Abstract: Urban ecology is an ecology of conflict and coexistence. The urban environment provides unique challenges and opportunities for ecology. Species adapt to the urban environment and can enter into conflict with humans, while we have the ability to design our environments to improve relationships of coexistence. We can improve our understanding of urban ecology and urban-adapted species by using data that become available in the city. Using on species distributions developed from data on urban wildlife encounters in the City of Toronto, this paper explores the possibilities and limitations of extracting meaningful information about urban ecology from encounter data collected by wildlife control and by wildlife rescue organizations.