In a new book, Peter Alagona examines how wild animals returned to urban habitats, and why coexistence is critical
nimals that do well in cities do things that, in a lot of ways, resemble what people do.” Peter Alagona, author of The Accidental Ecosystem – a new book about how wildlife make habitats out of cities – is talking about one of his favorite creatures: bears. He’s explaining how, in part, they thrive in our cities because they resemble us so well. “I love bears – they’re intelligent, they rear their young, they learn, they have culture. They’re a lot like us.
One of the problems with this way of thinking of things is that, while nature has come to us, we’ve been slow in accepting this; consequently, we haven’t yet updated our urban practices and cultural beliefs to better align with the fact that these animals are here to stay. “Although wildlife has declined around the world dramatically,” said Alagona, “more people are living closer to wildlife than ever before.
When Europeans originally came to the Americas, they chose to situate their settlements on remarkably biodiverse areas. In order to build cities, they wiped out much of this biodiversity, then created settlements that were rich in domesticated animals under the control of humans. Biodiversity continued to decline as cities morphed into enormous urban centers around the turn of the 20th century, becoming more de-populated of wild animals then ever.
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