By Diane Bell / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 1, 2021
One doesn’t have to go to the Safari Park to see wildlife. Some wild animals are camping out in yards and walking the streets of the beach communities of Pacific Beach and La Jolla.
Photos and videos of sightings of foxes and coyotes, many captured on night-time cameras and security surveillance devices, are commonly posted on the Nextdoor app, which shares residents’ neighborhood news.
This is no surprise to Jim McCaughan, who has specialized in trapping and humanely relocating unwelcome wildlife in San Diego for the past 22 years. His occupation started when a skunk took up residence under his hot tub. He couldn’t find a service to remove it, so he trapped it himself. Neighbors pleaded with him to relocate their unwanted skunks, and a new career was born.
In past years, McCaughan has been called in to track a bear and her cub in Escondido, a mountain lion near Soledad Mountain Road in the North Pacific Beach/La Jolla area and a bobcat living in a residential complex by La Jolla Mesa Drive.
He theorizes that when some wild animals’ main food source gets scarce, they venture into more urban areas, following local canyons and streams.
One popular animal trail winds along Rose Creek, running through North Pacific Beach and emptying into Mission Bay by Campland on the Bay. Thus, this resort and tourist mecca can be a destination for wildlife as well, McCaughan notes.
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Point Loma residents have been seeing foxes – go here.
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