The urban wilderness: The bear, raccoon, beaver or the lion in your yard, patrolling your neighborhoods and nearby recreation areas, and rising numbers of risky and close encounters with the wild animals in our backyards, and those when we’re in what we have designated as 'their space.' These rising encounters signify changes both environmentally and culturally, of our rapidly growing human footprint causing fuzzy boundaries of our understanding and attitudes toward wildlife, and those between what belongs to whom–– is it our back yard or their living room? We are provided with many opportunities for increased awareness about human and non-human communities as to how to interact with each other while living side by side, and, sometimes in the same places at the same time. Today we'll explore some of the facets around these issues and what can happen when we forget there really are wild things out there.