. bears, coyotes and foxes. the creatures that have popped up in back yards. today we'll discuss what's causing the wildlife surge and when there's reason for concern. sexual misconduct. when teachers target students. more and more often we hear about women as the predators. today we'll discuss the surprising reason. and voluntary pay hikes. some local businesses have begun boosting their hourly workers' paychecks. today we'll hear why they think paying more will improve the economy. good morning. i'm rosemary connors for "nbc 10! at issue." from bears in back yards to foxes in driveways, wildlife is creeping closer and closer to place we wouldn't expect, and

that has people concerned. a man was attacked in new jersey by a rabid coyote attack in morris county. police in montgomery county recently warned about this coyote hanging out in back yards. foxes have become common km din delaware county. it's also common to see them in philly. david is the director of conserved wildlife protection. thank you for being with us, david. >> thank you, rosemary. >> why very with started to see a surge in wildlife? >> it's really a combination of two factors. wi on one hand people are moving to areas that have long been wild areas, just natural areas where wildlife lived and thrived for many years. on the other hand, many of these species are becoming more habituated to sylizaticivilizat

it's important to remember while some can be a problem, it shouldn't be treated as such. in most cases, they're trying to avoid us as much as we're trying to avoid them. >> so as we sprawl out, we're seeing these animals come a little closer to us. they're afraid of us. >> typically for foxes and coyotes, they could live right in our neighborhood and we would have no idea most of the time. they really are experts at staying under the radar. that's why they're so adaptive and why they've spread out the country. on the other hand, if you are seeing a coyote or a fox in your yard over a period of time where it's hanging out there as opposed to seeing it trotting across the street, a late night drive like that, that's not anything to worry about, but if it's hanging out in your yard, it probably sees something that is appealing to it. it might be food left out, garbage, or if you have a pet, it's certainly something to be concerned about. >> i mean, i think people with pets are worried that their animals are going to be scooped

up by these predators lurking out there in the woods. is that a real concern? >> certainly if the coyote is hanging around your yard, it may mean it's sick or it may mean that it's scouting something out in your yard. in those cases it really is a concern, especially with a small dog or cat. one of the best ways to handle that is don't leave your cat outside overnight, and keep your small dog on a leash within sight and, you know, not out on its own if you're in that kind of area. it's certainly much more of a minimal risk in most parts of the region. but if you are in those kind of wild edges and you start to see sightings more and more often, you can certainly take care. >> you were saying by and large. really the encounters are friendly, to say the least. no problem there. but if it does become a problem, what do you do? who do you call? >> one of the best things to do is to call either animal control or the game commission,

depending on the kind of animal and where you're seeing it. at the very least, they can direct you on the right steps to take. in some cases, just simply realizing that my garbage was left out and that has become kind of an attractive nuisance. taking care of that will resolve the problem. if they're physically near you and kind of -- you're trying to walk out to your car and you don't feel safe, typically make a lot of noise and maybe bang a couple loud objects together. that will send them running. if it doesn't, it means almost certainly the animal is sick in some way and that's where animal control would need to take care of it. >> in some of these benign encounters, i'm sure you see people who decide maybe it's a good idea to feed the wildlife or get closer to them because they want to take that picture or get that video. >> those are the kind of things that often lead to those negative encounters or even attacks, and, you know, it's real important to remember a few things. number one, these are wild animals. they may look cute and cuddly

like a dog or a bear, it may look like your teddy bear, but they're wild animals. they're not pets, and you want to look but not touch. and a good rule of thumb -- and this could be whether it's in your yard or out in a park or forest somewhere. if you're getting close enough to the animal that they're reacting to your presence, it probably means you're too close. >> we should also point out to people that their presence is actually a good thing a lot of times because otherwise we might have more mice in our homes, daire i say it, and mosquitoes out there. >> our natural predators, wolves and mountain lions, were ex ten exterminated a long time ago. but they help keep these small

animals away, mice in particular. fox are good at keeping those away. one of the reasons the deer population has exploded is the absence of predators. while coyotes can help a little bit on kind of a young deer, it's still not enough deterrent on its own to keep those numbers down. but it certainly helps. when you're looking at small rodents, that can often be passed. insects are another great example of that. many people are very afraid of bats. and yet bats are, you know, despite their appearance and their sinister reputation, bats are one of our biggest friends in the wildlife world. for anyone who doesn't enjoy being bit by mosquitoes throughout the summer, a bat can eat 10,000 insects throughout the night. when you think of the number of bats out there, think of the number of insects they're

