bbc cities

In the last six thousands years, the surface of our planet has undergone a sudden change. A new habitat has appeared, entirely designed and constructed by one species(种类，speci外观) for its own purpose. This man-made landscape may seem alien to animal life, but for the bold(大胆的) this is a world of surprising opportunity.
Jodphur, India. A gang(群) of bachelor male langurs, has come to challenge the resident(领头，首领) alpha male. This alpha rules over, a valuable urban territory. But maintaining dominance here is a constant struggle. The bachelors have united to try and overthrow(推翻) him. If they win, one of the challengers will take over the alpha’s troop(队伍) of females and may kill his infants. There are fifteen males in this bachelor group. The alpha must evict(驱逐) every single one of them from his territory. He has chased half the bachelors away. But a splinter(碎片，分离出来的) group has looped back and harassing(侵略，骚扰) his females. Once again he has to battle. Finally he manages to expel（开除，驱除） 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 is worth it. For this urban territories are probably the best langur territories in the world. There are filled with rich feeding grounds. Here, in the temple gardens the langurs have, over centuries, developed a surprising relationship. Once that guarantees them a constantly replenished(补充) source of food. The people here associate langurs with the Hindu god lord hanuman and revere(尊敬) 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(相对应的人). This mother is so well fed that her rich milk can support something rarely seen in the wild(野生的). Twins. And all these babies can create troops that are far larger than those found in the forest nearby. With less time spent looking for food, there is more time for play. The rewards of living in a city can be huge. The challenge is to find your niche(舒心的工作，商机).
But how to recreate 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(障碍) to animal movement. And in this decade, the urban environment is predicted to grow by nearly thirty percents. Waht’s more, to come here, animals have to compete with the world’s top predator. People make the rules here. 4 billions human beings now live in the urban environment. It’s here that animals have to content with the greatest change that is happening to the face of our planet. So why would animal want to come here?
New York City. This densely built-up landscape is a un-natural as anywhere on earth. And yet, this wild peregrine(游隼) falcon(隼) looks out onto an ideal habitat. Strange as it may seem, this vastly altered(更改，改造) landscape replicates the conditions in which peregrines evolved(进化，逐渐形成). The tower buildings have a multitude(多层) of ledges on which falcons can nest（筑巢）. And the high perches(栖息处) that they need to catch the wind. New York City has the highest density of nesting peregrines anywhere on the planet. Wind, striking the sides of the skyscrapers(摩天大楼) are deflected(偏向) upwards and can help the birds gain height. And great area of concrete roasting(烘烤) in the sun create thermals(热气). So that with very little effort, the birds can soar over the city. And so many peregrine can live here because, down at street level, there is a lot potential prey. Diving（潜水，此处是俯冲）from height, the falcons can reach speeds of over 300 kilometers an hour. But their prey stay down low and close to the buildings. Too risky. The peregrine pulls out of his stoop(弯腰，此处是俯冲). But his 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. With abundant prey here all year round, it has taken only forty years for these falcons to establish themselves here. And now, amongst（在。。之间）skyscrapers, they’re more successful than their cousins living in the wilderness.
Mumbai in India is home to over twenty million people. And there are predators here that, though rarely seen, are rightly feared. Carnivores, lured by the prospect of plentiful unsuspecting(不期而遇的) prey, are on the prowl. A leopard. Every night, under the cover of darkness, they come out to hunt. These are big animals and they are looking for large prey to satisfy their hunger. To catch more than a glimpse of them, and reveal their hunting behavior, you need night vision cameras. Leopards have attacked almost two hundred people here in the last twenty-five years. But humans are not usual prey. These leopards are on the hunt for something else. Pigs. These leopards prefer to hunt the domestic（家庭的）animals that people have brought to the city in considerable numbers. The pigs keep their family close. The ceaseless（不停的，无休止的） noise of the city plays their advantage, it conceals(隐藏) their approach and the leopards are using this cover to hunt all over th city. This is a thriving population. In fact, the highest concentration(集中，聚集) of leopards in the world is right here.
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 even leaving its mark. In a single winter’s day, ten tons of its droppings rain down on the city. Starling. In the evening,they come back to the warmth of the city after feeding in the neighboring countryside. They must return to their roosting(居住) trees, but the first to do so are at 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(惊人的) one million starlings. And then follows one of the nature’s great spectaculars(壮观). How, or indeed why they perform these marvellous(奇妙的，极好的) aerobatics(特技飞行) we still do not fullly understand. Eventually, en masse(全体，集群), they brave the descent 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.
A city, of course, can provide not only shelter and abundant food, but glamour(魅力). These varied objects have been carefullly chosen by a bird for their brightness and their color. This great bowerbird(大亭鸟) has spent over a decade building this collection of mostly man-made objects. He is putting the final touches to his enormous bower that hopes will impress a visiting female. He spend two hours each day re-arranging his prized objects. Perhaps that will 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(亭子). A clothes peg. Excellent. And a shiny toy car. It’s risky game if you get caught. The owner is back. 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(财富，珍宝), a scarlet heart. The stage is now set for female visitors. His luck may be in. The seduction(诱惑力) can now begin. He’s showing off his best goods. Perhaps a little plastic piping? Or maybe a bit of colored string. But his guest doesn’t seem to be paying much attention. Nothing seems to be working. Something is just not quite right here. But he still has one trick up his sleeve（袖子，此处翻译为留一手）, the scarlet heart. 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(羽冠，顶峰). And he’s making off with the scarlet heart. It’s not easy finding sex in the city.
