Urban beasts: how wild animals have moved into cities

In Aesop’s fable, the town mouse turns his nose up at his country cousin’s simple fare, preferring the haute cuisine to be scavenged in the city. It appears that the wild boar of Italy have taken note, and are venturing ever more boldly into Rome.

But they are not alone: all around the world, city life seems to be increasingly conducive to wildlife. Urban nature is no longer unglamorous feral pigeons or urban foxes. Wolves have taken up residence in parts of suburban Germany as densely populated as Cambridge or Newcastle. The highest density of peregrine falcons anywhere in the world is New York; the second highest is London, and these spectacular birds of prey now breed in almost every major British city. And all kinds of wild deer are rampaging through London, while also taking up residence everywhere from Nara in Japan to the Twin Cities of the US.

Are cities the new nature reserves? This isn’t as tenuous a question as it sounds. Some animals may be safer among urban populations, which are more sentimental about animals and more squeamish about killing them; they may also be safer because busy urbanites overlook the spectacular nature under their noses: Planet Earth II’s depiction of urban nature included memorable views of leopards quietly stalking past oblivious people in Mumbai. The mountain lions that live happily in the suburbs of Los Angeles are known as “ghost cats”.

We consider spectacular animals and big predators in cities to be interlopers but Guillaume Chapron, a large-carnivore researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, reminds us that, ultimately, it is we who are often the land-grabbers. “It’s not always the predator that comes to the cities, it’s the cities that come to them. We encroach on what was habitat for wildlife, so we are invading the bear’s habitat and building a city where the animals live.”

Urban ecology may be a burgeoning new discipline, but wild animals have always lived in cities. Birds and mammals ranged through the cities of ancient Egypt. These days, post-industrial landscapes are particularly hospitable to wildlife. The wolves that returned to Germany at the turn of the century first made their homes in former military zones still emptied of people, or in open-cast mining sites. Finnish hunters complain that resurgent wolves enjoy space and peace in the border zone with Russia. The demilitarised zone between North and South Korea is similarly rich in wildlife.

“Why are animals entering cities? It’s because they benefit,” says Chapron. “They can get food, or enjoy a higher survival rate.” In some cities in North America, deer enter to be safe from predators such as wolves in the landscape beyond it. Animals, says Chapron, are adept at interpreting urban landscapes; human movements – like rush hour – are very predictable. Animals such as London’s foxes can share the same space as humans but live on a rather different temporal plane.

Wolves may be totems of wilderness, but Chapron likens the wolf to its prey, the roe deer – anywhere the deer can live, the wolf can, too. “Wolves are not true wilderness animals. They are quite opportunistic, and if there is food and we don’t deliberately disturb them they will be fine.” Often, he says, countries repeat the same mistake with wolves: because it is decided that they cannot live peacefully alongside humans, the wolves are culled, but then, when urban areas have no wolves, it is said that the animals cannot survive there.

Whether humans and animals get along in cities depends on the social and cultural context, says Chapron. In Italy, the rubbish-munching wild boar (Rome’s mayor is struggling to arrange regular rubbish collection) are seen as a problem, a cause of tragedies such as an accident in March where a moped rider died after hitting a boar. In the Ethiopian city of Harar, however, the hyenas that prowl the streets after dark are performing “ecosystem services” by devouring street rubbish, as are the vultures that fly through Indian cities.

Wild animals are good for us too. A human world where 54% (and rising) of people are urban is losing its connection with nature. So an encounter with a wild animal can awaken, excite or inspire. In Los Angeles, P22, a mountain lion first detected on a trail camera beneath the Hollywood sign in 2012, has become a celebrity, a poster-cat for urban wildlife; 22 October is “P22 day” with special events celebrating his life – and urban wildlife. Inevitably for a Hollywood resident, he has starred in a documentary, The Cat That Changed America.

Wildlife in cities may be good for us, but it isn’t always good for the wildlife. P22 is marooned in Griffith Park – 8 sq miles compared to the preferred big cat territory of 200 sq miles – trapped by two of America’s busiest freeways. Vultures in India have been in precipitous decline. And cities may be growing less habitable, certainly in Britain, where nature-rich brownfield sites are being redeveloped and housing densities are increasing. A study recently found that urban butterfly abundance fell by 69% between 1995 and 2015, compared with a 45% decline in rural areas. If the smallest animals are suffering from the paving-over of gardens, an intensification of development, more pollution and the increasing impact of climate change, so will larger animals.

In the end, the mice’s metropolitan feast was rudely interrupted by savage dogs (a far bigger problem for urban humans than boar or wolves) and the country mouse scurried home, preferring to “gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear”. The wild boar of Rome may draw the same conclusion.

Urban wildlife

Wolves in Europe

This century, wolves have walked back into many densely populated countries including Germany, Denmark, Holland and Luxembourg, and have even been sighted close to Paris.

Peregrines in London

Thirty pairs of peregrines are breeding in London. They also nest in cities and towns including Manchester, Derby, Coventry, Chichester, Ipswich and Norwich.

Sika deer in Japan

Sika deer in the city of Nara are considered sacred according to the ancient Shinto religion, and are protected and fed by visiting tourists.

White-tailed deer in Minneapolis and Saint Paul

White-tailed deer seek comfort in the warm foundations of houses in winter and enjoy the ease of walking along snow-ploughed streets. The US deer population has boomed with its humans: the 500,000 white-tailed deer population of the early 20th century is 25m today.

Fallow deer in London

Muntjac deer are widespread in urban and suburban areas, even living in gardens. Roe deer live in cemeteries in Sheffield, while fallow deer graze on the lawns of housing estates in London

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