Beijing promotes closer human-animal coexistence

Changing habits

Many wild animals alter their habits to survive in the hazardous, ever-changing urban world.

According to a study by Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist at Ohio State University in the United States, some coyotes in suburban Chicago stay within the city's boundaries to avoid hunters and trappers.

As such, Chicago is a major refuge for the animals, which have learned to cross roads and avoid traffic, based on speed and volume, the study shows.

That knowledge has led some scientists to propose that volatile environments such as cities may accelerate the evolutionary process to make a species smarter, meaning many urban animals can survive better than those in the wild.