PHOTOS: AP/ PHOTOCOLLAGE: Franziska Bruner

by Franziska Bruner and Michael Cervieri

February 8, 2002

Eleven-year-old Pete Millan knows about animals. Where he lives in the Bronx, he's seen rats, mice, pigeons, and the whole menagerie of the Bronx Zoo. One recent Saturday, he was lugging a telescope up a steep hill in Upper Manhattan's Inwood Park, hoping to see animals in the wild for the first time.

"I wish I could see a coyote," said Millan, who was taking part in an urban animal-tracking hike along with classmates from various Police Athletic League programs. "I would like to see a bear-- but not up close."

PHOTO: Franziska Bruner Pete Millan looking for wildlife in Inwood Park

While Millan probably won't see a bear in New York -- though one was spotted only a few miles north of the Bronx in 1997 -- there are still more animals living within the five boroughs than most city-dwellers imagine.

From deer that roam the city's parks to bedbugs that infest apartments, animals are almost everywhere in the city.

In Manhattan, a pair of red-tailed hawks nest atop a luxury high-rise on East 74th Street. In Queens, flying squirrels are making a comeback in Forest Hills Park. And peregrine falcons, birds that were once in danger of extinction, are now thriving on New York City rooftops and bridges.

Still, says Guy Robinson, an expert on large animals from Fordham University's Biological Science department, today's array of wildlife is nothing compared to what was stalking this area 11,000 years ago.

Giant beavers the size of bears, hulking mastodons (similar to mammoths), stag moose, camels and horses, all once called New York home.

"It was a pretty wild place back then," Robinson said. "Everything suggests that there was an intense regime of animals browsing and grazing at that time."

Most large animals are gone now. Many fell victim to natural forces, and others pushed out by the ever-spreading human population. The more the urban sprawl and pollution grows, the harder it is for animals to survive in the city.

Exterminators fumigate the invertebrates in our homes. Ducks get tangled in fishing lines in our parks, and birds fly into skyscrapers.

"To survive in New York, you have to be tough," said Inwood Park ranger Mara Pendergrass, "even if you're an animal."

Sometimes when people try to help, they wind up doing more harm than good. Wonder bread, the food of choice for duck-feeders, is "the worst thing you can feed anyone," Pendergrass said. "They love it, but it would be like feeding a child cotton candy."

Next: Surviving and Thriving