Wild City
New Yorkers share the urban jungle with wild animals large and small. From the coyotes in Central Park, whales and dolphins off the Rockaways, and peregrine falcons nesting on high-rises, these urban adapters remind us that nature is not so far away.
Join us as we explore the ecology of these wild residents across a day of activities. Dive deeper into the role these animals play in a healthy ecosystem, and learn what we can do to support them, in a panel discussion including Mark Weckel, co-founder of Gotham Coyote Project, photographer and urban marine naturalist Chris St. Lawrence of Gotham Whale, and Mel Julien of NYC Plover Project; moderated by Nathan Hunter, manager of the Bronx River Foodway.
Then, get reacquainted with New York celebrity Flaco the Owl with a free screening of Wild Inside, the new documentary by Penny Lane about the Eurasian Eagle-Owl that escaped the Central Park Zoo and set off on a magical odyssey through Manhattan, overcoming years of captivity and lack of survival skills to answer the call of the wild.
Throughout the afternoon, natural space advocacy organizations including Wild Bird Fund, NYC Plover Project, Gotham Whale, and Alley Pond Environmental Center will discuss their field work, and how citizen scientists can get involved. Photographers Jackie Emery & David Lei will also show their photographs of Flaco the Owl, Central Park coyotes Romeo & Juliette, and other NYC wildlife, and sign copies of their book Finding Flaco. The book will be available for purchase this day at the MoMI Shop.
Schedule
11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Wild Neighbors– meet local organizations working to improve wild spaces for New Yorkers
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Conversation: Wild City with Gotham Coyote Project, Gotham Whale, and NYC Plover Project (Fox Amphitheater. Free with RSVP)
1:30 p.m. Book Signing: Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl with photographers Jackie Emery and David Lei.
2:30 p.m. Screening: Wild Inside followed by a Q&A with producer Gabriel Sedgwick and film participant Suzanne Highland of Wild Bird Fund, and Novem Auyeung, PhD, Director of Research & Monitoring, Environment & Planning for NYC Parks. (Free with RSVP)
RSVP recommended at the links above. Seating is first come, first served.
Special Guests
Jacqueline Emery and David Lei are part-time professional wildlife photographers whose work has been published by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets. They are also co-authors of the award-winning and critically acclaimed photo book, Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl.(opens in new tab)
Nathan Hunter (he/they) is a Bronx-based environmental educator and land steward. He works with the NYC Parks managing the Bronx River Foodway, a food forest inside Concrete Plant Park. Through his work, he explores how native plants, fungi, soil microbes, and people can work together to create resilient ecosystems that offer food sovereignty, reduce stormwater impacts, and combat climate change. Nathan is focused on collaborative growing practices that activate the public commons to support community health and land sovereignty. He is a budding forager, herbalist, and avid cyclist in NYC.
Mel (Melissa) Julien is the Community Engagement & Advocacy Director at the NYC Plover Project, leading community relations, developing public programming focused on conservation, and managing civic engagement efforts. Mel brings her prior experience in marketing and advertising to the role. A life-long resident of the Rockaways, Mel can often be found at the beach.
Chris St Lawrence is a naturalist, published science communicator, and an award-winning conservation photographer. Based in New York City, he started his Gotham Whale journey when a whale swam up the Hudson River. He is Gotham Whale’s Director of Communications, and a whale-watch naturalist with American Princess Cruises in Brooklyn, where he connects New Yorkers with the wildlife that lives just beyond the city’s shores. He also volunteers with the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, helping with large whale necropsies. Chris holds an MA in Environmental Conservation Education from NYU.
Mark Weckel is co-founder of Gotham Coyote Project and Director of Youth Initiatives and an Affiliated Scientist at the American Museum of Natural History. As a conservation scientist, his research focused on human-wildlife interaction and natural resource conflict resolution. He received a master’s degree from Fordham University, where he studied jaguar feeding ecology, and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York, where he investigated the management and population biology of suburban white-tailed deer. While pursuing his doctorate, he served as Director of Research and Land Management at the Mianus River Gorge, the first Nature Conservancy land project in the world. In 2013, Mark joined the AMNH Center for Biodiversity and Conservation as a postdoctoral fellow, where he co-founded the Gotham Coyote Project.
The Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) is a nonprofit environmental education organization working to protect and preserve Queens’ Alley Pond Park, open spaces, and waterbodies, and advocating for sustainable environmental policies and practices. APEC provides a variety of educational programs for children and adults including hosting fieldtrips, workshops, nature-themed birthday parties, and special events like their upcoming Open House and Clothing Swap on Sat. Oct. 3! Visit www.alleypond.org to register for a Fall class!
Gotham Coyote Project are researchers, educators, and students working together to study the ecology of the northeastern coyote in New York City and the region. Our job is to tell the story of the NYC coyote and to help promote understanding and coexistence.
Gotham Whale was established in 2009 as a non-profit research and education organization focused on the marine mammals of NY and NJ. It manages the New York City Humpback Whale Catalog which currently holds more than 480 individual whales. In addition to collecting sightings from commercial whale-watching vessels, Gotham Whale’s Citizen Scientist WANTED program calls on the general public to report their marine mammal sightings. All sightings are used to advocate for the protection of humpback whales, bottlenose dolphins, and other marine mammals in the busy NYC area.
NYC Plover Project’s mission is to protect endangered piping plovers and other fragile beach-nesting birds on New York City’s beaches through education, community engagement, and volunteer stewardship.
Wild Bird Fund, a nonprofit, is NYC’s only wildlife rehabilitation center, treating more than 14,000 sick, injured and orphaned wild animals a year with the goal of returning them to the wild. The patients represent over 200 species, from hawks and geese to woodcocks and warblers, plus lots of pigeons. Squirrels, opossums and turtles too. The city hosts a rich diversity of wild creatures, and WBF aims to keep it that way. To that end, the center educates the public about issues affecting urban wildlife and offers in-school wildlife education to inspire the next generation of wildlife stewards.
Open Worlds: Science is funded by Simons Foundation International and administered by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division.