keeping from biting us or destroying our crops. millions and millions of dollars they are helping us through insect control. >> certainly more common to be bitten by a mosquito than a bat. >> similar to others, with a bat occasionally there will be an encounter, they want nothing to do with us when they do get trapped. if they're in a house somewhere, they're not trying to attack somebody, they're just trying to get out. >> we touched on bats, foxes. what about wild coyotes? >> they have expanded their population in the last few decades. they were seldom seen in the area but now they're pretty common. this is the kind of year where turkeys are out looking for their mates, so on the positive side you might be lucky enough to see the male turkeys doing

their courtship displays which brings to mind those thanksgiving pictures that we celebrated in the past, the big feather spread and the big healthy turkey. the negative is that they can be very aggressive, and as they kind of -- if they're walking through your neighborhood, they may kind of give you a start because they all run away immediately. >> i feel like we hear that more often than not. people describe that the wild turkeys are terrorizing their neighborhood. is that a fair description. >> it's fair, but it's important to remember that they're constantly moving. so unlike some other animals that could be problems, they're not going to camp out over days in your yard. most likely healthy turkeys will constantly be on the move because they're seeking mates or seeking food. >> what other kind of wild animals are we seeing pop up in places they haven't been historically? >> i think one of the most inspiring stories have been the

raptors in the sky, birds of prey. they were completely east of the mississippi decades ago. and yet we now have falcons at city hall in downtown philly. they've done that for a number of years now in a row. they also nest in some of the bridges between pennsylvania and new jersey. when you think about them coming back the way they have, in large part that was ddt, a chemical often used in u.s. agriculture had wiped out generations of falcons, bald eagles, ospreys and other birds of prey by weakening their eggshells. once we were able to restrict that kind of use through the dedication of many scientists. you have the peregrines in downtown philly. you have bald eagles. within an hour's drive of

philadelphia, you have the top five areas in the northeast. going down to delaware and susquehanna, you have no sense of wildlife in philadelphia. it's a remarkable story and it's only possible because people are helping that along in different ways with volunteers. >> really quickly, why is it so important to our ecosystem and our culture? >> that's a great question. in one case you have falcons who feed on pigeon and see many of the birds that can cause problems if there's too many of them downtown. in that sense they serve a very vital ecological mess with wildlife. falcons, bald eagles and ospreys, they're at the top of the food chain. without them you see other

things expand that are unhealthy. seeing this wildlife walking on your way to work or to school, a looking up and sig baeeing a ba eagle, that connection with nature is a big part that's missing, and that brings us back to what we were talking about early on. without that connection to wildlife, that encounter is something to be fearful of. while occasionally that can be the case, more often it's something we should treasure and celebrate and make the younger generation comfortable with that. >> david wheeler, thank you for your insight and the work that >> thank you very much. appreciate it. coming up, inappropriate relationships between teachers and students. next we'll discuss the surge in cases involving women and how social media could be behind it.

teachers preying on their students for sex. surprisingly it's not new but there is a surge in women teachers having inappropriate relationships with their students. ten years ago women teachers were accused in only about 40% with sexual misconduct with their students. lately they're in about 130% of cases. dr. welsh is with us today. thanks for being with us, dr. welsh. >> thank you. >> in terms of this surge in women predators, do we know why it's happening? >> we don't know exactly why. we do know there is research in the area and we're defining sexual assault differently and many are reporting being sexually abused by women

teachers as many as men teachers. there is more connection on facebook and direct contact with kids that didn't used to be there. it used to be you had contact with a parent outside the classroom, not with just the student. now there's a lot of friendships developing, so boundaries are being crossed, no question about it. >> and social media makes it easier to cross those boundaries. i suppose initially maybe the relationship seems to be nurturing or seems to be not predatory. >> exactly, particularly with women. you think of men as being aggressive if they're going to come on to you sexually. with women not necessarily aggressive. but also with women and other young women there is more and young boys are reporting they are either embarrassed or humiliated into engaging in behaviors that are not entirely voluntary, that they're belittled or they brag about having a relationship with

teachers older than you are. it's kind of a brag if you report that your teacher is interested in you, so those things are being talked about more frequently, seen on the news and openly discussed. i think what's really important is how we deal with our children around this issue, how we prepare them. >> speaking of which, what kind of responsibility and role do the schools have, what kind of role do parents play in this? >> i think parents have a huge responsibility in this because i don't think it's too young to start educating your children about boundary issues in their own body. we used to say, you want to kiss aunt mary, you want to give grandma a hug. but children have the right to be comfortable in their own body, and i think we instill in that from the age of three on to be able to say, you can hug, you can handshake, or you can high five. you don't necessarily have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. so you use language that's appropriate for kids but you don't need to feel uncomfortable if your extended family member, for instance, isn't getting the kind of response or affection that they look for.

