URBAN WILDLIFE
Faune urbaine
Que l’on soit un citadin convaincu ou un amoureux de la campagne, le contact avec la nature est souvent inévitable au quotidien... Surtout si l’on vit au Royaume-Uni ! Les villes britanniques regorgent d’une faune variée et surprenante qu’un journaliste du Guardian vous propose de découvrir.
BUMBLEBEES
1. [A few weeks ago], researchers revealed that bumblebees fare better in urban rather than agricultural environments. City colonies produced more males and reached a larger size, had more food stores and survived longer. They concluded that urban environments provide longer-lived, more varied flowers than intensively farmed agricultural areas.
FOXES
2. A study last year revealed that the number of urban foxes in the UK has quadrupled in the past 20 years – one for every 300 urban human residents. Bournemouth had the highest concentration, with 23 per sq km, London 18 and Bristol 16. London’s high rat and mice populations are a particular draw.
SEAGULLS
3. According to research from Bristol University, the number of urban gulls quadru-
1. bumblebee bourdon / researcher chercheur / to fare better mieux se porter / food store ici, réserve de nourriture / longer-lived qui vivent plus longtemps / to farm exploiter, cultiver. 2. fox renard / sq km = square kilometre km² / mouse (pl. mice) souris / draw (force d’) attraction, aimant. 3. seagull mouette /
pled between 2000 and 2015. Gulls are attracted to urban areas because the temperatures are 4-6°C warmer, extending the birds’ breeding season; moreover they encounter fewer predators and can forage using street lighting. A University of the West of England study found chicken bones, pork ribs, plastic cutlery and rubber bands in the birds’ nests.
LONDON UNDERGROUND MOSQUITO
4. First reported during the second world war, this mosquito is a genetically distinct species. Its surface-dwelling relative Culex pipiens bites only birds and hibernates; Culex pipiens molestus, however, has adapted to underground
breeding season période de reproduction / to forage chercher de la nourriture / lighting éclairage / bone os / rib côte / cutlery couverts / rubber band élastique / nest nid. 4. Underground = subway (US) métro / mosquito moustique / to report signaler / species (inv.) espèce / surface-dwelling qui vit en surface / relative parent (de la même famille) / to bite, bit, bitten ici, piquer / life by feeding on human blood and not needing to hibernate. While it is thought the mosquito first evolved in London it is also found on the Tokyo and New York underground systems.
BLACKBIRDS
5. Evolutionary biologist Menno Schilthuizen has discovered that city blackbirds have shorter beaks, don’t migrate and sing at a different pitch – adaptations that prevent them from breeding with their forest relatives. A study from the Max Planck Institute found that European urban blackbirds had a lower stress response than their forest-dwelling equivalents, an adjustment to the presence of humans, cats, cars and so on that characterise urban life. blood sang. 5. blackbird merle / beak bec / pitch ton, note / to prevent from empêcher de / lower stress response ici, réaction moins forte à un stimulus stressant / and so on etc.