Original subtitles

(uptempo string music)

Downloaded from YTS.MX

We think cities belong to us,

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

but the concrete jungle's teeming with animals.

We make friends with some,

but most go about their lives unseen.

(soft music)

Some see wild animals as pests and dangerous to our health,

others believe they are crucial to our wellbeing

and belong here as much as we do.

What is the truth about these street-smart city slickers,

and how do they get by in the urban jungle?

(inspiring music)

(gulls squawking)

(mid tempo music)

All over the world,

human populations are rapidly expanding,

numbering more than 7,000,000,000 globally.

And as our populations increase,

so does the spread of concrete.

Urban sprawl to house ever more people.

Whether it's a small town or a vast city,

we think of the urban jungle as human habitat

but look closer,

we are not the only ones who are street-smart.

(mid tempo music)

Capital of Japan,

Tokyo is the most populous metropolitan area in the world.

The Greater Tokyo Area or prefecture,

houses nearly 40,000,000 people.

In fact, Japan has one of the world's largest populations,

126,000,000 people

all living on a relatively small island chain.

But even in urban centers,

there are constant reminders of strong cultural links

to the wild.

(atmospheric music)

People are not the only ones to flock to heritage sites.

Icons are clues to the close ties to nature

and some are more than just effigies.

Sometimes wild neighbors are hiding in plain sight.

Street vendors waft tempting smells that few can resist

(cheery music)

and, with a bit of fancy footwork,

everyone can enjoy a picnic.

Japanese macaques are a familiar sight.

(soft music)

On fringes of cities, they find quieter spaces

to add greens to their junk food diets

and raise their families in relative safety.

Despite a bit of thieving,

the monkeys are celebrated throughout Japanese history,

folklore, and fairy tales.

These urbanites can attract quite a crowd.

Japan has a long history of celebrating nature

and whole cities stop to admire seasonal changes.

The blossoming of cherry trees

starts a festival known as Hanami, meaning flower viewing.

Flower fanciers flock.

(birds chirping)

Drainage canals that run through the cities

are home to one of the nation's most valued animal icons,

carp.

Carp were domesticated in China around the 5th century BC,

initially for food.

But from the 1800s,

the Japanese began selectively breeding the carp

to enhance the beauty of their colors.

The Koi carp is now one of the most valued domestic animals,

changing hands for thousands, even millions of dollars.

For many, they're not treasured for their value,

but for the pleasure and beauty

they can bring to an urban life.

On the other side of the world,

another city reveals its wilder side.

The second largest city in Germany with the biggest port,

Hamburg is a sprawling metropolis.

Nearly 2,000,000 people live in the city center,

but there are many other residents.

Among the movers and shakers,

there's one that leaves all others in the dust.

(mid tempo music)

The Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird on earth.

Launching from the tops of skyscrapers,

it can divebomb its favorite prey, pigeons.

With top speeds over 300 kilometers per hour,

he rarely misses his mark.

Like the pigeons he feeds on,

he regards the cityscape as part of his habitat,

with tall buildings replacing cliffs,

the perfect place for him to nest.

There's very little competition from other predators

and thanks to the waste from humans

that feeds a healthy pigeon population,

there's plenty to eat.

(chicks screeching)

Tall buildings like flats and church towers

offer safe platforms,

where Peregrines can raise their young

high out of reach of any threat.

These chicks are over a month old

and already as big as their parents,

their adult plumage is coming through

and before long, they'll leave the nest.

The parents will continue to feed them for several months,

until they're ready to set out

and look for territories of their own.

It's rare for Peregrines in their natural setting

to raise more than a single chick.

The four healthy youngsters in this nest

illustrate just how prosperous life can be in the city.

The Peregrine might be king of the urban jungle,

but he's just one of a huge and diverse animal community

that has learned to live alongside us.

City skylines present a land of opportunity

and birds that typically nest on cliffs or higher trees

seem to have adapted best to a high-rise lifestyle.

Members of the crow family

are particularly good at living the high life.

Among the most intelligent birds,

they're quick to spot new opportunities

on the property ladder.

Jackdaws are one of the most social crows,

living in flocks,

but within the larger groups are closely bonded pairs

that will usually stay together for life.

They're resourceful and can easily modify human design

to a bird's needs.

The chicks will be catered for continuously

for four weeks in the nest,

and for another month once they fledge.

