Urban Animals Work Hard to Adapt and We Must Be Kind to Them
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today / Animal Emotions
December 2020

An increasing number and diversity of animals "are coming home" during a period called "the Anthropause," and our new neighbors are likely to be around for a long time.

A neighborhood red fox and his family were frequent visitors to my mountain home - Marc Bekoff

Research shows 93% of behaviors are different from those of non-urban animals.

"Our results clearly demonstrate that mammals are responding to the urban environment by changing their behavior. Much less clear is what these changes mean in terms of urban mammalian diversity, survivability, management, and conservation." —Kate Ritzel and Travis Gallo

“That the universe is a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects is the central commitment of the Ecozoic. Existence itself is derived from and sustained by this intimacy of each being with every other being of the universe.” —Thomas Berry: Reflecting on Emotions, Heart and Conservation

Street-smart animals show fascinating adaptions for living in human environs

I've long been interested in how nonhuman animals (animals) who wind up in human environs change their behavior when compared with wild members of the same species (conspecifics). It's also known that their skulls change when they become urbanized. A recent video about urban raccoons called Are we making raccoons smarter? supports some of what I write here about how animals adapt to our presence....

 

Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE (PDF)

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