Original subtitles

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: In the last 6,000 years

the surface of our planet has undergone a sudden change.

A new habitat has appeared,

entirely designed and constructed by one species for its own purpose.

This man-made landscape may seem alien to animal life

but for the bold, this is a world of surprising opportunity.

Jodhpur, India.

(LANGUR CALLS)

A gang of bachelor male langurs

has come to challenge the resident alpha male.

(GROWLS)

(CALLS)

This alpha rules over a valuable urban territory.

(DOGS BARKING IN DISTANCE)

But maintaining dominance here is a constant struggle.

The bachelors have united to try and overthrow him.

(LANGURS GRUNTING)

If they win, one of the challengers

will take over the alpha's troop of females,

and may kill his infants.

There are 15 males in this bachelor group.

The alpha must evict every single one of them from his territory.

He has chased half the bachelors away,

but a splinter group has looped back and is harassing his females.

(LANGURS SNARLING)

(HOOTS)

Once again, he has to battle.

(LANGURS BARKING)

(BARKS)

Finally, he manages to expel them all.

He returns home victorious,

but with a serious wound on his right leg.

It's a hard life for him in the city.

Keeping the intruders away is a daily challenge.

But it's worth it.

For these urban territories

are probably the best langur territories in the world.

They're filled with rich feeding grounds.

(BIRDS CAWING)

Here in the temple gardens,

the langurs have, over centuries, developed a surprising relationship.

One that guarantees them a constantly replenished source of food.

(BIRDS CALLING)

The people here associate langurs with the Hindu God, Lord Hanuman,

and revere them.

They're given all the food they can eat.

And this high-energy diet has led to a baby boom.

Female langurs in this city

give birth to twice as many young as their forest counterparts.

This mother is so well fed that her rich milk

can support something rarely seen in the wild.

Twins.

And all these babies can create troops

that are far larger than those found in the forests nearby.

With less time spent looking for food, there is more time for play.

(LANGURS SQUEALING)

The rewards of living in a city can be huge.

The challenge is to find your niche.

But how to create a home in a world that wasn't designed for wildlife?

It's far brighter, louder and busier than anywhere in the natural world.

The continuous traffic creates barriers to animal movement.

And in this decade, the urban environment

is predicted to grow by nearly 30%.

What's more, to come here,

animals have to compete with the world's top predator.

People makes the rules here.

Four billion human beings now live in the urban environment.

It's here that animals have to contend with the greatest change

that is happening to the face our planet.

So why would any animal want to come here?

(SIREN WAILING)

New York City.

(HORNS HONKING)

This densely built-up landscape is as unnatural as anywhere on Earth.

(BRAKES SCREECHING)

And yet, this wild peregrine falcon looks out onto an ideal habitat.

Strange as it may seem, this vastly-altered landscape

replicates the conditions in which peregrines evolved.

The towering buildings have a multitude of ledges

on which falcons can nest,

and the high perches that they need to catch the wind.

(FALCONS SCREECHING)

New York City has the highest density

of nesting peregrines anywhere on the planet.

Winds striking the sides of the skyscrapers

are deflected upwards and can help the birds gain height.

And the great areas of concrete roasting in the sun create thermals,

so that, with very little effort, the birds can soar over the city.

And so many peregrines can live here,

because down at street level, there is a lot of potential prey.

(PIGEONS CHIRPING)

Diving from height, the falcons can reach speeds

of over 300 kilometres an hour.

But their prey stay down low and close to the buildings.

Too risky.

The peregrine pulls out of his stoop.

But the effort is not wasted.

The falcons need to flush their prey into the open.

And Manhattan is surrounded by water.

Out here the odds change.

And in the peregrine's favour.

(CHURCH BELL TOLLING)

With abundant prey here all year round,

it has taken only 40 years

for these falcons to establish themselves here.

And now, among skyscrapers, they're more successful

than their cousins living in the wilderness.

Mumbai, in India, is home to over 20 million people.

And there are predators here

that, though rarely seen, are rightly feared.

Carnivores,

lured by the prospect of plentiful unsuspecting prey

are on the prowl.

(DOG BARKING)

- (SNARLING) - A leopard.

Every night, under the cover of darkness they come out to hunt.

(MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKERS)

These are big animals,

and they're looking for large prey to satisfy their hunger.

To catch more than a glimpse of them and reveal their hunting behaviour,

you need night-vision cameras.

- (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - (HORNS HONKING IN THE DISTANCE)

Leopards have attacked almost 200 people here

in the last 25 years.

But humans are not their usual prey.

These leopards are on the hunt for something else.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

(SNORTING)

Pigs.

These leopards prefer to hunt the domestic animals

that people have brought to the city in considerable numbers.

(SNORTING)

The pigs keep their family close.

(PIG SQUEALING)

(PIGLET SQUEALING)

The ceaseless noise of the city plays to their advantage.

It conceals their approach.

And the leopards are using this cover to hunt all over the city.

(PIGS SQUEALING)

This is a thriving population.

In fact, the highest concentration of leopards in the world

is right here.

