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Comment by setgree | Hacker News Reader

Opossums, frogs, many types of birds, spiders, ants and beetles, to name a few: https://doi.org/10.1603/0022-2585-38.1.1

Some of those creatures are facing substantial habitat loss in the US, and some are not. I am not an ecologist, but I think the bulk of the problem is probably a few steps up on the food chain. We have basically extirpated the predators (wolves, coyotes, foxes) who prey on the animals (mice, deer, other rodents) who spread ticks in many urban and suburban environments.

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> Opossums

Sadly, opossums eating ticks is likely a myth, or at least incorrect extrapolation from lab captivity stress: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S18779...

I had no idea!

    but I think the bulk of the problem is probably a few steps up on the food chain.

My understanding is that climate change is possibly a bigger factor. The ever warmer winters means that less of the eggs die off in sub-freezing weather. More of the early life cycle hosts (e.g. small mammals like mice, rats, voles) survive the winter.

Coyote at least has urbanized in southern california. Huge packs roam neighborhoods every night. Plenty of ample food from scavenging and live prey. No predators. No human hunting or seemingly any state sponsored culling.

Yep, coyotes are hardy, we have some in NYC as well [0]. Having said that, Wildlife Services kills tens of thousands annually [1] and wolves inhabit a much smaller range their historical distribution [2].

Instead of extirpated, I might have said "extirpated or highly curtailed the territory of"

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/science/coyotes-new-york-...

[1] https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/mar/12/the-hired-gun-...

[2] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/North_Am...

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