Plenty of time for the parents to share their city savvy

and prepare them for a life on the streets.

They have a room with a view

and can look out for danger or a potential meal.

(singing in foreign language) (mid tempo music)

Wherever there are people, opportunities abound.

Less urban wildlife might end up on the table,

but crumbs dropped from a human feast won't go to waste.

The jackdaw's high-rise apartment

is shared with a family of kestrels.

(chicks chirping)

Plump lizards and other small animals

are well fed in this neighborhood,

and on the rich diet, the chicks grow quickly.

Kestrels hunt only little creatures

and crows are off the menu,

so domestic disputes are rare, but nonetheless,

the jackdaws are always keen to escort the kestrels

out of their airspace, just in case.

Animals adapt to just about any environment

and while people might enjoy partying

in a city that never sleeps,

animals also make the most of the nightlife.

(mid tempo music)

(insects chirruping)

Insects search for mates

while people enjoy the romantic atmosphere.

When darkness descends,

there's a whole community that takes to the streets.

Bats traditionally roost in the hollows of rotting trees,

but they've adapted well to the warm dry spaces

in the roofs of buildings.

They want to make sure they look good

before they hit the town.

The grooming is important to keep them in good health,

but moreover,

to keep their delicate wing membranes in tiptop condition.

They have poor eyesight, but with a life spent in the dark,

it's no real loss.

By day they are just hanging around,

but as the lights go out downstairs, they're ready to party.

They make up for their lack of vision

with their own amazing form of sonar,

squeaking out high pitched calls and listening to echoes

returning from anything in their path.

Millions of bats squeak their way over the city by night,

but we rarely hear them.

That's because their piercing cries are such high frequency

that they're beyond our hearing range.

The blasts of sound enable them to pick out insects

in the night sky,

which they catch with incredible aerial acrobatics.

Cities are fantastic places for them to eat out.

Street lights draw insects,

creating a concentration of food,

an all-you-can-eat buffet for bats.

In the shadows below,

another nocturnal predator is on the move.

(atmospheric music)

Hedgehogs enjoy roaming parks and gardens,

munching on slugs and other creepy crawlies.

Garden sheds and empty warehouses offer warm dry corners,

where they can hide away during the day

or curl up to sleep through winter.

Sadly, they are rarely seen by people,

unless they have fallen foul of traffic.

But for a cat on its nightly rounds,

it's a familiar sight.

Most people like hedgehogs,

but there are other wild creatures

that are far from welcome in cities

and yet thrive beneath our noses.

Brown rats are one of the most widespread

and common of all mammals.

(mid tempo atmospheric music) (speaking foreign language)

Originally they lived in Asia but, as humans spread,

so have these adaptable rodents, exploiting our waste

and enjoying manmade landscapes where few predators roam.

Rats can have up to 14 pups in a litter

and produce a litter five times a year,

so it doesn't take long for them to outgrow their homes.

The biggest secret of their success is us.

Humans are not the tidiest creatures

and our waste is their wealth.

Spillage from the colorful markets of Istanbul

provide manna from heaven.

While a rat can skulk about unseen in the shadows,

some city dwellers are harder to miss.

The suburbs of Berlin have become a playground

for some heavyweight hogs.

As the lights go out,

there are residents ready to make pigs of themselves.

(pig grunting) (crickets chirping)

Urban wild boars.

Because they are often hunted by people,

the boars emerge at night

to raid the city's parks and gardens.

(atmospheric music)

They travel in sounders,

small groups of females and their young.

They're not the easiest neighbors to live with,

they eat just about anything from fruit to carrion.

They use their powerful snouts to rummage,

turning over topsoil to look for bulbs or grubs underneath

and, in just a few hours, can destroy a lawn.

(soft music)

They might be caught in the headlights,

but they don't want to be busted by day

and will soon hide up in the bushes.

City bats also return to their beds before sunrise,

out of sight before humans open their bleary eyes.

They huddle together for warmth in the rafters,

while they digest their midnight feast.

(bats clicking)

Dawn catches a few night thieves red-handed.

In busy areas, rats can become accustomed to people

and are quite brazen.

They know a night of partying

will have left the streets littered.

And they're not the only ones wanting to take out the trash.

An urban bandit, the raccoon.

A famed opportunist

that can turn its hands to just about anything.