(CHURCH BELLS TOLLING)

It's not only the abundance of food that attracts wild animals to cities.

They're usually several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside.

And here in Rome, in December,

one animal is taking full advantage of this extra heat.

And it's leaving it's mark.

In a single winter's day,

ten tonnes of its droppings rain down on the city.

(HORNS HONKING)

(SQUEALING)

Starlings.

In the evening, they come back to the warmth of the city

after feeding in the neighbouring countryside.

They must return to their roosting trees.

But the first to do so are at the highest risk

of being caught by birds of prey.

So, they wait for others to arrive.

There's safety in numbers.

As daylight fades, the sky fills with a staggering one million starlings.

And then follows one of nature's great spectaculars.

(WHOOSHING)

How, or indeed why, they perform these marvellous aerobatics,

we still do not fully understand.

Eventually, en masse, they brave the descent

and fill the branches of their favourite trees.

On these cold winter nights, the city's extra warmth

can mean the difference between life and death.

(CHIRPING)

A city, of course, can provide

not only shelter and abundant food, but glamour.

These varied objects have been carefully chosen

by a bird for their brightness and their colour.

(TWIG SNAPS)

This great bowerbird has spent over a decade

building this collection of mostly man-made objects.

Out on a golf course in Townsville, Australia,

he's putting the final touches to his enormous bower,

that he hopes will impress a visiting female.

He spends two hours each day rearranging his prized objects.

"Perhaps that would look a little better over there."

But it seems that something is missing.

Instead of going into town to collect new objects,

he's decided to raid his neighbour's bower.

"A clothes peg! Excellent!"

"And a shiny toy car."

It's a risky game if you get caught.

The owner is back.

(SCREECHING)

There is one bower where the risk is worth it.

A particular object has caught his eye.

He'll have to wait for the owner to leave.

This is his chance.

A real treasure.

A scarlet heart.

"Got it."

The stage is now set for female visitors.

His luck may be in.

The seduction can now begin.

(SCREECHES)

He's showing off his best goods.

"Perhaps a little plastic piping?

"Or maybe a bit of coloured string?"

But his guest doesn't seem to be paying much attention.

"A fork?

"Madame?"

Nothing seems to be working.

Something is just not quite right here.

But he still has one trick up his sleeve.

(SCREECHES)

The scarlet heart.

(SCREECHING)

(CONTINUES SCREECHING)

As a final thrill, he expands the pink crest

on the back of his head.

The sign of his adulthood.

But he's made a mistake.

This is not a female

but a young male who hasn't yet developed that head crest.

And he's making off with the scarlet heart.

(HISSING AND SCREECHING)

It's not easy finding sex in the city.

Raising a family in the city is not easy either.

It's spring time in Toronto,

and this mother raccoon has exchanged her native treetops for rooftops.

(DOG BARKING)

Since giving birth two months ago,

she's kept her offspring safe and warm inside a chimney.

(CHITTERING)

Now, her young have outgrown their nursery.

This is her first major challenge as a mother.

The time has come to move to a new home.

She needs to get her youngster to ground level.

But instead of an easy climb down a tree,

she is faced with a vertical drop,

with little to cling onto.

(SQUEALING)

Her baby's first glimpse of the urban world,

from a terrifying ten metres up.

This is the last of her litter to be brought down.

Its siblings are already

- busy exploring the area. - (CHITTERING)

And they have much to learn.

(WHIMPERING)

This one has fallen into a back alley and is trapped.

(CHITTERING)

Mother comes to the rescue and demonstrates what must be done.

(BABY RACCOON WHIMPERING)

(CHITTERING)

(BABY RACCOON YELPS)

That's the way.

Raccoons are opportunists.

And they're eager to explore.

But they'll have to learn very quickly

how to get along in this strange new environment

so full of hazards.

(DOG BARKING)

(WATER SPLASHING)

Mother comes to the rescue once more.

Urban raccoons are now demonstrably better

at problem-solving than their country cousins.

When the feeding opportunities are this good,

the time spent working out how to get to it

is well worth it.

The complexity of urban life

favours the clever.

(HORNS BLARING)

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING AND CHATTER)

But to compete with humanity during daylight hours,

takes more than just intelligence.

It takes nerve.

One enterprising species of monkey

has moved into the city of Jaipur in India.

The Rhesus macaque.

But how to get a share of all this juicy fruit?

Every morning, the troop make the same journey

through the urban jungle, just as human commuters do.

(HORNS HONKING)

Sometimes, inevitably, there are traffic jams.

Once they get to the market, trouble begins.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING AND CHATTER)

Being both intelligent and brazen

is the key to beating human beings on their home turf.

(MAN SHOUTING)

It's daylight robbery.

(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

There are some animals that most would consider too dangerous

to tolerate in the city.

Spotted hyenas.

(HYENA WHOOPING)

They're feared throughout their range.

(SNARLS)

(HYENAS BARKING AND WHOOPING)

In the outskirts of Hara in Ethiopia,

two clans are coming face to face to battle over a prized resource.

