Exploring Urban Jungles: City Adventures – A wild boar and its pigs forage in a park in Berlin, Germany, home to more than 3,000 of these rough-haired pigs.
In his new book, Tristan Donovan takes us to the front lines of people facing the rise of urban wildlife, from wild boars in Berlin to boa constrictors in Miami.
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A few miles from National Geographic headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., a coyote roams. But they weren’t here decades ago.
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The wise men of the plains have so successfully spread across the country that they are seen hanging out on the rooftops of New York City bars and sleeping in Chicago’s Soldier Field Stadium.
Thanks to a number of factors – suburbia’s food cornucopia, climate change expanding the range of species, and less hunting, to name a few – wildlife is increasingly urbanized around the world. (Get facts about suburban wildlife, too.)
And that means people in cities are grappling with how to live with their wildlife neighbors, whether it’s dealing with parrots in Brooklyn or monkeys in Cape Town.
In his new book, Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle, author Tristan Donovan brings us together with scientists, government officials, wildlife wranglers, and more to learn about—and live with—the new kids on the block. National Geographic caught up with Donovan recently to get more background on his book.
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I never did anything with my degree—until now. What got me thinking again was a media report about foxes in people’s homes in London. I grew up in London, and there didn’t seem to be many foxes around when I was a kid. It has reached new heights. Which got me thinking: What is going on, and is this happening everywhere?
A coyote climbed onto the roof of the L.I.C. Bar in Queens, New York, on March 31, 2015, then ran away from animal control officers.
You write about a variety of animals, from wild boars in Berlin to cockroaches in New York City. How do you narrow down what creatures to highlight?
I wanted to get a really big variety – it would have been easy to do mice, pigeons, and foxes and leave it at that [laughs]. But as I researched, I discovered: mountain lions living on the outskirts of Los Angeles, thousands of wild chickens roaming Miami, and more. I also think including urban bugs would be interesting because there are bugs in everyone’s house, and I’d also like to see what they do. (Learn more about wildlife in the backyard at Nat Geo Wild’s Urban Jungle.)
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People are a big part of the urban wildlife story, so seeing animals first-hand with animal control officers and researchers seemed like a good way to turn the subject around. Also I wanted to break away from the usual literary approach to writing nature and give the reader something that is entertaining as well as informative.
Snakes. Obviously I’ve seen snakes in zoos, but we don’t have many snakes in the U.K. The first time I saw a wild snake was tracking down a boa constrictor in Miami for a book. I think this moment, “This does not bother me in the glass cage, but what about the wild slithering around?” The snake also crawled out from under our feet, but it wasn’t as scary as I imagined. (Also see “Python ‘Nightmare’: New Giant Species Invading Florida.”)
Hearing about leopards in Mumbai is amazing. I spoke to researchers who study leopard activity in Indian cities for that chapter. I had assumed leopards wouldn’t go anywhere near cities because they are quite secretive and Indian cities are very busy. The most surprising thing is that people rarely see him. I also like coyotes – they are so resilient and adaptable, you won’t be impressed. In Chicago, for example, they have learned to cross busy streets safely and find unknown places even in the busiest areas.
Absolutely. Now when I walk around the cities, I see the wildlife, I see what the birds are doing. I am now more aware of the wildlife around me. I rarely saw it before. (See “Watch Raccoons Escape Trash Bins—Are Urban Animals Smarter?”)
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The wildlife is present in the city, and there are plenty of them, and they generally don’t cause any problems. We should appreciate it more – it’s great that our city is not dead and alive. Malaysia is considered a mega biodiverse country, but wildlife can be difficult to spot from the forest floor. Canopy roads, such as the one pictured in Sabah’s Bornean Danum Valley, are an unobtrusive way to get close to the action.
Steel structures and swing bridges built high above the rainforest offer tourists an undisturbed way to spot tapirs, tigers, and the notoriously shy primates.
“Green is a blind spot for most Malaysians,” says wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Ong. This means that the local people treat their forests and parks, not caring or even noticing that this green cover is decreasing.
But Ong saw. He spends all day in this forest, photographing primates and endemic birds for Project Monkey and for Eko-Eko, a movement that showcases Malaysia’s biodiversity, inspired by Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program.
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However, despite a 28 percent reduction in tree cover in the last two decades, with the magnificent primary rainforest giving way to commercial oil palm plantations, 54 percent of Malaysia’s land surface is still forested. It is also one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with an amazing variety of flora and fauna in its rainforests.
One way Malaysia tries to do this is through canopy walkways, open to the world high above the rainforest floor. They take the form of freestanding steel structures or swinging bridges built around hardwood dipterocarp tree trunks.
With more than a dozen trees running across the mainland and Kalimantan open to tourists—first built in 1968 for research purposes—Malaysia is a pioneer of canopy tourism in Asia. It is one of five countries selected by the Global Canopy program to focus on canopy science, demonstrating its value not only for ecotourism but also for species conservation and sustainable local community development.
Throughout peninsular Malaysia and the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, canopy walks have attracted domestic and foreign visitors to the rainforest. People do not have to go far from the city to find it: Treetop walks have been created even in the city of Kuala Lumpur as an entryway experience, such as in the KL Forest Eco Park and FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia).
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Experts say that canopy walks are popular because they provide an easy introduction to the rainforest ecosystem, without the fear of leeches, uneven ground, straggly roots, or even the unbearable moisture of the forest floor. “Ecotourism Light,” said Ong. More importantly, these streets open up an unseen and often lonely world to visitors.
Ong told how tourists who come to this forest complain that they cannot see monkeys, let alone tapirs and tigers. “The animals are shy and the forest is dense,” he said, “so walking through the canopy is a great way to see wildlife, even well-known primates like gibbons.” At the same time, they are good for the protection of species because they are not intrusive, allowing animals and birds to do their business.
The 360-degree viewing platform at Habitat Penang Hill gives visitors an unobstructed view of the Malaysian island rainforest.
Habitat at Langur Way Penang’s 755-foot-long Canopy Walk takes visitors more than 130 feet above the forest.
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Canopy champion and National Geographic Explorer Meg Lowman, who has helped create the Langur Way Canopy Walk in the Penang Hill Habitat, calls it a “life-changing experience.” He explained that the forest floor is often a dark and unpleasant tunnel with few animals, while in the treetops “everything is in action.”
“It offers a unique view of the forest that suddenly opens your eyes to a magical place,” he said.
Canopy walks in Malaysia have also successfully revealed hidden and previously undiscovered aspects of popular destinations. One of the star examples is the Rainforest Discovery Center (RDC) in Sepilok in Sabah. Previously, visitors tended to start and end their exploration of Sepilok Forest Reserve and Orangutan Sanctuary at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. But since the endemic Borneo bristlehead was first seen from the forest canopy walk, opened in 2010, the area has begun to attract birds from all over the world.
RDC now hosts the annual Borneo Bird Festival, and the canopy walk provides an incentive to spend an extra day (and night) in Sepilok, thus boosting the local economy.
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In peninsular Malaysia, Habitat can claim to have contributed to Penang Hill’s UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status. Lowman said that local tourists come to Habitat for the road, and “love what they can now see from the Penang Hill ecosystem.”
A group of people walk among the treetops at KL Forest Eco
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