”I greatly admire Joëlle Zask” – Erik Orsenna

Foxes wandering the gardens of London, wild pigs in the streets of Marseilles, leopards roaming narrow arteries in Bombay, coyotes in parking lots in New York, kangaroos in the streets of Canberra… With their habitats becoming increasingly hostile (polluted,
chipped away by urbanisation or altered by climate change, wild animals are settling in and adapting to cities. In New York, rats eat bagels and beer, but in Paris, they prefer butter and croissants.

This is a growing phenomenon. Will wild animals soon become a part of our daily lives?

Life as we know it was not conceived for wild animals and is actually a threat to nature in general. It seems unthinkable to live among wild animals but we cannot block them out and exterminating them would be not only cruel but dangerous for species diversity.

This book is a thought process. What would a city have to look like to create enough space and distance for humans and wild animals to live together in harmony? A city like this would not only not discourage the presence of animals but welcome it. As the world experiences great ecological shifts, how can we build Noah’s Ark once again?