humans and animals in the same cities alliance or rivalry?
London / Milan / Mexico City / Jaipur / Tokyo
August 2020
Enrico Alleva
Gheppio falcon
Fredi Devas
Dining companions is the term used by ethologists to refer to animals that live on food waste from other species. In the Old Stone Age, the mouse and the house sparrow lived on rafts that carried the flint found in the villages of their place of habitat. As consumption exploded over the last century, waste has increased — an attraction for animals that have evolved over the centuries in the food-scavenging system. There are many wild animals in the city, but few species — mainly birds and mice. This leads to an imbalance in the city’s ecosystem.
Enrico Alleva «Bats, foxes, wild boars cyclically visit the city. This depends on the changing of the conditions of the ecosystems where they live» explains Enrico Alleva, an ethologist at Rome’s La Sapienza University. «The less ‘neophobic’ species, that is, those who are less afraid of novelty, go in and explore urban spaces. Mammals do so at certain hours. With globalization, people and goods have
