Denver City and Mountain Parks: Wildlife Precautions for Safe Visits

Respectful Viewing from a Distance is Best for Humans and Wildlife as Well

Denver residents know from experience the precautions to take when visiting parks and natural areas in the foothills and mountains. This article should help visitors to Denver be safe when visiting such areas by being informed of these important precautions.

There are not many areas in the Denver parks where you would encounter dangerous wild animals, except for the Denver Zoo. The Denver Zoo is located within the main Denver City Park, between York and Colorado Boulevard Streets. As with precautions that should be observed when visiting any zoo it is best not to feed the animals or to attempt to reach into or move past any enclosure barriers.

Within Denver's other green space park areas there is an animal that can give you quite a scare if you are not aware of their nature. Many Denver park areas have small lakes and often these lakes are happily visited by Snow and Canadian Wild Geese. These waterfowl are very beautiful. One wonderful aspect of their nature is that they mate for life. This attribute can also causes them to be highly protective of their mate. It is always best not to get between a pair of Snow or Canadian Geese. Should you find your self in this position just slowly back up and move out of the area. If you do not you may soon find your self being chased out by one of the geese. It's a shock when that happens as they are quite noisy. You are not likely to get hurt by the geese, other than nipped at the heels if you're slow, but it has happened that elderly persons have fallen and had broken bones on such occasions.

When visiting mountain park areas, creeks and rivers there are also important precautions to observe. Always watch where you are walking so as to avoid rattlesnakes. Usually these reptiles will move out of your way unless you corner them or accidentally step on them. In the mid to late parts of the day they are some times found resting in warm path areas or on rocks in the sun. Just move around them if possible, or nudge them with a very long stick, and usually they would move out of your way.