These books about urban wildlife, are designed to encourage you and your family to get outside and notice the friends that live on our doorsteps. Many animals have made inroads, simply because their own habitats have disappeared. For instance, foxes live naturally on rabbits and rats, but due to destroying farmland and using rat poisons, they have no natural food so come to urban areas. Also read how to help our urban birds. By the way, if you’re bothered by wildlife, see humane methods to deter critters.
GeoSafari Junior Binoculars are lightweight and comfy, with a wrap-around soft eye section that blocks out peripheral vision with ease. For 3 years plus. Don’t let children examine insects through a magnifying glass, it reflects the sun’s rays and kills them.
Wild City: Encounters with Urban Wildlife is a book for city dwellers; it’s time to meet your neighbours! The badgers of Bright’s most exclusive postcode. The Black Country bats who have found a haven in old industrial tunnels. The peregrine falcons nesting on the ledges of tower blocks. The mosquitoes found on the London Underground and further north, the water voles of Glasgow. This book by Florence Wilkinson takes us on a fascinating journey on why we should engage with our fellow urban species. Also presents a compelling manifesto for city wildlife, showing how to take action to protect the often-overlooked residents, who live alongside us.
Wild Cities is a beautifully illustrated book for children, detailing the wonderful wildlife in urban cities that exist. Meet astonishing animals from around the world who are adapting to our world: penguins in Cape Town, leopards in Mumbai and seals in Sydney. You’ll also meet wildlife friends in London, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Calgary, New York, Chicago, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and Seoul.
Wild City is a tour around the world to meet bats to opossums, who live alongside humans in busy cities – including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Stockholm, London, Alexandria, Singapore and Mumbai. Meet hawks by a shopping street, snakes slithering through city sewers and penguins, who wait patiently to cross the road!
Wild in the City journeys into the lives of 30 extraordinary creatures that share our cities: from foxes sneaking rides on London buses, to leopards prowling the backstreets of Mumbai. Crammed with buildings, traffic and people, urban spaces are the last place you’d expect to see wildlife. But all kinds of animals live alongside us in the hidden corners of our towns and cities – from teeny ants living under pavement cracks to pick-pocketing monkeys and spotted hyenas being fed by locals.
Nature Obscura is written by a woman in Seattle, USA. Kelly aims to help us rediscover our connection to the natural world just outside our front door, we just need to know where to look. She reveals the complex micro-habitats and surprising nature that exists in the middle of a city.
Crows are very intelligent birds, who famously live in the Tower of London. In the Far East, they have become so adept that if they want to crack a nut, they wait from above, for a car to pass by. They then drop the nut (so the car runs over it). Then fly down and fetch it!
Secret Life of the City is a book about how nature thrives in the urban wild. Here’s an informative whirlwind tour of urban species – from intelligent crows to backyard lichens – discover that you are surrounded by wild nature, even in your own backyard.
When biologist Hanna Bjørgaas spots a fairy cup lichen in Antarctica, she is surprised to recognise it, from her own backyard in Oslo. When she returns home, she visits city parks, cemeteries and concrete rooftops to investigate the species that live in urban spaces. She meets corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, fungi and linden trees. And the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive and thrive in the city.
She also discovers that urban nature (and its unique mix of species that have never lived together before in Earth’s history) is valuable. More than half the world’s human population live in densely populated areas – and plants and animals have followed us into cities. This book invites us to pay more attention to the sounds, sights and smells or urban nature, right outside our door. A treasure trove of fascinating flora and fauna – this wonderful book offers a plea to save our city plants, animals and fungi. Before we lose them too.
About the Author
Hanna Bjørgaas is a biologist who has worked in the Arctic and Antarctic, led field courses in Norway and worked with architects and artists, to help communicate the joy of nature to others. She writes on popular science, ecology and farming, and admits to feeling ‘a bit naked’ without a pair of binoculars!
Discover nature in urban places. Even if you live in a city, there is nature to be found and learned about. The Curious Nature Guide by American artist Clare Walker Leslie is a beautiful guide, to help you discover nature all around you. With dozens of simple prompts and exercises, step outside for just a few minutes a day, to reignite your sense of wonder of the natural world. Use your senses to notice the colours, sounds, smells and textures of the trees, plants, animals, birds, insects and clouds. Learn to identify cloud types and the weatehr they bring, or create a record of what you see each day.
Wild City takes us on a journey to find nature in human-engineered environments. This gorgeous lyrical book invites us to celebrate the natural world, a compelling manifesto for city wildlife, and how we might take action to protect the often-overlooked residents who live among us:
- The badgers of Brighton’s most exclusive postcode
- The water voles of Glasgow
- The Black Country bats who have found a haven in old industrial tunnels
- The peregrine falsons nesting on the ledges of tower blocks
- The mosquitoes found on the London Underground (and nowhere else on earth)
Urban Wild is a book of 52 ways, to find wildness on your doorstep. This practical book is crammed with 52 varied activities, illustrated with beautiful colour photographs. Get out and about, whatever the weather. Featuring a combination of creative, culinary, herbal and mindful activities, all have nature at their heart. You’ll be surprised how much wildness to find on your doorstep, if you know where to look. Organised by month, this book features seasonal activities that open the door to nature, in urban and suburban landscapes. Avoid essential oils and scented candles near young children and pets. If growing your own food, see make your garden safe for pets.
Take the first steps on a journey of discovery, towards a lifelong connection with our beautiful natural world. If you have an increasing workload, nervous tension or trouble sleeping – and wondering if there is more to life – this is not a mid-life crisis. You are feeling the call of the wild!
Helen Rook has worked to bring art and nature to people from all walks of life, for over 20 years. From forest therapy to urban herbalism and home spas, she uses her knowledge to use natural mindfulness, to help people cope with stress and trauma. She has a degree in psychology and is studying for a Masters in Positive Psychology.