But gradually, the human population begins to stir

and it's time for criminal creatures to make tracks.

Humans produce

around 2.6 trillion tons of rubbish every year,

creating whole landscapes of garbage,

but even these can become an animal's home.

It's not exactly quiet,

but the tree of reinforced metal will keep the owlets safe.

And the dump is a smorgasbord for a fox family.

The most cunning and adaptable of wild dogs,

they're true urbanites.

Scraps from the bins and a supply of city-fed rodents

will do well to feed this family.

For nearly 100 years,

foxes have been steadily infiltrating urban areas

and are now often more numerous in cities

than in the countryside.

(gentle music)

Life's not easy, even for the urbanites among foxes,

roughly half of them fall foul of cars

and others succumb to disease or pest control.

Foxes can live to 15,

but most will not make it to their second birthdays.

The key to survival is to be wary.

If they play their cards right,

the city provides a good life.

Sometimes there are even human handouts.

The river Elbe runs through Hamburg city center,

swans and ducks flock.

They've learned to make friends with humankind

and recognize us as a potential source of food.

(gentle guitar music)

While some animals adapt well to life in the metropolis,

others prefer to stay on the fringes,

favoring city parks and river banks,

green edges that line our concrete homes.

Most of the world's great cities are located on rivers,

traditionally offering a way

of transporting goods to the community,

but now valued as a playground and leisure landscape.

The residents of Hamburg

enjoy their proximity to Lake Alster,

but of course they're not the only species to enjoy it.

While people are messing about in the water,

a mute swan tends her nest.

Cities are usually great places for wildlife,

because there are very few predators,

but that is not always the case.

A polecat is on the prowl.

Despite a fearsome reputation,

this cousin of stoats and ferrets

isn't big enough to tackle a swan.

But a born opportunist,

she's quick to spot an abandoned egg.

Perhaps it was infertile and kicked out of the nest.

It feeds the polecat and keeps her off the swan's back.

(birds chirping)

Even top predators don't need much space

to make a go of it in the city.

A maintenance shed protects her family as they grow.

Though they'll eat just about anything,

it's the city's abundant rodent population

that keeps them well fed.

The precocious youngsters explore everything.

It's partly this bold, curious nature

that makes them ideal city slickers.

Any animal that's good at looking for opportunities

and can adapt to what they find,

has what it takes to make a go of it in the Big Smoke.

The urban animals live cheek to cheek

with the human residents,

though people aren't always aware

of just how many wild neighbors they have.

(soft music)

A garden offers everything a hornet mother needs

to set up her home.

She carefully collects small strips of bark,

chewing them to make a papery pulp.

She's found a secret spot where she can work in peace.

She's an artisan builder,

sculpting the papier mache into a delicate shell.

Inside that, she'll craft individual chambers

and will lay an egg in each.

The grubs can grow in safety,

her offspring fed by their mother

on the flesh of other insects

that she'll catch around the garden.

For urban animals and people alike,

gardens are wonderful places to hang out.

Most rodents are not welcomed,

but squirrels seem to have been given an honorary pardon

and thrive here.

Bird feeders offer rich pickings

for a light-handed red squirrel,

but they don't have to resort to a life of petty theft.

(playful music)

There are many humans who are happy to help them out.

If you have a squirrel's charm,

then city life can be pretty good.

(soft music)

His table manners leave little to be desired,

but the caterers don't seem to mind.

Gardens are often planted with fruit trees,

offering rich sugary treats.

At the end of summer,

rotting plums stave off the red admiral's sugar addiction.

And the mother hornet also has a sweet tooth,

she collects meat for her offspring,

but her own diet is made up of nectar and sugary fruits.

Her first batch of young have now completed their growth.

They are all female, all workers,

none will breed, instead they set out expanding the home,

creating more chambers where their mother can lay eggs.

The foundations of a colony.

By the end of summer, the colony could employ 700 workers.

Other insects are busy in the garden.

Honeybees move from flower to flower,

gathering pollen to transport back to their colony.

Bee swarms are not always welcomed in the garden,

but there are some people who actively seek them out.

This cluster will form the foundations of a hive.

(bees buzzing)

This is a tiny farm in the heart of Hamburg.

The bees will range all over the urban landscape

to find flower beds and gardens,

where they can collect pollen and return it to their nest.

