Menno Schilthuizen is studying how our manmade environments
are accelerating and changing the evolution of the animals and plants around us.
“With human populations growing, we’re having an increasing
impact on global ecosystems, and nowhere do these impacts overlap as much as
they do in cities. The urban environment is about as extreme as it gets, and
the wild animals and plants that live side-by-side with us need to adapt to a
whole suite of challenging conditions: they must manage in the city’s hotter
climate (the “urban heat island”); they need to be able to live either in the
semi-desert of the tall, rocky, and cavernous structures we call buildings or
in the pocket-like oases of city parks (which pose their own dangers, including
smog and free-ranging dogs and cats); traffic causes continuous noise, a mist
of fine dust particles, and barriers to movement for any animal that cannot fly
or burrow; food sources are mainly human-derived." And yet, as Schilthuizen
shows, the wildlife sharing these spaces with us is not just surviving, but
evolving ways of thriving. As example:
*Carrion crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have learned
to use passing traffic to crack nuts.
*Lizards in Puerto Rico are evolving feet that better grip surfaces like
concrete.
*Europe’s urban blackbirds sing at a higher pitch than their rural
cousins, to be heard over the din of traffic.
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