Animals shown are not to scale with one another
CATS (house and stray)
Because they are healthy and well-fed, house cats pose more of a threat to birds than the lethal-predator stray cats that hunt to survive.
COTTONTAIL RABBIT
An alley success story, cottontails have multiplied since the 1950s, when citydwellers largely stopped trapping and hunting them.
EUROPEAN STARLING
This 6-inch bird with black plumage will eat from almost any menu, making it a good fit for the hardscrabble life of the alley.
FOX SQUIRREL
More Top Picks Best Luggage
The nerd of the local squirrel world, the reddish fox squirrel is good at calculating risk, but less socially adept than the gray squirrel.
GRAY SQUIRREL
Chicago’s alpha-squirrel. Smaller than the fox squirrel but more assertive, it tends to win out in direct confrontations.
HOUSE MOUSE
This mighty mouse weighs in at only half an ounce but can jump 13 inches from the floor to a flat surface and fit through a crack the size of a pencil.
HOUSE SPARROW
These small brownish birds are very social, travelling in flocks, even during breeding season, when many birds go it alone.
They like alley seeds and garbage.
NORWAY RAT
Also known as the brown rat and the common rat, the Norway rat weighs in at up to about 3 pounds, and will eat anything from soap to its fellow rodents.
OPOSSUM
North America’s only marsupial can play dead. When threatened, it may roll over on its side, close its eyes, let its tongue hang out and even emit a putrid smell. Predators tend to lose interest.
PIGEON
Notoriously messy, pigeons are unpopular with humans–Woody Allen called them “rats with wings”–but defenders point to virtues such as their pretty plumage, with undertones of bronze, pink, white and green.
RACCOON
This 12- to 25-pound giant of the alleys uses its front paws skillfully, picking up food and even dunking it in water. Also known for tipping over trash cans and raiding gardens.
———-
Sources: Illinois Department of Health, USDA Wildlife Services, UIC biology professor Joel Brown, Illinois Natural History Survey ecologist Chris Whelan, Columbia University Introduced Species Project, Illinois Natural History Survey, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.