Beasts in the City

Synopsis

You thought they were far away, in the wild. You’re wrong. They’re here. The urban invaders!

We created the cityscapes, brought human culture to nature, but there’s no way we can keep ‘them’ out. Wildlife is infiltrating our cities!

They glide through our urban jungles, nest on our balcony and feel quite at home in our backyards. Many wild animals not only tolerate the presence of humans; they’re even drawn to us, attracted by our habits. No matter if they move about on legs or wings – raccoons, parrots, giraffes and many, many more have learned to adapt to, or at least ignore, the presence of humans with remarkable ingenuity.

White-tailed deer enjoy living in the backyards of New York state residents’ homes. Hardly any fence is too high for a deer to leap over and into the next colourful flowerbed for a feast of plants, fruits and leaves. An added bonus, they’re safe from hunters. But traffic may spell doom for the white-tailed deer that has become too comfortable in the neighbourhood…

Some have learned how to deal with busy roads. Cliff swallows have traded ancestral homes for modern real estate – highway bridges and overpasses. Here they’re safe from predators but it’s still a dangerous place to live and rear young. Thanks to evolution the swallow road toll is dropping. Over generations, the mortal threat of speeding cars may have shortened their wings. Short wings let the swallows take off quickly, manoeuver through traffic and zip out of harm’s way!

Parrots are among our planet’s most clever and adaptable birds – and they love our cities! Stuttgart, Barcelona or Sydney; these intelligent birds thrive in our company, our cities’ ambience and its amenities. They nest in our parks and gardens. They enjoy the warmth of wind-protected niches and crevices and feast on delicacies presented by bird-loving city residents.

What would life be like in your city without these most unexpected encounters – a red squirrel nesting in the bird feeder, a duck on the balcony or a hedgehog at the cat food dish? Big and small, mammal, insect or bird – our cities and gardens provide the perfect environment for urban wildlife to thrive and to bring humans closer to nature.

Produced by Terra Mater Factual Studios