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Friday, October 5, 2012

Architecture The New Urban Wildlife

Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 8:28 AM

After the rats, squirrels, raccoons, pigeons, and crows, the synanthropy of lions, bears, and wolves. Science Daily:

About five miles from Chicago O'Hare International Airport, scientists have located the smallest known coyote territory ever observed. For at least six years, a coyote community has maintained its existence within about a third of a square mile

"That's an indication that they don't have to go far to find food and water. They're finding everything they need right there, in the suburbs of Chicago," said Stan Gehrt, an associate professor of environment and natural resources at Ohio State University who has led the tracking of coyotes around Chicago for 12 years. "It amazes me."

The reason for this? Cities are becoming bigger, and also wild animals are exploring a new niche. Anything we do, be it to our bodies or to our surroundings offers a new niche, new possibilities to some form of life. Life is the production and exploitation of niches.

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Tracking map from West Seattle Blog of all reported coyote sightings since 2007: http://www.zeemaps.com/pub?group=320731

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

on October 5, 2012 at 8:50 AM

Hell, even my old neighborhood when we lived in the NW apartments in Magnolia -- the most geographically isolated neighborhood in the city for wildlife besides Harbor Island -- had cougars, bears, and coyotes in the past couple years.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

on October 5, 2012 at 8:53 AM

These animals have been adapting and surviving for millions more years than we have. They will be here long after we've destroyed ourselves.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on October 5, 2012 at 9:08 AM

This line of thinking and accompanying anecdotes are often used as an excuse or justification of sprawl and over-consumptive expansion. We need to protect wild places and support conservation, not to embrace the "anthropocene" as just another "new possibilit[y] to some form of life."

Posted by environmentalistkilljoy on October 5, 2012 at 9:56 AM

I've got a wookie living in the back alley. Does that count?

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on October 5, 2012 at 10:21 AM

I spotted a coyote in the parking lot of my apartment complex on Kent East Hill earlier this year.

Here is a picture of it as seen from the windshield of my car:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/BQ…

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on October 5, 2012 at 10:41 AM

@6,

I'm pretty sure that's actually your cars hood ornament.

Posted by mikethehammer on October 5, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Yes, save the urban coyotes! They keep the stray cats in check.

What @3 said. I'm not very optimistic about the next few centuries for humanity (resource wars and population crash seem all too possible and nasty) but a million years from now, I think you'll see pretty much the same animal orders, and in most cases families, that we see today. Many species will come and go, regardless of humans.

We need to fight for the state of our great-grandchildren, not for "all life on earth." The hyperbole of killing the planet is ridiculous. We couldn't do it if we tried, although we could certainly make the place almost unrecognizable!

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on October 5, 2012 at 10:53 AM

I go down to Rainier Ave. if I want to see urban animals. Or 3rd & Pike.

Posted by Stranger'sWorstNightmare on October 5, 2012 at 12:40 PM