Wild City: Encounters With Urban Wildlife

Wild City is both a gorgeously lyrical piece of nature writing, and a clear-eyed look at how animals have adapted to challenging human habitats. It is a celebration of nature, and a celebration of urban environments, which are not mutually exclusive. Nature writing has traditionally centred on spending time out in the wilderness, in carefully defined habitats where the writer can be alone with the surrounding flora and fauna, far from the hustle and bustle of towns and cities. But as more and more of our planet is urbanised, there’s a growing interest in the wildlife that is taking up residence in our urban environments. Not least because, in evolutionary terms, even as humans adapt to an urban lifestyle, we still feel a primal pull to connect with our wilder roots.

In Wild City, Wilkinson takes readers on a journey into why we should engage with wildlife in the city, what we might see – if we only take the time to look – and how nature is adapting at speed to human-engineered environments in unexpected and ingenious ways. Like the peregrine falcons that make their nests on the ledges of tower blocks. Or the mosquitoes that have evolved within the confines of the London Underground and which are found nowhere else on earth. Or the wildflowers peeping through the cracks of our pavements. Wilkinson, who co-founded the birdsong identification app, Warblr, also covers how to support our urban wildlife, both as individuals and collectively, culminating with a look at what the future might hold, should government and big businesses take decisive action before it’s too late.