Unexpected Neighbors
In a suburb in the Pacific Northwest, Justin ties his shoes for his morning run and steps out at dawn.
As he walks off his front step, he spots some racoons crossing the street.
Up in a tree, he sees a family of squirrels.
Birds begin to sing, and he enjoys the beauty of his neighborhood.
While running, a dangerous sight interrupts the idyllic scene.
A coyote watches as a black bear searches through a garbage bin for food.
Justin is surprised at his neighborhood transforming into a place full of wildlife encounters.
Why Animals Migrate to Cities
In 2019, it was estimated that more than 1.5 million squirrels were living in Chicago and approximately 10,000 foxes in London.
In Seoul, 155 wild boars were captured in 2022.
Why are there so many animals in big cities?
One reason is that many cities are built on biologically fertile and productive land areas, which are attractive not only to humans but to other creatures as well.
Another reason is due to urban areas becoming greener, inviting more wild animals.
Cities have begun building more gardens, parks, and legally protected areas for educational, recreational, or other purposes, attracting more wild creatures.
In addition, for some animal species, cities have become a perfect place for feeding, mating, and nesting.
Peregrine falcons, for example, use tall buildings for nesting sites, man-made lighting to hunt for prey at night, and warm urban air currents to soar easily.
Cities have become home, sweet home, not only to humans but to wild animals.
To some, living among animals might sound idyllic, but to others, wild animals near residential areas, especially those predators high up in the food chain, can be an annoyance and a threat.
What could be an optimal approach to dealing with these new neighbors?
Is there a solution for humans and animals to live together peacefully in their shared habitat?
A Careless Solution: Failure in Coyote Control
In 1981, tragic news shocked Los Angeles residents.
A three-year-old girl was attacked and killed by a coyote in front of her home.
People were outraged and immediately took action to remove the species from their neighborhoods.
They killed a total of 55 coyotes over a period of 80 days.
Scientists, however, questioned such a destructive control method, as coyotes are highly adaptive and breed quickly.
A study showed that a simulated coyote population survived indefinitely when 70% were killed annually.
This means that killing even most of the coyotes in a population will have no significant effect.
In coyote packs, a dominant adult pair maintains a strict structure that prevents others from breeding and controls the population.
Destructive control methods often disrupt this social structure, resulting in increased populations.
Moreover, completely eliminating the species using a control method could cause other issues such as over-population of rodents and other small prey.
Clearly, it is difficult to predict how nature will balance itself out when humans attempt to control.
A Peaceful Approach: Lions in Nairobi
Nairobi, Kenya is unique because it is the world’s only capital with a national park, which attracts many international tourists with wild lions and other beasts against the backdrop of tall buildings in its urban center.
Living near the park, a thirteen-year-old boy named Richard Turere was responsible for keeping his family’s cattle safe from lions that often came out of the park at night to hunt.
Many neighbors had lost their cows, and others their goats and sheep.
While rounding up his cattle one night, Richard discovered that lions were scared of moving lights and didn’t come near the cattle enclosure when he walked around carrying a flashlight.
Soon, he fastened flashing LED bulbs onto poles around the enclosure facing the outside and connected them to an old car battery powered by a solar panel.
He devised the lights to flicker on and off from time to time.
It worked perfectly.
After he installed his first “lion lights,” he never spotted lions again, and his family didn’t lose any cattle to them.
Neighbors followed suit, protecting their valuable source of income without killing the unwanted neighbors.
This is an example of a keen observation on animal behavior leading to a creative approach that brought peace and harmony.
Balance and Harmony: A Key to Co-Existence
Coyotes and racoons cause conflicts with residents in many towns in North America.
Elephants damage crops and property in Africa.
Wild boars destroy agricultural fields in Asia and Europe.
The idea that wild animals are annoyances or threats that need to be eliminated is common in many parts of the world.
However, often, unintended consequences occur because of this attitude.
A balanced approach is needed, particularly between human safety and the wellbeing of the animals, which can be found when we grasp a proper understanding of their behavior as well as their role in their natural habitat.
After all, we should acknowledge the fact that both humans and animals are temporary tenants of this precious planet.
Neither is less valuable nor more valuable than the other.
Maintaining balance and harmony among all living species is the only choice.