Toledo Magazine: Nature's majestic creatures are often closer than you think

Jun. 13—You might think of most wildlife as living somewhere remote or exotic, not in your own backyard or the park down the street.

You would be wrong.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates there are 1,000 species of wildlife in the state. As Blade staff photographer Jeremy Wadsworth discovered, man and beast are often closer than you might imagine in northwest Ohio — sometimes yards if not mere feet away.

As spring unfurls its seasonal cloak, we asked Jeremy to train his lens on the natural world around him, those creatures that crawl, skitter and soar during the day or scamper stealthily by night.

Creatures like shy foxes in the underbrush; a northern water snake slithering across tree branches; baby great horned owls crying for their next meal in the crook of a tree; even the jewel-like body of a spider weaving its web in a discarded tire.

We know there are deer hiding in plain sight, and rabbits, opossum and raccoons just waiting for twilight to make their rounds.

Sadly many of the wild animals that once called Ohio home are no longer here, including bison, wolves and mountain lions.

But many others remain to be discovered, sometimes in fleeting images of a white-tailed deer disappearing into a wooded grove, or a bald eagle soaring over the Maumee River.

The fact that we now lay claim to what was once their exclusive domain makes them no less noble, and surely no less worth protecting for future generations to enjoy.

Perhaps Shakespeare put it best when he wrote, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."