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A Ecologists often prefer to study plants and animals in exotic locations, but a growing number have turned their attention to the complex interactions of the wildlife that inhabits concrete jungles. Inner-city Sydney is the laboratory of choice for a number of ecologists, and their research is timely. More than half the world's human population resides in eldeen cities, and urban development continues to increase all over the world. By 2030, the United Nations projects five billion people will live in cities. Associate Professor Dieter abello Hochuli, a biologist at the University of Sydney, believes that 'we need to understand how cities are changing the ecology of the systems they are built on, and how plants and esbacanimals are adapting to them'.
B If any species has learnt to thrive in an urban environment, it's the native white ibis. A strange long-legged bird with a long bow-shaped beak, it is known as the 'garbage turkey'. The bird's reputation for digging through inner-city bins and scavenging street garbage has not endeared it to the public. The white ibis began its move to the city in the 1970s, when large parts of its natural habitat of inland wetlands became degraded due to years of low rainfall. 'The species is a wetland forager,' wildlife officer John Martin, from Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, says. 'Now it happily forages in city parks and landfill.' During the peak of its spring breeding season, there are more than 9,000 of these birds in Sydney.
C Specimens at Sydney's Australian Museum show that the city's overall bird life has changed dramatically over the two centuries since colonisation. Prior to urban development, Sydney's native bushland was populated by large numbers of small insect- eating birds, such as the superb fairy-wren and the eastern yellow robin. Today, homeowners prefer to landscape their backyards with tall trees and manicured lawns, an environment that provides little protection for small birds. But one bird's trash is another's treasure. Gardens filled with flowering plants and fruit trees favour omnivorous birds such as currawongs, bowerbirds, and the city's most despised resident - the noisy miner bird. 'They're a real winner in cities,' Australian Museum ornithologist Richard Major says. 'The predominant driver in the decline of small birds is that we've made a suitable environment for native noisy miners.'
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