DON’T you love all the videos and photos of wild animals moving into urban areas during lockdown? It seems that all over the world wild animals have taken advantage of the coronavirus lockdown and are happily strolling around areas they would normally avoid. I’ve seen shots of deer at a pedestrian crossing in Japan and grazing on lawns in London.
Wild boar in front of flats in Corsica and buffalo on an empty Indian highway. Jackal in the streets of Tel Aviv and coyote in the suburbs of San Fransisco. In Kruger Park lions have moved onto the golf course at Skukuza while a kudu was filmed walking around Silver Lakes in Pretoria. At Noetzie a male bushbuck has taken to walking around gardens and the deserted car park, while a couple of baboons decided that a lovely green lawn was just the place for a mating session. But are they all true? I can vouch for those at Noetzie, and I am sure there must be others that are true, but disappointingly I read in an Indian publication that some stories about wildlife reclaiming urban areas were false. It said that a video of dolphins close to the shore in Mumbai, described as a “rare” event attributed to lockdown, was not the case. They have been seen there for the last 20 years. A video of an elephant strolling through an Indian town was an old video that had nothing to do with lockdown. The same thing was true for the “lockdown” mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles in the Odisha region of India. They do it every year. Another video that went around the world showed penguins walking through Simon’s Town, supposedly because of lockdown. It may have been taken during lockdown, but those little guys have been doing that for years. There is even a road sign in Simon’s town that says: “Caution: Penguins Crossing.” There is sadly a downside of wild animals moving closer to some urban areas: a spike in poaching. In India a tiger and a leopard were reportedly caught in traps close to urban areas. The leopard was apparently freed. The BBC reported that in some rural areas people who have not been able to work during lockdown have resorted to hunting “bushmeat” for their next meal. While fewer vehicles mean fewer wild animal deaths, this can be a drawback for some birds of prey. A UK researcher wrote recently about a red kite that was underweight and unable to feed itself. It had arrived at a wildlife reserve in Yorkshire. This, he said, “suggests the current situation of restricted travel – which has contributed to decreased roadkill – may not suit these birds of prey.” It seems that some videos of “lockdown” urban wildlife have been put online knowing they are false, while others are the result of people just being unaware of what is normal in the natural world around them. Lockdown has given them time to look around – and they have been surprised and delighted. Wouldn’t it be great if that increased awareness of nature stays with us all after lockdown?
