While io9’s “10 Weirdest Urban Ecosystems on Earth” seems to stretch the topic of ecosystems into urban curiosities, Charlie Jane Anders features a few interesting tales of nature’s relentless effort to reclaim the land humankind has urbanized. From wild dogs adapting to the Moscow subway system to pollution-resistant microbes in the Gowanus canal, its a worthy read.
Anders on the 500 stray dogs adapting to life in Moscow’s Metro:
The dogs have developed a keen instinct for which Muscovites are likely to feed them and which ones to avoid — an important survival trait since one Moscow woman stabbed a Metro dog a few years ago. And instead of the strongest or fiercest dog being the Alpha dog of the Metro dog packs, the smartest one generally is, according to experts who’ve studied them. Not only that, but some of the Metro dogs have learned to ride the subway on their own, apparently recognizing stations based on the conductor calling out their names, plus sense of smell — and this lets them add multiple stations to their territories. They even have their own website. For other examples of weird urban animals, check out the baboon gangs of Cape Town and the coyotes of Los Angeles.
Stories like this conjure images from Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys in which bears, lions and wolves roam an abandoned Philadelphia (and presumably all the world’s cities). Or the History Channel series Life After People. Every time you see ivy crawling over an old building or pigeons nesting in the rail station, you are looking on the early battles of what would be a quick conquest of our cities by nature if our constant upkeep (pulling up weeds, laying down rodenticide, trimming branches around utility lines) did not retard it.
