequences on wildlife. “Are our work and conversations helping people to think about their actions?” Harris asks. “Each person has an eco footprint,” she said. And while most people are not ecologists, “Everyone should be voting,” she urged.

Most of us won’t witness an epic drama unfold on the African savanna any time soon, but we can learn to appreciate those nights taking out the trash only to stumble upon a raccoon foraging through our garbage. It’s in moments like this that Dr. Nyeema Harris hopes we can find a connection to wildlife in our own backyards. These animals depend on us in ways we have yet to discover, and while it may not be so evident yet, we depend on them just as much.

Featured Image: Dr. Nyeema Harris at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Photo Credit: Instagram @awecarnivores