tales from the wild metropolis
Terrier-boy transformed into a velociraptor before my very eyes! We were walking along, minding our own business, when a momentary ruffling of leaves on the side of the pavement captured Dash's attention and instinct took over... head periscopes right... ears swivel forward, nostrils flare... field of vision narrows, eyes become lasers... muscles tense into compressed... Continue Reading →
African elephants (Loxodonta africana) aren't usually considered an urban wildlife species but I'd come a long way and wanted to see them while I was in South Africa. The built environment just doesn't have the amenities Earth's largest living terrestrial mammal needs to feel at home. Africa's elephants prefer dense forests, woodlands, deserts, and even... Continue Reading →
Temperatures across the southern half of the U.S. are soaring into triple digits, so I was trying to think of creative solutions to beat the heat when it hit me—why not become cold-blooded! Alas, my brain must have overheated. Once air conditioning allowed a cooler head to prevail I realized that what seemed like a... Continue Reading →
Consider, if you will, the sartorial importance of tail attire. To bare, or not to bare… that is the question. The answer might seem to be of little consequence, but for marsupials living in cities and suburbs some strategically placed fur can make all the difference. That’s because naked tails make people nervous. I blame... Continue Reading →
Add another accomplishment to my resume as official wildlife guru and animal-vehicle biologist for NPR's Car Talk—the 14th most popular radio show on the U.S. airwaves and the 6th most popular if you exclude shows that feature a some kind of shock-jock (and that, I'm sure hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi would agree, is pretty... Continue Reading →
World War II had barely ended when researchers began to notice a major migration under way in North America, from undeveloped and agricultural areas to cities and suburbs. Now, in the early 21st Century, the urban population is over 20 times that of the early-1940s—in some places, more than 50% higher than the surrounding rural... Continue Reading →
Boy meets girl. It’s such a familiar story I probably don’t need to spell out the rest. Ah, but folks like stories to have a beginning, a middle, and an ending, don’t we? Ok, ok… so a male and a female find one another. They “meet-cute” (the classic contrivance of romantic comedies), or through the... Continue Reading →
Grab forty winks. Saw logs. For a species that’s habitually short on shut-eye, we humans sure have come up with myriad ways to talk about it. We also spend a lot of time and money studying sleep, or the lack thereof. Yet, in spite of decades of inquiry, researchers still don’t have a good fix... Continue Reading →
Next-Door Nature 