Wildlife complaints in Ottawa by neighbourhood, 2019–2025 (City 311 data)

Updated 2026-09-16

What seven years of City of Ottawa 311 records show about wildlife calls by ward and by month, what the City does and does not log, and what it means for homeowners in the busiest wards.

What the City's 311 data actually counts

Between January 2019 and December 2025, Ottawa residents made 4,198 wildlife requests to 311 that the City filed under a wildlife heading. Of those, 3,915 were about coyotes, 218 were about bats and 65 were about wildlife at stormwater ponds.

The files contain no category for raccoons, squirrels, skunks or an animal in the attic, and a search of every request description for those words found none. That is not because Ottawa has few of them. The City does not remove wildlife from private property, so those calls go to private companies and never reach these records. Read the numbers below as a map of where people notice and report wildlife, not as a count of every animal problem in the city.

Yearly totals rose from 253 in 2019 to 795 in 2022, then held between 679 and 754 a year from 2023 to 2025.

The 12 wards with the most wildlife reports since the 2022 ward change

College, Knoxdale-Merivale and River lead, with 188, 188 and 179 reports. Together they account for 24% of the 2,270 wildlife reports placed on the new ward map. Measured against households, Knoxdale-Merivale stands out at 11.4 reports per 1,000 households.

Most of the list is suburban or backs onto large green space: the Greenbelt, the Rideau River corridor, and the newer edges of Kanata, Orléans, Riverside South and Barrhaven. The central wards sit near the bottom: Rideau-Vanier had 16 reports, Kitchissippi 24 and Somerset 28.

Wildlife 311 reports by ward, 15 November 2022 to 31 December 2025 (new ward boundaries)
Rank	Ward	2023	2024	2025	Total since 15 Nov 2022	Per 1,000 households (approx.)
1	College (Ward 8)	54	76	50	188	8.4
2	Knoxdale-Merivale (Ward 9)	72	55	43	188	11.4
3	River (Ward 16)	70	60	27	179	8.4
4	Kanata South (Ward 23)	69	33	44	163	8.6
5	Kanata North (Ward 4)	39	21	81	151	9.4
6	Orléans South-Navan (Ward 19)	46	22	75	144	n/a (redrawn)
7	Riverside South-Findlay Creek (Ward 22)	26	62	41	136	n/a (redrawn)
8	Alta Vista (Ward 18)	40	59	28	134	6.7
9	Barrhaven West (Ward 3)	60	17	38	119	n/a (redrawn)
10	Orléans West-Innes (Ward 2)	29	23	39	92	n/a (redrawn)
11	Gloucester-Southgate (Ward 10)	28	26	30	89	4.6
12	Barrhaven East (Ward 24)	41	27	11	86	n/a (redrawn)

Before the ward change: 2019 to 2022

On the old ward map, from January 2019 to 14 November 2022, River ward had the most wildlife reports by a wide margin with 286, or 13.4 per 1,000 households. Gloucester-South Nepean followed with 147 and Knoxdale-Merivale with 133. River ward alone logged 179 of those in 2022. The single busiest month in the whole period was June 2020, with 149 reports across the city.

When the calls come in

Wildlife reports peak in the cold months. November (460), January (445), December (440) and February (411) together hold 42% of all reports, and April is the quietest month with 202. That pattern comes from coyotes, which are easier to see in winter and more active during their mating season. Bat reports run the other way: June to August holds half of them, and August alone has 55 of the 218.

What it means if you live in one of the top wards

A high count is a sign that animals move through the area and that neighbours notice them. Coyotes that find easy food come back, and the same food draws raccoons and skunks. Keep garbage and green bins closed and inside until collection morning, feed pets indoors, pick up fallen fruit and birdseed, and close gaps under decks and sheds before late fall.

Raccoons, squirrels and bats in a house are a private matter in Ottawa, and they are not in this data. If you hear scratching in the attic, or find a bat in a living space, check the roof line, vents and soffits for gaps. Book an inspection before sealing anything, so no animal is shut inside. For bats in summer, plan exclusion for late August or later, once young bats can fly.

Method

The source is the City of Ottawa 311 service request files on Open Ottawa, one file per year for 2019 to 2025, downloaded on 16 September 2026, with ward names from the Wards 2022-2026 layer and household counts from the City's mid-2021 population and household estimates by ward. The files hold 2,275,101 requests in total (2019: 356,715, 2020: 297,644, 2021: 299,245, 2022: 308,925, 2023: 321,193, 2024: 319,310, 2025: 372,069). 2 rows were skipped as malformed (one in 2024 and one in 2025, each an address with an unquoted comma that shifted the columns; neither was a topic covered here).

A request counts as wildlife when its type or description contains "coyote", "Animals - Bat" ("Bat" under Animals before 2023), or "Stormwater Management" with "Wildlife". Left out: Injured Animal (the City files pets and wild animals together there, so they cannot be separated), dead animal pickup, dog and cat by-law calls, beaver dams, and animals in sewers. Rats, bees and wasps are counted separately and are not included here. 85 wildlife requests had no ward and appear only in the city totals.

Ward boundaries changed when the new council term began on 15 November 2022. Requests before that date are counted on the old 23 wards, and requests from that date on are counted on the new 24 wards; the 2022 figures in the new-ward table cover 15 November to 31 December only. The household estimates are on the old boundaries, so the rate per 1,000 households is exact for the old wards and only approximate for new wards that kept their number and name. Wards 1, 2, 3, 19, 21, 22 and 24 were redrawn or renamed, so they get no rate.