City life gone wild

City life gone wild


As city life and wildlife creep closer together, boundaries are blurring in some surprising ways.

Wild animals closing in on urban environments take advantage of the new landscape by raiding trash or preying on smaller critters doing the same. Either way, wild freeloaders are chunking up compared to their rural relatives. For many, the ample resources and virtual lack of predation translate into longer lifespans.

When wild animals associate people with food, they become more daring, which can result in harrowing animal-human encounters. Some animals even learn to negotiate traffic in order to reap the benefits of urban living.

Other wild city dwellers have gone the other way, altering their schedules to maximize feeding and minimize human contact.

Time will show how these wild adaptations play out.

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