5 Cities Where Man And Nature Collide
By: Danny Kane
Tags: Environment, Cities, Nature, Culture, Society

5 Cities Where Man And Nature Collide

Bringing a little bit of wildness back into our most civilised spaces

New York City and last of the city’s green space, Central Park (by Jermaine Ee on Unsplash)

As cities continue to expand and our urban sprawl pushes further and further into what was once forests, fields and savannah, we are increasingly coming into conflict with nature. Many animals are turning this to their advantage and while some have roamed our cities for centuries, others are taking their first tentative steps into our cities. Sometimes the consequences are adorable, sometimes they can be deadly, but either way, these animals are changing how we interact with our world around us.

Leopards — Mumbai, India

A leopard spotted at night

Mumbai, India is one of the most densely populated areas on the plan, with a population density of 32,000 people per square kilometre. It’s home 19.75 million people and also at least 40 leopards.

Bordering the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the city of Mumbai has virtually no buffer zone between the urban sprawl and the park, and so the leopards, seeking an easy meal are known to venture into the city at night.

Lacking adequate trash infrastructure, waste piles up in the streets of Mumbai, attracting, among other things, stray dogs. There 30 million stray dogs in India and 95,000 in Mumbai alone and a sizeable minority of them carry the rabies virus.

The Leopards, however, are helping to combat both them and the virus. As the apex predator in this unique eco-system, the leopards hunt the dogs, viewing them as a far easier meal than the deer commonly found in the park. At least 40% of their diet is thought to be dogs, and it’s been speculated the around 1,500 dogs are required per year to sustain a leopard population of this size.

Each year they likely prevent 1,000 bites from stray dogs, preventing around 90 rabies cases in a country that’s one of the worst affected in the world by the rabies virus, thanks largely to its stray dog population.

While attacks on humans from the leopards are very rare, they do happen, often with fatal results. As Mumbai continues to expand, the risk will continue to increase, but efforts are being made to combat this. Initiatives aimed at educating people on how to stay safe in areas where there are known to be leopards have proven incredibly effective in reducing attacks and those leading the charge in leopards conservation are confident that with proper care, both humans and leopards can flourish.

Raccoons — Toronto, Canada

A raccoon in the city (by Den Trushtin on Unsplash)

Often referred to as the raccoon capital of the world, Toronto, Canada, has one of the highest raccoon populations in the world, with approximately one raccoon per twenty-nine people.

Famously intelligent and nimble-fingered, raccoons will eat just about anything. It wasn’t until 2002 that raccoons colonised Toronto in such numbers, when the city introduced organic trash bins, without too much consideration as to how the raccoons living in the forests on the outskirts of the city would view this new, easy food source.

Today the city still struggles with raccoons’ thanks in large part to how adaptable they are to city life. All attempts to control them and stop them stealing food have so far failed.

The Native Americans understood raccoons as clearly as we do today, with the word ‘raccoon’ coming from the Powhatan word ‘aroughcum’ meaning ‘animal that scratches with its hands. The Aztecs were a little more to the point, calling them ‘mapachitli’ which means, ‘one who takes everything with its hands’.

Hyenas — Harar, Ethiopia

The Hyena Man of Harar (by Gill Penny from Flickr)

For at least five hundred years, the people of Harar, Ethiopia have been feeding the Hyenas that live on the outskirts of the city in the caves of the Hakim Mountain. The hyenas make their home alongside the tombs of important religious leaders in the Islamic faith and the people of Harar came to view the hyenas there came to be seen as a symbol of luck. They feed them porridge, butter and goats meat and as long as the hyenas continue to eat, the city is said to have good fortune.

When not being fed porridge and meat annually though, they roam the garbage dumps of the city, eating anything and everything they can find. As one of Africa’s largest predators, they have a huge appetite, which may be what led one family to feed them scraps of raw meat.

Over the years, the hyenas have learned to come when called and for 40 years, one man fed a pack of them. He also trained his son to feed them, who’s famous today for feeding them from his mouth. He places a stick between his teeth with a piece of meat on the end for the hyenas to eat. He, in turn, is teaching his son to do the same, while his sister has also entered the family business of feeding hyenas.

The feeding of the Hyenas has become one of the city’s most famous tourist attractions, and adventurous explorers can even feed the Hyenas from their mouths themselves.

As Harar continues to grow, however, the family worries that these visitors may be pushed out and one of the most unlikely human-animal encounters with a rich history could come to an end.

Foxes — London, UK

Urban Fox — London

Over 10,000 foxes live in London, accounting for 14% of the UK’s total population. Highly adaptable creatures, who can eat just about anything, foxes found a natural home amidst the gloomy streets of London. Their diet differs from their country-dwelling cousins and they eat an even split of household trash and meat. Their favourite, and most beneficial food for us, appears to be rats and they’re noted as being a significant factor in keeping London’s rat population to a minimum.

There are as many as 18 foxes per square kilometre in London, which has led to them taking up residence in some interesting places. In 2011, while the UK’s tallest building, the Shard, was being constructed, a fox nicknamed Romeo took up residence on the 72nd floor.

Now the open-air viewing gallery and the highest accessible point to the public, Romeo survived by eating scraps left by the construction workers. Referred to, quite aptly as, ‘a resourceful little chap’, Romeo was later caught by animal rescue workers and was released onto the streets of Bermondsey in London.

Cats — Istanbul, Turkey

One of many cats of Istanbul

The history of cats in Istanbul goes back a long way. Originally, they came to the city as ships cats, which had been tasked with keeping the rat population down aboard ships during long sea voyages.

When the Ottoman Empire took Istanbul (then Constantinople) in 1453, they brought with them a unique perspective on the city’s feline inhabitants. Cats have a special place in Islam, with one reportedly saving Muhammed’s life from a snake. As a reward, he blessed all cats to always land on their feet. Another story tells of Muhammed cutting the sleeve of his robe so that the cat sleeping there would not be disturbed.

This love of cats translated into a deep respect and close bond with them in Istanbul, the new capital of the Ottoman Empire, and cat populations only continued to grow as the people there fed and cared for them.

Today the cats of Istanbul number at least 125,000 are famously affectionate and tame, despite largely being street cats. As a bonus, they keep rat populations in the city in check too, which in previous centuries meant a reduced number of cases of the plague.

Both the government and the residents, as well as tourists feed the huge population and as a result, Istanbul has become famous as a cat lovers paradise, with virtually nowhere in the city that the felines haven’t made their own, not even the famous Hagia Sofia, which has been home to a cat called Gli for 16 years.

Wild Cities

Ultimately, whatever the animal that roams out cities, we must learn to live with them. Cities are expanding at an unprecedented rate and for the wildlife whose homes we destroy to expand, there is often no choice but to move into our urban spaces.

By working with wildlife organisations and learning about the creatures we share our cities with, we may be able to bring a little bit of wildness back into our most civilised spaces.