However, thriving ecosystems exist within cities, demonstrating the crucial connection between urban environments and wilderness. CNN’s recent Call to Earth Day emphasized the significance of our shared home and explored interactions between urban dwellers and wildlife.
Key Points:
- Urban nature: Urban areas may seem distant from nature, but they often host thriving ecosystems and wildlife, showcasing the coexistence of cities and wilderness.
- West London’s beaver dam: West London recently welcomed its first beaver dam in 400 years, marking the successful reintroduction of beavers to the city’s outskirts. These industrious beavers can help prevent flooding after heavy rainfall.
- Wildlife challenges in cities: Cities can pose challenges for wildlife, such as Cape Town’s baboons, which rummage through garbage cans and face conflicts with humans as suburban areas encroach on their habitat.
- Baboons’ behavior: Baboons’ raiding behavior in Cape Town suburbs is driven by easy access to food from trash, leading to less time spent foraging and more time socializing. However, it exposes them to various risks, including contact with dogs, cars, and power lines.
- Proactive measures: Cape Town has initiated measures to keep baboons away from suburban areas and promote their natural hillside habitat.
- Intimate wildlife photography: Some photographers capture intimate views of wildlife in urban habitats, showcasing how animals adapt to human-dominated landscapes. These images provide a unique perspective on urban wildlife.
- Night-sky phenomena: Heightened solar activity allows for stunning natural displays like the northern lights and the rarer night-sky phenomenon known as Steve, characterized by a purple-pink arch and green vertical stripes.
- Planetary discovery: Astronomers have identified six planets orbiting a nearby sunlike star with stable orbits that haven’t changed for over 1 billion years. These sub-Neptune-sized planets in orbital resonance offer insights into planet formation.
- Living robots from human cells: Scientists have created tiny living robots from human cells, known as anthrobots, that can move in a lab dish. These human cell-based bots have unique characteristics and behavior.
- Trailblazing achievements: Dr. Mary Cleave, the first woman to fly on the space shuttle after the Challenger disaster, is celebrated for her pioneering contributions to space exploration. Oceanographers have also discovered an underwater mountain off Guatemala’s coast, while letters reveal the hidden cost of a 19th-century Tasmanian colonist’s scientific accomplishments.
- Fossilized footprints: Fossilized footprints suggest the existence of mystery animals with birdlike feet long before the earliest known avian species appeared, according to paleontologists.
In summary, the Call to Earth Day highlights the interconnectedness of urban environments and wilderness, showcasing the coexistence of wildlife and humans in cities and celebrating nature’s resilience in urban areas.