Raising a family in the city is not easy either. It’s springtime in Toronto and this mother raccoon has exchanged her native treetops for rooftops. Since giving birth two months age she’s kept her offspring（后代） safe and warm inside a chimney（烟囱）. 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 the tree, she is faced with a vertical drop with little to cling on to. Her baby’s first glimpse(瞥) of the urban world, from a terrifying ten meters up. This is the last of her litter to be brought down. It’s siblings(子孙) are already busy exploring the area and they have much to learn. This one has fallen into a back alley(小巷) and is trapped(名词是陷阱，动词是捕捉). Mother comes to rescue and demonstrates what must be done. That’s the way. Racoons (浣熊) 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（危险）. Mother comes to rescue once more. Urban racoons 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 favors the clever. But to compete with humanity during daylight hours takes more than just intelligence. It takes nerve(勇气). One enterprising species of monkey has moved into the city of Jaipur in India. 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. Sometimes, inevitably(不可避免的), there are traffic jams. Once they get to the market, trouble begins. Being both intelligent and brazen(厚颜无耻的) is the key to beating human beings on their home turf. Its’s daylight robbery. There are some animals, that most would consider too dangerous to tolerate in the city. Spotted hyenas. They’re feared throughout their range. In the outskirts（郊区，边缘地带）of Harar, in Ethiopia, two clans（宗族，小集团，帮派）are coming face-to-face to battle over a prized resource. There are about sixty hyenas in each clan and they’re well matched. After three hours of posturing(拉扯), 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. And they know exactly how to get there. The ancient meat market. The scent（气味）of all these carcasses(畜体，cas的复数) lies heavy in the air. This tradition goes back over four hundred years. The human butchers(屠夫) 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(坚硬) crushing jaws. And this relationship between man and beast has now been taken a step further. Yusef is calling the hyenas to his house. He and his fore-fathers, 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（精神，动词是偷偷带走）that haunt（鬼魂出没，游荡） the streets. These are wild and ferocious（凶残）animals, but once within these city walls they behave in a completely different way. Through the rest of Africa, spotted hyenas are feared because they kill livestock(畜牲，家畜), sometimes even children. They are perhaps the most vilified(令人诟病) animal on our planet. However, here in harar, their relationship with people is entirely peaceful, they have won the trust of men.
Losing its fear of humans has enabled one animal to spread into cities everywhere and in huge numbers. Pigeons are by far the most successful urban bird. 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 pigeons’ success, their lack of fear. As the pigeons bathe, oil from their plumage(羽毛) flows downstream and is detected. A monstrous(可怕的，丑陋的) wel catfish. Introduced here just forty years ago they have proliferated(迅速增殖), virtually exterminated(灭除，消灭) the local fish stocks and they’ve now developed a taste for pigeons. Their eyesight is poor, so they use their barbels(触须) to sense the movements of their victims. This is a radical new hunting strategy for what is normally bottom dwelling fish. After a thousand years of living in the city, pigeons are now having to learn to avoid a fish.
Our cities are always changing, sometimes very swiftly（突然的）. And animals must cope(设法面对) with the changes or disappear. One of the greatest changes in reccent times has come from a single invention made less than 140 yeas 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. The difference between day and night is becoming less and less perceptible. And that has a profound affect on the activities of wildlife. In the wilderness light triggers all kinds of behavior. On the light of the full moon, hundreds of tiny hawksbill(戴帽) turtle() hatchling(孵化) emerge from the safety of their nest deep in the sand. Their instinct is to reach the sea as quick 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 traveling up the beach towards it. Predators are ready to take advantage. Crabs(螃蟹) now make their burrows directly beneath the beach-lights, and wait for their prey to come to them. Even a hatchling escapes, they’re still in peril(生命危险). The lights become more and more bewildering（令人困惑）. Eighty percent of all hatchlings on this beach are now disoriented 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 traveling such a distance on land, this hatchling’s chances of surviving the night are slim（纤细的，单薄的）. 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（和睦）with nature? We are the designers of this environment, how and whether, we decide to invite the wild life back is up to us. This tree is rising nearly thirty stores. It’s one of almost eight hundred being planted to create a vertical forest in Milan. This number of living trees would normally fill two hectares(公顷) of woodland(林地), but here they occupy one tenth of that area. Green in the walls and roofs of our buildings could create a rich and extensive habitat, if we wanted 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. This city is now richer in species than any other in the world. And this practice extends to all the city. The waterways have been cleaned up and smooth-coated(光滑涂层) otters(水濑) are coming back. But perhaps the most spectacular example of city greening, is this grove(树林) of super trees. These fifty meters high metal structures, are now full of life. Creepers have been planted to grow over the outer most branches. Is this a vision of our cities of the future? The potential to see animals thriving within our cities is achieveable 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.

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