This Halloween, instead of looking to the sky for spooky critters, like the half-million bat colony around the University of Florida, consider what’s happening beneath your feet: a surprising number of mammals, from raccoons to otters, roam underground in stormwater drains.
“There’s interstates below your feet,” says UF’s Alan Ivory, a PhD student in wildlife ecology.
While studying animals in UF’s ponds, Ivory noticed an otter scurrying into a storm drain. By mounting camera traps along Alachua County’s stormwater systems, he has documented the behavior of animals within these hidden networks.
Ivory discovered a range of native species using the drains for shelter, feeding and making dens for their young. Through field surveys and motion-activated cameras, he observed animals including bats, raccoons, river otters, wading birds and even alligators thriving underground and displaying behaviors rarely seen on the surface.
A second study, published this year in Urban Ecosystems, honed in on bats and raccoons, the most common species spotted in the drains. The study concluded that with intentional pipe designs and effective maintenance schedules to reduce disturbances, communities can enhance the value of their storm drains as urban wildlife corridors.
Ivory, who is pursuing his doctorate in Forest Resources and Conservation, has expanded his research to how invasive species affect fire behavior and risk in the southeastern United States. That work and his stormwater research share a common goal: understanding how human activity impacts the natural world.
His work offers an unexpectedly hopeful perspective on urban ecology, revealing how cities can create habitats that support native biodiversity. Rather than seeing cities as ecological dead zones, Ivory invites a rethinking of how urban design can coexist with — and even benefit — wildlife.