Some wildlife species are drawn to residential areas because they offer food, shelter, and safety from natural predators. But in exchange, they risk running into trouble with their human neighbors.
In all, Maine has 58 species of wild mammals that currently live within its borders. There are a wide variety of mammals because of its geographic location. We are far enough north to have habitat conditions that support species commonly found in Canada (e.g., the Canada lynx and American marten) and far enough south to support species found in southern deciduous forests (e.g., gray fox and opossum). Technically, our state occupies three ecological regions: Warm Continental Mountains, Warm Continental Division, and the Hot Continental Division, and is near the Subarctic Division in Canada. Each of these ecological regions differs a little bit from each other in the composition of their plant and animal communities, and hence, contributes to the diversity of Maine’s wildlife.