Urban environments naturally train critical thinkers and observational experts who are the future of ecology
Since 1970 Earth Day has asked humanity to reflect on the benefits that come from nature and what actions we can take to promote environmental sustainability.
In my work as an applied ecologist, I travel the world studying the behaviors and interactions of carnivores for their conservation—literally lions, tigers and bears are all animals in my research. I bathe in rivers, sleep in tents, poop in holes, get charged by elephants, jump from helicopters, get stalked by mountain lions, hike 21 kilometers in a day and more for my fieldwork.
But what people sometimes miss is that the urban wildlife thriving with us, in and around our cities, is truly remarkable. Often these creatures exhibit a myriad of varied features and behaviors, compared with their rural counterparts: they are sometimes bigger, eat more diverse food sources, are active at different times of the day, move differently and have different personalities. Some argue they are even “smarter” than their rural counterparts.
Our interactions with nature are complex but ubiquitous, with exercise, gardening, bike rides, picnics, basketball games and family barbecues. Increasingly, reports of wildlife sightings are becoming normalized in the daily lives of urbanites and valued by biologists through public science programs such as the City Nature Challenge. Such encounters broaden not only our definition of what is urban but also who studies our environment.
Such heterogeneity in cities subconsciously plants seeds of appreciation for diversity, tolerance and empathy that can benefit the natural world. Biologists from cities operate in a boundary space between worlds that enhances connections and impacts among people. Inherent as we work, we serve as environmental advocates, translators, communicators and testaments of nature’s power.
We no longer have to travel “up yonder” to experience nature. For most of the world’s population, access to green and blue spaces, as well as exposure to wildlife, emerges right from our urban neighborhoods. Nature is no longer only pristine wilderness in distant, sparsely populated lands full of birdsongs but includes sounds of human laughter, trash trucks and sirens.
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