(atmospheric music)

They'll convert the pollen to honey,

a food store for their colony,

but one that their human carers can exploit.

The colony works tirelessly to keep the larder stocked up.

In the heart of the hive,

the queen lays her eggs to top up the workforce.

The bees will never stop in their daily pursuit of food.

Like typical city workers, they have joined the rat race,

a fast-paced lifestyle.

All manner of animal homes piggyback on our own.

A window ledge has been modified by another animal architect

and now supports a clutch of blackbird chicks.

The father bird has to work tirelessly

to put food on the table,

or, in this case,

caterpillars into the beaks of the ever-hungry young.

The chicks only have about a fortnight from hatching

until they must fly the nest, living life in the fast lane.

(mid tempo guitar music)

There's nothing better than a lazy lunch in a pub garden,

whether sipping nectar or something stronger.

Sparrows enjoy dropped crumbs from their human neighbors,

but on a sunny evening,

enjoy nothing more than a luxurious dust bath.

(sparrows chirping)

The fine particles of sand

will work their way deep into the feathers,

absorbing any excess oils that might clog the feathers

and exfoliating, rubbing off dead skin and parasites.

After the beauty treatment, it's back to business.

Feeling spruced up and handsome,

they flirt and begin some family planning.

Well-planted pub gardens are a favorite animal hangout,

but there are other green spaces in most cities

that have their wilder side.

The resting place of people is usually undisturbed,

making a graveyard an ideal place

for shire animals to set up home.

(mid tempo orchestral music)

But in this apparent garden of peace,

it's not just humans who get laid to rest.

Rats are at the bottom of the food chain

and are nervous about being caught out in broad daylight.

(animal screeching)

One of the largest owls in the world,

the eagle owl reigns over the graveyard.

With her amazing eyesight and hearing,

she doesn't miss a trick

and her feathers have a fluffy surface

to make her silent in flight.

The owl needs to make regular hunting trips,

because she has two hungry mouths to feed.

(birds chirping)

She just needs to be patient

and wait for the rat to break cover.

(atmospheric music)

This body won't be left to rest in peace.

Whichever of the chicks is most persuasive

will win the meal.

(beaks tapping)

Though he doesn't seem too sure what to do with it.

The other chick needn't worry,

there is soon a second helping.

The whole carcass will be eaten.

Tough to digest fur and bones

will later be regurgitated in a pellet.

It seems the graveyard

is a great place to feast on the dead.

Eagle owls are relatively new faces in the city,

but given a bit of space, seem to settle right in.

Though they might be some of the noisiest parts of the city,

railway embankments are also great wildlife refuges

that run through the center of urban developments.

(soft music)

Mum returns after a night of foraging.

Raccoons choose hollows in trees to raise their families

and in her neighborhood,

located between the railway and a main road,

she's managed to find a tiny spot of real estate.

Compared to their wild cousins,

urban raccoons can live in much smaller territories.

Here her clan can relax and enjoy family time and safety.

Raccoons are opportunist omnivores,

who can eat just about anything,

animal, mineral or vegetable.

And, thanks to this adaptability,

are perfect candidates for city life.

Living in a high-rise

means that before the pups can run riot on the street,

they must master parkour.

After tree climbing, a cityscape will be easy.

(mid tempo music)

Traffic has increased on the Alster

and among the new arrivals, the swan signets.

After fighting free of their shells,

the signets need rest,

time to allow their soggy down to dry out.

Swans are aggressive parents

and will keep a close eye on their brood.

There are other babies

that like to take their parents for a ride.

Humbug-striped Great-Crested Grebe chicks

save energy by piggybacking.

Like the swans, they needed only to dry out from the eggs

and then they're waterproof and good to go.

(chicks chirping) (soft music)

The signets take straight to life on the water

and can feed themselves from day one.

With waterfront restaurants,

the shore is a great place to hang out,

which is exactly what the muskrat wants to do,

relax and enjoy some clam chowder.

But it's not always easy

to find peace and quiet in the city.

For some reason,

the greylag geese seem to take exception to his presence.

(atmospheric music)

At first, he politely ignores them,

but they're determined to make their point.

The neighborhood's getting crowded,

perhaps it's time to move.

Of course, wildlife can't have the city all to itself

and getting from A to B

can be challenging around their large two-legged

or four-wheeled neighbors.

