Friday, January 30, 2009

Toronto's Urban Wildlife

Toronto must have the most intelligent birds in the world! Enter Toronto's spacious, modern Greyhound bus terminal, and you will see ... pigeons, flying in and out of the motion-sensitive doors. The pigeons have discovered that, if they approach a door, it will slide open, from outdoors or in. So they are always entering and exiting the building - or flying overhead. I found it unnerving, sitting there, waiting for a bus, not knowing what may drop from the sky.

Similarly in a cozy coffee shop in the trendy Distillery area of town, sitting in an upstairs loft, enjoying a latte, I was suddenly aware of a bird flying around. I'm not sure how this small yellow creature got into this old warehouse. Fortunately it wasn't a flock of pigeons, only a small yellow bird.

The city is also full of raccoons, nocturnal visitors you usually only see when garbage is set out to be collected. There must be thousands of them living under decks and rooftop air conditioners - and occasionally in attics of homes.

Build a city on the edge of a forest... and the animals will come!

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