(WHOOPING AND YELPING)

There are about 60 hyenas in each clan.

And they're well matched.

After three hours of posturing back and forth,

the losers retreat

and the victors head to claim their prize.

They have been fighting over access to the city.

Once inside the city walls, they head for one place.

(CHITTERING)

And they know exactly how to get there.

(WHINING)

(GROWLS)

The ancient meat market.

The scent of all these carcasses lies heavy in the air.

(SNARLING)

This tradition goes back over 400 years.

The human butchers put out the bones they don't need

and these hyenas deal with them.

They're the only animals that can.

No other here has such powerful bone-crushing jaws.

(YELPING AND BARKING)

And this relationship between man and beast

has now been taken a step further.

(MAN HOOTING)

Yousuf is calling the hyenas to his house.

He and his forefathers, going back five generations,

have been feeding the hyenas

by hand.

The inhabitants of this town believe that hyenas

provide another very important service.

Eating the bad spirits that haunt the streets.

These are wild and ferocious animals,

but once within these city walls,

they behave in a completely different way.

Throughout the rest of Africa, spotted hyenas are feared

because they kill livestock, sometimes even children.

(CONTINUES HOOTING)

They are perhaps the most vilified animal on our planet.

However, here in Harar,

their relationship with people is entirely peaceful.

(CONTINUES HOOTING)

They have won the trust of man.

Losing its fear of humans

has enabled one animal to spread into cities everywhere,

and in huge numbers.

(PIGEONS CHIRPING)

Pigeons are by far the most successful urban bird.

(CHURCH BELL TOLLING)

Here, in Albi, in the south of France,

the pigeons come to the river to bathe.

They need to preen their flight feathers,

clean off the city dust,

and cool themselves down.

But death lies in wait.

A predator that has taken advantage

of the very thing that has led to the pigeon's success...

Their lack of fear.

As the pigeons bathe, oil from their plumage flows downstream,

and is detected.

A monstrous Wels catfish.

Introduced here just 40 years ago, they have proliferated.

Virtually exterminated the local fish stocks...

And they've now developed a taste for pigeon.

Their eyesight is poor,

so they use their barbels to sense the movements of their victims.

This is a radical new hunting strategy

for what is normally a bottom-dwelling fish.

After a thousand years of living in this city,

pigeons are now having to learn to avoid a fish.

(CHURCH BELL TOLLING)

Our cities are always changing.

Sometimes very swiftly.

And animals must cope with the changes,

or disappear.

One of the greatest changes in recent times

has come from a single invention made less than 140 years ago.

Electric light.

It has become more and more powerful,

filling our streets with light.

It's everywhere in the city.

It even goes underground.

(HORNS BLARING)

The difference between day and night is becoming less and less perceptible.

And that has a profound effect on the activities of wildlife.

In the wilderness, light triggers all kinds of behaviour.

On the night of the full moon,

hundreds of tiny hawksbill turtle hatchlings

emerge from the safety of their nest deep in the sand.

Their instinct is to reach the sea as quickly as possible.

And their guide is the light of the full moon reflected on the water.

But this young hatchling is confused.

It's going in the wrong direction.

Bright light is coming from the land.

And all these hatchlings are travelling up the beach towards it.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

Predators are ready to take advantage.

Crabs now make their burrows directly beneath the beach lights

and wait for their prey to come to them.

Even if a hatchling escapes,

they're still in peril.

(VEHICLES PASSING)

The lights become more and more bewildering.

80% of all hatchlings on this beach

are now disorientated by the lights of the town.

Roads bring many to their end.

Hundreds get trapped in storm drains every night.

Exhausted by the effort of travelling such a distance on land,

this hatchling's chances of surviving the night are slim.

This turtle is one of the countless species

that have been unable to adapt to the change

brought about by the urban environment.

Only a small number of animals

have managed to find ways of living alongside us.

And every ten years, an area the size of Britain

disappears under a jungle of concrete.

But it doesn't have to be like this.

Could it not be possible to build cities more in harmony with nature?

How, and whether we decide to invite the wildlife back, is up to us.

This tree is rising nearly 30 storeys.

It's one of almost 800 being planted to create a vertical forest in Milan.

This number of living trees would normally fill two hectares of woodland,

but here, they occupy one-tenth of that area.

Greening the walls and roofs of our buildings

could create a rich and extensive habitat,

if we wanted it to do so.

There is one city where that idea is being applied on a major scale.

Singapore.

Two million trees have been planted here in the last 45 years.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

This city is now richer in species than any other in the world.

And this practice extends to all parts of the city.

The waterways have been cleaned up,

and smooth-coated otters are coming back.

But perhaps the most spectacular example of city greening

is this grove of super trees.

These 50-metre high metal structures are now full of life.

Creepers have been planted to grow over the outermost branches.

Is this a vision of our cities of the future?

The potential to see animals thriving within our cities

is achievable across the globe.

More than half of us now live in an urban environment.

Whether we choose to create a home for others too

is up to us.

(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)