Recently while hiking across a pedestrian/bicycling bridge over a wooded ravine in Seattle, we heard a hissing call. Leaning against the bridge guard rail, we came face-to-face with a juvenile Barred Owl 15 yards away. Perched in the crotch of a Big-leaf Maple, it was staring intently up an evergreen tree, hissing occasionally. Suddenly it flew toward the place it had been staring which was occupied by an Eastern Gray Squirrel. As the owl flapped close to the tree trunk, the squirrel adroitly scampered to the back side to avoid contact, and continued winding its way up the tree.
This already exciting wildlife encounter was about to get better. Minutes after its failed squirrel hunt, the young owl flew up to the bridge railing level with me and my wife, Lori, only ten yards distant. Fluffed up, hissing away, it turned to face us. Lori, who was standing behind me as I filmed the unfolding spectacle said “I think it’s going to attack!” At that moment, it leaned forward, launched and flew at a low angle beneath the bridge to pursue other more interesting and perhaps, edible targets. We had just experienced an urban safari!
We often think of safaris as something that can only be experienced in places like Africa. But to a lesser extent, they can also be experienced in urban areas where wildlife lives in close proximity to humans. Here are just a few examples:
Chicago, Illinois
The nation’s third-largest city is perhaps not a place where you would expect to find nature. Fortunately, that’s not true. Thanks to visionary planners, green space advocates, conservation organizations and agencies, this city has assembled the Chicago Wilderness. This interconnected set of natural lands extends 50 miles from north-to-south along the city’s western edge. It is a classic wildlife corridor that provides homes for rare and threatened species, as well as boundless recreational opportunities for Chicagoans.
In addition to the Chicago Wilderness, the city’s lakefront boasts some 17-miles of continuous parklands including a place called The Magic Hedge. Located in Montrose Harbor City Park, this is a bird migration hot spot in the spring and fall. As Julie Zickfoose wrote in the book City Birding “a bird flying along the heavily developed shore of this great inland sea (Lake Michigan) would notice the protected harbor that nestles behind the hooked peninsula, as well as the area’s dense shrubbery and leaning willows trailing into the lake.” The area she described is the Magic Hedge, and like she said, birds find it. 
On one early morning in May, my friend Bill and I tallied 50 species of birds in just a few hours at the Magic Hedge, including 15 species of warblers. Magical, indeed!
New York City
Moving eastward to our nation’s largest city, urban safaris can also be had. New York City’s list of wildlife includes: Striped Skunk, Coyote, Red Fox, White-tailed Deer, and even Coy-Wolves, a hybrid between coyotes and wolves. Central Park boasts 235 species of birds within its 842 acres of forest, meadows, rock outcrops and waters.
Even the High Line Trail, a triumph in urban green space design that 
stretches along a 1.5-mile section of abandoned elevated railroad tracks in Manhattan, provides a place to experience nature. Mark Dion, author of the Field Guide and Handbook to the High Line said of birds encountered there: “Located on the crucial eastern flyway, New York City is a marvelous place to encounter bird life…and while the High Line is far from being a birding hot spot, there are a number of birds easily seen in the park (25 listed in the Guide). The abundance of vegetation planted along the High Line is equally impressive.
Austin Texas
Our nation’s 11th-largest urban area with close to a million human inhabitants is another good place for an urban safari. As of 2009, Austin had 2,154 certified backyard wildlife habitats on its private lands, not to mention the 2,200 acres of preserve lands the city parks system has acquired for its habitat, natural features and ecological values.
Arguably the number one wildlife attraction in Austin is bat-watching. Specifically, observing the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed Bats that nest under the city’s Congress Avenue Bridge.
As Austin’s city website states “the bats happily handle the City’s bug mitigation.” Thousands of people watch the bats from land, from the bridge, and from boats in the Colorado River below it as they swarm in cloud-like formations on spring and summer evenings.
Los Angeles
Circling back to the West Coast, we come to our nation’s second-largest city. Here, the Santa Monica Mountains run parallel to the Pacific Ocean and extend southward into metropolitan Los Angeles forming a natural wildlife corridor. The wildlife traffic has been documented by California Wildlife via remote cameras. Animals photographed there range from Cougar, Coyote, American Badger, Black Bear to a pair of Gray Fox.
One famous cougar named P-22 traveled 50 miles from the Santa Monica Mountains to Griffith Park in Hollywood, crossing numerous roads and busy freeways along the way. After his death, P-22 was enshrined in the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. Some people have even hiked his 50-mile journey as tribute to his incredible achievement.
Portland, Oregon
Combined with its neighbor city across the Columbia River, Vancouver, the two cities have protected a total of 40,000 acres of natural areas. This abundance of natural land provides habitat for wildlife. In 2014, 12 Cougars and one Black Bear were seen in Portland’s city limits. Two hundred bird species can be found in Portland annually.
Portland’s Forest Park, a massive 5,200-acre wooded expanse with 70 miles of trails, is the second largest city park in the nation. The park acts as a corridor westward to the Tulatin Hills and eventually the Coast Range. Remarkably, a herd of Roosevelt Elk often makes its way into Forest Park.
Urban safaris like these are available in many other U.S. Cities. The key element in attracting wildlife to our cities is having large green corridors, like the Santa Monica Mountains in LA, the Chicago Wilderness and the city’s lakefront park system, the extensive interconnected parklands in Seattle and Portland, and Austin’s public and private refuges along with its tolerance for bat nests on a major downtown bridge.
Having nature in our midst makes our cities more livable for wildlife and people. In the words of Pearl Jam guitarist 
Stone Gossard: ” I think ultimately, bringing more nature back into the city is a way to deal with urban sprawl…if the cities feel a little more natural, people like to live there more rather than moving out and dividing up another piece of land that shouldn’t be touched.”
Why not try an urban safari in your nearest big city? You might be amazed by what you find, and inspired to keep visiting local nature spaces. Your local Audubon Society, parks department and city website can help you find outstanding natural areas to visit and guides to take you there.
