[Music] Joan Cartan-Hansen, Host: While we all enjoy a chance to see wildlife, sometimes we don't want these animals in our backyards.

Deer can eat your flowers and shrubs.

Raccoons love garbage and can make a mess.

And larger animals like coyotes, and even in some places mountain lions, can be a real threat to your pets.

So, here are a few things you should do to keep wild things from invading your space.

Keep lids on your garbage cans and lock them if you are finding animals like raccoons are getting in.

Take pet food in and keep pets inside at night.

Throw out fallen fruit from under trees.

They're a tasty temptation.

Use birdfeeders that don't spill seeds.

And you may also have to put up barriers so deer can't get in or rethink what kind of plants you put in your garden, and never feed wild animals.

You may not give them the right kind of food and they may decide to stay.

Let wild creatures be wild and enjoy them from afar.

For more information about urban wildlife, check out the science trek website.

You'll find it at science trek dot org