The Wild Nights in California!

Author Agnes Akin Atkinson and her daughters lived north of Pasadena, California, USA, on the edge of a canyon near a woods.  They yearned to watch the wild animals that came out to eat only during the night.  The family "wanted to get the animals accustomed to the new feeding table before frightening them away by using a light" (Befriending Nature's Children: An Experiment with Some of California's Wild Folk, National Geographic Magazine, February, 1932, p. 199.  One by one, the animals came to snatch bits of scrap table food, fruits, vegetables, and raw meat: skunks, foxes, raccoons, opossums, and others.

The family next gradually introduced a light over the food so they could watch their visitors as they sat inside their house with a large picture window.  They found that the animals stayed away during a full moon because the brightness "makes it more difficult for an animal to conceal itself" (p. 204).  A windy night would also prevent visitors from coming.

One night a male and female skunk brought five babies.  Another night a larger skunk came to eat the fruit laid out "but really prefers bits of broiled lamb-chop bones" (photo caption, p. 209).  The family photographed many of their skunk guests.

FYI: The possum spends much of his life in the trees and is "America's only marsupial," or pouched animal (photo caption, p. 211).

The eating habits of the family's visitors varied. The skunk and fox families were picky but the raccoons would eat anything and everything.  The animals must have spread word of the feast to their friends.  "Many evenings we have eight or nine grown foxes at our table" (p. 214).

All the animals except one learned to mostly tolerate the flash of the camera.  "Our most interesting visitor was a beautiful coyote, sleek and careful, each movement sheer grace" (p. 214).  They were afraid the flash would scare him away forever.  No other animals came when the coyote was present.

"All our animals are becoming tamer each year.  This five-year experiment is really only just commencing" (p. 215).  Wouldn't that be fun?  What a delightful article this is!