When Urban Landscapes Meet the Natural World

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Over half of the global population resides in urban areas, where the presence of nature may often feel remote.

Urban areas can still support thriving ecosystems, even beneath the concrete and buildings, and embracing urban nature can drive significant change. As an illustration, West London recently celebrated its first beaver dam in 400 years, following the reintroduction of a family of five to a wetland on the outskirts of the city. These hardworking beavers have the potential to reduce the risk of flooding after heavy rainfall.

Our Shared Home was the theme this week for CNNs third annual Call to Earth Day, during which the network highlighted the crucial connection between cities and wilderness.

Once upon a planet

Chacma baboons overlook Cape Town, South Africa, from a hillside.

Baboon Matters

Interactions between urban dwellers and wildlife dont always run smoothly.

Cape Town's baboons are frequently seen searching through trash cans and roaming around backyards, which increases the likelihood of conflicts with humans. This behavior is understandable as the suburbs are encroaching on their natural feeding areas. The easy availability of food from the city's trash allows baboons to spend less time and energy foraging and more time socializing with potential mates and their group.

The baboons face consequences such as health and welfare issues when they come into contact with dogs, cars, and electric power lines. Some have even been shot. To address this issue, the city has taken proactive measures to keep the baboons away from the outskirts of Cape Town and in their natural hillside habitat.

Fantastic creatures

Much nature photography focuses on the wild wonders of Earth and its majestic biodiversity.

As part of CNN's Call to Earth initiative, two photographers took a unique approach by capturing intimate views of wildlife in an urban habitat. In California, photographer Corey Arnold discovered a bear denning in a crawl space of a home, while in the lush hillsides of Hong Kong's New Territories, Lawrence Hylton recorded a collared scops owl, a white-lipped pit viper, and an Atlas moth during his nocturnal safaris through Shing Mun Country Park.

The stunning, and sometimes amusing, images show how smart some animals are at adapting to a human-dominated landscape.

Look up

An image of the rare Steve phenomenon captured by Canadian photographer Neil Zeller.

The sun's increased activity makes it easier to observe stunning natural phenomena such as the northern lights or their equivalent in the Southern Hemisphere. Captured by Neil Zeller.

An even rarer night-sky phenomenon that occasionally appears alongside auroras is the mysterious Steve. Unlike polar auroras, Steve is seen closer to the equator and is identified by a purple-pink arch and green vertical stripes. This phenomenon was officially recognized less than ten years ago, and theories about its origin are still being developed.

The phenomenons name also has an unusual origin story involving a 2006 DreamWorks movie.

Across the universe

Six planets have been found orbiting a star similar to the sun, and their orbits have remained consistent for over 1 billion years. These exoplanets are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, belonging to a class known as sub-Neptunes, which are commonly found in the Milky Way.

The planets orbit their host star, located roughly 100 light-years from Earth, and exhibit orbital resonance, forming a harmonic rhythm as they complete their orbits and exert gravitational forces on each other. This alignment occurs every few orbits, and scientists believe that this discovery may provide insights into the mysteries of planet formation.

A colored image shows the multicellular structure of an anthrobot. Its surface cilia enables it to move and explore its environment.

At Tufts University, researchers have developed small living robots made from human cells that are capable of moving within a laboratory container. The findings suggest that these tiny robots could potentially assist in the healing of injuries or repairing damaged tissue in the future.

Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute have named their latest creations 'anthrobots'. These anthrobots are a continuation of the research on xenobots, the first living robots created from stem cells taken from African clawed frog embryos.

However, the human cell-based bots differ in several ways from their froggy forerunners, and they displayed a behavior that surprised scientists.

Explorations

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Honoring the groundbreaking accomplishments of NASA astronaut Dr. Mary Cleave, who passed away on November 27. She made history as the first woman to fly on the space shuttle following the Challenger disaster.

An underwater mountain off the coast of Guatemala has been mapped by oceanographers. It is nearly twice the height of the world's tallest building.

An accomplished scientist from the 19th century Tasmanian colonist is now known to have had a gruesome cost, as revealed in letters.

Fossil footprints indicate that mysterious creatures once roamed on birdlike feet long before the earliest known avian species, according to paleontologists.

Interested in learning more? Sign up here to receive the next edition of Wonder Theory, curated by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt. They explore wonders from planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.