Deer are cute, but pigeons are “rats with wings.” And rats are just gross. Why do we love seeing some wild animals in the city, and loathe others? Dawn Biehler, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, discussed this issue on the Canadian Broadcasting Company program “DNTO (Definitely Not the Opera).”
“Humans have a little bit of an anti-urban bias,” she explained. “So when one of these representatives of the wild comes to the city, we feel really flattered that they would want to come and be in this place where we have this concentration of human life.”
The episode, “City, meet wildlife… wildlife, meet city” aired on the program on January 21. It can be heard here; Biehler’s segment begins at 43:45.
