How Wild Animals Are Adopting to Our Cities
- 12 years ago
See these amazing cases of animals adapting to populated, urban cities.
Our cities are becoming homes for wild animals…and they are not living at the zoo.
Stan Gehrt, a professor at Ohio State University, has been studying and tracking a group of coyotes that have been living and thriving within Chicago.
He has watched them acclimate to the hustle and bustle of the City, even as far as to understand how traffic flows when crossing the street.
Since the research began, the team has caught and tagged around two hundred coyotes and estimates are that there could be several hundred, if not a couple of thousand, living in the Windy City.
Another interesting discovery that the research has revealed is that urban coyote packs are living longer than their country relatives. “A coyote living in urban Chicago has a 60-percent chance of surviving for one year, while a rural coyote has a 30 percent chance of living for another year.”
The reason may be that they do not have to travel far to find food and water, as all of those conveniences are readily available within the City.
Recently, in St Paul, Minnesota, a black bear was shot and killed by officers when it made its way into a populated community.
According to Gehrt, "Mountain lions are already living in the outskirts of Los Angeles, Denver, and other western cities.”
And mountain lions are not just being spotted out West. In October of 2012, a mountain lion was found near two schools in Des Moines, Iowa.
Could the large population of coyotes making their way into our urban areas be an indication of what may be coming to a city near you?
Our cities are becoming homes for wild animals…and they are not living at the zoo.
Stan Gehrt, a professor at Ohio State University, has been studying and tracking a group of coyotes that have been living and thriving within Chicago.
He has watched them acclimate to the hustle and bustle of the City, even as far as to understand how traffic flows when crossing the street.
Since the research began, the team has caught and tagged around two hundred coyotes and estimates are that there could be several hundred, if not a couple of thousand, living in the Windy City.
Another interesting discovery that the research has revealed is that urban coyote packs are living longer than their country relatives. “A coyote living in urban Chicago has a 60-percent chance of surviving for one year, while a rural coyote has a 30 percent chance of living for another year.”
The reason may be that they do not have to travel far to find food and water, as all of those conveniences are readily available within the City.
Recently, in St Paul, Minnesota, a black bear was shot and killed by officers when it made its way into a populated community.
According to Gehrt, "Mountain lions are already living in the outskirts of Los Angeles, Denver, and other western cities.”
And mountain lions are not just being spotted out West. In October of 2012, a mountain lion was found near two schools in Des Moines, Iowa.
Could the large population of coyotes making their way into our urban areas be an indication of what may be coming to a city near you?