Many lives are lost to the traffic,

especially when new roads

are built through traditional habitats or migration routes.

Some more enlightened cities

provide mini underpasses for their smaller commuters.

Other animals are such peculiar pedestrians

that they can literally stop traffic.

Of course, known wildlife hotspots can draw a crowd.

People love to meet the animal citizens,

though such encounters are controversial.

It doesn't take long for intelligent animals like wild boar

to realize humans can be approached for food.

The animals can become unnaturally tame

and sometimes aggressive,

that they try to protect their luxury food resources.

Who wouldn't give up rooting in the mud

to pig out on a pocket full of peanuts?

(soft music)

And, of course,

bad habits can be passed on from adults to offspring,

breeding a whole generation of junk food junkies.

(pig grunting) (soft playful music)

It might be bad parenting,

but it's in animal and human nature

to make the most of handouts.

Waterways are the heart and soul of the city

for creatures of all walks of life.

(mid tempo music)

They were often the reason the cities were built

where they were,

because estuaries and rivers connected city populations

with international trade routes.

(boat horn blaring)

Huge industrial ports seem like concrete deserts,

not jungle,

barren landscapes where no living thing can thrive.

But because few people venture there,

they can become sanctuaries to wildlife.

Factories and power plants

are often frowned upon their polluting output

but, strangely, even they can benefit animals.

(soft music)

In Florida,

hot water runoff from power stations' cooling towers,

draw in winter visitors,

A manatee and her calf enjoy a break from the cold

by bathing in the factory's waste.

Manatees are gentle vegetarians,

they'd usually over-winter

in the warm shallow lagoons of the Everglades,

but human development

has pushed them off many of their traditional sites

and now it might only be the warm water

that keep them alive.

Industrial areas might not be ideal nurseries,

but many animals manage to scrape a living,

(gulls squawking)

especially gulls.

These are the masters of urbanization,

one of the most successful city dwellers

from the animal kingdom.

Traditionally, they nest on bare, exposed islands,

places out of reach of predators

and large open patches of concrete, or wasteland,

are no different.

They're fenced and provide big flat areas

where colonies can form.

Of course they are not always peaceful or stress-free.

(atmospheric music)

But gulls are persistent

and that's one of the keys of their survival.

They're adaptable and can eat just about anything,

but also observant

and are getting to understand human behavior.

Tourists flocking to the beach

are going to treat themselves to some fast food.

(tense music) (cash register beeping)

The secret of the gulls' success, above all else,

is that they are quick-witted and daring.

(atmospheric piano music)

It's survival of the fittest and bold birds rule.

Cities have been built in rich habitats

because they suited our needs,

but in the same way we're attracted to the locations,

animals are too.

And just as we adapt to an evermore urban environment,

so do they.

There's evidence that songbirds sing

at different frequencies in the city,

to be heard over traffic.

(mid tempo music)

Squirrels have given up trying to shout over the noise

and instead communicate with each other

through body language.

And it's even thought that mice and voles

might have bigger brains in cities,

because they need to think fast to survive the rat race.

As the seasons change, humans turn on the heating,

but animals have no such luxury.

(birds chirping)

The jackdaw chicks are now fully grown

and will join their parents in winter roosts,

where they can huddle together for warmth.

(soft music)

The bats will hang out, slowing down their metabolisms

and sleeping through the cold months.

(bats squeaking)

People don't always embrace urban wildlife,

but we benefit from them in many ways,

Bats and wasps control the number of insects

that would bite us or damage our property.

Foxes and birds of prey

help to control populations of rodents, pigeons,

and other creatures we consider pests,

and bees and butterflies pollinate plants.

But, above all, wildlife brings us emotional wellbeing.

Science is providing evermore concrete evidence

that we need a connection to nature for our health.

(geese honking)

In London alone, green space is believed to be worth

30,000,000,000 pounds a year

in terms of its benefits to human welfare

and therefore performance and health.

And as the world becomes ever more humanized,

it'll be vital for wildlife

to see the benefits of living with us too.

Cities can provide well for animals

that are willing and able to adapt.

And, once we get to know each other,

great relationships can benefit both parties.

Perhaps the reason we feed wildlife

is because we have a subconscious need

to be close to nature.

We are animals, we evolved in nature

and it seems we're lost without it.

We need our wild neighbors

to bring the urban jungle to life.

(soft uplifting music)