The animal species that are currently proliferating in the city are the best equipped to resist the destruction of nature, pollution and climate change: being able to survive in this harmful environment is proof of long-term resistance.
If the rate of disappearance of biodiversity is alarming due to urbanization, some species manage to take advantage of this modification of their environment: by settling in the middle of the city, animals prove their ability to survive in hostile environments: higher heat than in the countryside due to the concentration of buildings, pollution from industry and transport, noise and strong human activity.
According Concordia University in Quebec, species capable of proliferating in such a degraded environment are champions of adaptation. Cities thus become a true ecosystem in their own right.
Species must mutate as quickly as possible to survive in the city
The biodiversity of 160 cities around the world has been studied to understand how animals and insects change to resist urban conditions. In Canada and the United States, red squirrels, coyotes and chickadees have become perfectly accustomed to the city, and all over the world: flies. These have improved their physical abilities, growing faster, because the city presents more dangers, and tolerating higher temperatures than their cousins in the countryside.
In Puerto Rico, city anole lizards have gradually mutated: they have larger legs and more toes than their counterparts that live in the wild, probably to better climb the walls and windows of buildings. The species that change the fastest, in terms of their bodies but also in terms of their behavior, are the only ones whose populations do not collapse despite urbanization, pollution and global warming.
