The assumptions we make about nature writing too often lead us to see it only as a literature about wilderness or rural areas. This anthology broadens our awareness of American nature writing by featuring the flora, fauna, geology, and climate that enrich and shape urban life. Set in neither pristine nor exotic environs, these stories and essays take us to rivers, parks, vacant lots, lakes, gardens, and zoos as they convey nature's rich disregard of city limits signs. With writings by women and men from cities in all regions of the country and from different ethnic traditions, the anthology reflects the geographic differences and multicultural makeup of our cities. Works by well-known and emerging contemporary writers are included as well as pieces from important twentieth-century urban nature writers. Since more than 80 percent of Americans now live in urban areas, we need to enlarge our environmental concerns to encompass urban nature. By focusing on urban nature writing, the selections in City Wilds can help develop a more inclusive environmental consciousness, one that includes both the nature we see on a day-to-day basis and how such nearby nature is viewed by writers from diverse cultural backgrounds.

An illustrated guide to 40 of the most well-known, surprising, notorious, mythical, and sublime non-human citizens of New York City, and love letter to its surprising ecological diversity. From refugee parrots and prodigal beavers to gorgeous Fifth Avenue hawks and vengeful groundhogs, Wild City tells the funny, quirky, and memorable stories of forty of New York City’s most surprising nonhuman citizens. This unconventional wildlife guide and concise environmental history of the Big Apple includes tales of the well-known, notorious, and legendary creatures who are as much New Yorkers as their human counterparts. A celebration of some of the city’s most surprising residents and a love letter to this always evolving metropolis, Wild City is an enchanting illustrated volume that is a must-have for every Big Apple devotee and animal lover.

Take an unforgettable tour around the world to meet the creatures that share our city spaces – from bears to bats, penguins to opossums – and learn about how they have adapted and thrived in this gorgeously illustrated gift book written by award-winning natural history journalist Ben Hoare. Wild City travels the globe, exploring how animals have adapted to live alongside humans, in busy cities including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Stockholm, London, Alexandria, Singapore and Mumbai. Discover hawks by a world-famous shopping street, snakes slithering through city sewers, and penguins waiting patiently to cross the road. Feature spreads take a closer look at the animals, showing how some wander in plain sight while others hide away in our homes, and we meet wildlife heroes from around the world – ordinary people doing extraordinary things to make our wild neighbours feel welcome. Lyrical and factual text written by the award-winning Ben Hoare is perfectly complemented by Lucy Rose's stunning illustrations. The beautiful cityscapes are full of detail with something new to discover with every look.

Discover the secret lives of more than 30 extraordinary creatures that share our cities. From red foxes sneaking rides on London buses to leopards prowling the backstreets of Mumbai, this book explores the clever ways animals have adapted to the urban environment and explains how you can help protect our wild neighbours. 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. Within these pages, you'll travel from city to city, across six different continents, meeting just some of these amazing animals. There are tips on where and when you might see them, what signs to look for and how you can help make our cities more nature-friendly places. You'll also see the conservation status of each animal, from those of least concern to species which are endangered. About Lonely Planet Kids: Lonely Planet Kids - an imprint of the world's leading travel authority Lonely Planet - published its first book in 2011. Over the past 45 years, Lonely Planet has grown a dedicated global community of travellers, many of whom are now sharing a passion for exploration with their children. Lonely Planet Kids educates and encourages young readers at home and in school to learn about the world with engaging books on culture, sociology, geography, nature, history, space and more. We want to inspire the next generation of global citizens and help kids and their parents to approach life in a way that makes every day an adventure. Come explore! Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Picture a city. What do you see? Traffic and towering buildings? Or maybe you imagine something a little . . . wilder? These are the astonishing stories of the animals who are adapting to live in our urban world - and how you can help them to thrive. From the pitter-patter of penguins in Cape Town, to the prowl of a leopard in Mumbai, the splash of a seal in Sydney, cities are home to all sorts of unexpected residents. Keep your eyes wide open as as we travel the globe discovering wild cities. With magical illustration and beautiful storytelling, these incredible stories will fascinate every reader who has the travel bug, or is an animal fan, or has ever wondered what else exists in our big cities. Featuring: London, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Calgary, New York City, Chicago, Sydney, Beijing, Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Cape Town and Seoul.

A hiking trail through majestic mountains. A raw, unpeopled wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see. These are the settings we associate with our most famous books about nature. But Gavin Van Horn isn’t most nature writers. He lives and works not in some perfectly remote cabin in the woods but in a city—a big city. And that city has offered him something even more valuable than solitude: a window onto the surprising attractiveness of cities to animals. What was once in his mind essentially a nature-free blank slate turns out to actually be a bustling place where millions of wild things roam. He came to realize that our own paths are crisscrossed by the tracks and flyways of endangered black-crowned night herons, Cooper’s hawks, brown bats, coyotes, opossums, white-tailed deer, and many others who thread their lives ably through our own. With The Way of Coyote, Gavin Van Horn reveals the stupendous diversity of species that can flourish in urban landscapes like Chicago. That isn’t to say city living is without its challenges. Chicago has been altered dramatically over a relatively short timespan—its soils covered by concrete, its wetlands drained and refilled, its river diverted and made to flow in the opposite direction. The stories in The Way of Coyote occasionally lament lost abundance, but they also point toward incredible adaptability and resilience, such as that displayed by beavers plying the waters of human-constructed canals or peregrine falcons raising their young atop towering skyscrapers. Van Horn populates his stories with a remarkable range of urban wildlife and probes the philosophical and religious dimensions of what it means to coexist, drawing frequently from the wisdom of three unconventional guides—wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold, Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, and the North American trickster figure Coyote. Ultimately, Van Horn sees vast potential for a more vibrant collective of ecological citizens as we take our cues from landscapes past and present. Part urban nature travelogue, part philosophical reflection on the role wildlife can play in waking us to a shared sense of place and fate, The Way of Coyote is a deeply personal journey that questions how we might best reconcile our own needs with the needs of other creatures in our shared urban habitats.

With over 85 maps and guides to natural sites, Wild in the City leads the reader, hiker, biker, birder, canoeist, naturalist and armchair enthusiast into the Portland/Vancouver area urban landscape. Essays by acclaimed Northwest writers give a new perspective on these intriguing greenspaces. Drawing on the rich offerings of the Audubon Society of Portland's Urban Naturalist, this engaging book takes readers to unique and surprising places in one of the nation's most livable cities.