because you want to teach them, whether it be family, friends or strangers, that their bodies are their bodies and they have a right to be comfortable in their body. so all ages, it's important to actually respect that, teach kids respect for their bodies. >> there also seems to be some guidance and instruction that's needed as it relates to the child's interaction with social media. >> absolutely. we have to be very aware. first of all, they're seeing a lot of television shows about celebrities, about politicians engaging in sexual activity outside of the normal, you know, routine relationship. so that i think they're exposed to it much more heavily on television. but then i think they have to be monitored in terms of what's going on on facebook. i'm all for having access to kids' facebook pages or whatever other social media sites they're using, and that that being part of the communication that goes on in the household. >> in terms of the school, what kind of role do they play as it

relates to accountability and responsibility? >> i think they have a requirement to discuss it in classrooms, to have courses which talk about protecting yourself, being able to communicate openly if you're uncomfortable about a situation, feeling safe enough to have a person to report to if something made you uncomfortable or someone has made you uncomfortable in a situation, set up safe rooms, peer counseling centers, peer school counselors which i'm concerned are not available enough for that kind of discussion, so schools have a big responsibility since there's so much of the child's activity that takes place there. >> it seems with the schools, you're sort of caught between a rock and a hard place as it relates to social media facebook. as we know, teachers are communicating with their teachers more, it's helping them more as it relates to their education, homework, they can talk them through problems at nighttime, whatever, but obviously you don't want it to cross the line or be this vehicle for this kind of behavior. >> exactly.

that's why it's important for kids starting early to talk about what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable in situations like that. it's comfortable to share, you know, school problems with your teacher. is it comfortable to discuss personal issues? probably not. >> and being clear that it's not just men who may be the predators, it's women, too. >> yes. traditionally we've always warned them against men and strangers as being the problem, and you never really recognize that women can be a problem as well for other youngsters, male and female, because the women are seen as the nurturers and men as the aggressors. but we need to change that as we go on in the world. >> thank you for being here. coming up on "nbc 10! at issue," minimum wage is not being raised, so some local businesses are taking matters into their own hands. we'll discuss that next. ♪ we buy any car dot com ♪

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local businesses have pledged to boost their workers' wages, not because they're being forced to by any new legislation. instead it's a voluntary move in response to what they call inaction on the minimum wage. joining me now are ken winestein, part of the minimum wage for small businesses voluntarily upping their employees' pay and we should note that you're owner of charlie's diner and charlie's cart cafe. why do this? you want to bring it up to $11 by 2020. >> we're tired of waiting for government to do this across the board and raise the minimum wage for all businesses, so we've started this voluntary program where we're asking businesses to do it voluntarily and incrementally over time. >> so it means less money for you, more money for you. tell us what the difference has been. you're up to $8 now? >> yeah, i'm up to $8. i work, like you said, at the

telecart cafe. i can work fewer jobs. i'm a full-time student. i can focus more on my studies and i feel more comfortable staying where i'm employed longer. >> ken, you've said you're tired of waiting on the government to come up with legislation. why do this? does this mean happier employees, a happier employer? >> it's really two major reasons. one is it's the right thing to do because employees should be paid enough so that they don't have to live in a poverty level. and secondly, it's really good for small businesses, and we're spreading that word and we really believe that paying more over time means that there will be less turnover leading to lower training costs, and also by putting money -- more money into the pockets of our employees, they will then have money to spend at nearby businesses which helps all of

us. >> you believe this is an investment for your business but also other businesses. >> very much. very much. and people are already agreeing with us on this. >> katherine, what are your friends and coworkers saying about this? >> oh, everyone is very enthusiastic about this. across the board who i've spoken to who are employees of businesses like ken's, very enthusiastic. it's something we all feel like we've been waiting for. like ken mentioned, we shouldn't have to be below the poverty line if we work full-time or we work a certain number of hours. i feel a sense of relief being inspired by more federal efforts on this front, definitely. >> do you see more small businesses in the philadelphia region following this movement and joining in? >> yeah, we just started this last month, and we already have 30 small businesses on board. and our goal for the year is to get a thousand businesses on board affecting 10,000 (j we're heading there. >> critics, of course, counter that higher wages will lead to

layoffs. how do you respond to that? >> yeah, we just don't see that. we see -- so far at trolley car diner and trolley car cafe, as an example, we see businesses coming in that want to support their values. >> so $11 and $11.20 is what you're hoping to reach minimum wage. do you see the government making that happen? >> we really don't see it and that's why we decided to act now. >> thank you both for being with us. 

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that's it for this edition of "nbc 10! at issue." thanks for joining us. let us know what issues you think we should be covering. you can call us at 610-668-5738 or find us on twitter @n brks

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nbc sports home of the olympic games. the nhl. premier league. the nascar playoffs. and prime-time's number one show, "sunday night football." only on nbc. game three of a five-game home stand for the dallas stars, who look for their first three-game winning streak since december. tyler seguin leads the way for the stars with 59 points. he'll face his former team, and david pastrnak, who's been heating up once again for boston, eleven points in the last eight games.