Wildlife in the region has been dealing with the presence of human beings for thousands of years. The consequences of these developments, often unintended, have affected nearly every creature that has ever lived in the Milwaukee area. ![]() As the region transformed into a modern metropolitan area, housing, roads, and human activity increased dramatically, altering the ecosystem and damaging a number of these natural habitats. It reveals that the most recent wave of human settlement subjected wild animals and aquatic life to a number of dangerous and often deadly forces. On balance though, the historical record that coincides with the last two centuries of European-American activity paints an especially dire picture for wildlife in the Milwaukee region. The settlement of native peoples affected the land and its animal inhabitants, too, through farming, hunting, fishing, and other activities. Glaciers retreated and the climate changed scientists still debate the causes of mass extinctions that wiped out large mammals such as the wooly mammoth and giant beaver around 11,700 years ago: one group argues the arrival of humans did it while others suggest climate change (or maybe disease) was the culprit. ![]() Of course the wildlife-large mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and rodents-that inhabits the region lived here long before humans and experienced existential crises and ecological changes before people were here, too. Nearly 1.5 million people live in this area. To the east is the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The region is defined here by the four human-defined counties that encompass the Milwaukee River Basin and its three rivers, the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic. ![]() The history of wildlife in the Milwaukee region is the story of the complex relationships between animals, humans, and the built and natural environments.
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