Tonight on Ace the SuperVillain's Real-as-Fuck Animals, some animals aren't weird for what they are, but for where they are. Let me introduce you to two of New York City's most surprising residents:
First the Monk Parakeet:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
The monk parakeet is obviously an invasive species to New York, but then so are pidgeons or for that matter newyorkers. They are most common in Brooklyn, away from the hawks, falcons and owls of Central Park. Interestingly, the city considered a plan to exterminate the monk parakeets, but found that parakeet poo was much less destructive to the historic stone buildings and graveyards than pidgeon poo, so in the end the parakeets are actually preserving the historical landmarks of Brooklyn.
But, NYC is a home to many amazing birds, even a few Bald Eagles, so it's not so surprising that intelligent parakeets can figure it out. The next NYC immigrant is a little more shocking.
Coyotes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide):
To some, it's surprising that coyotes even live that far east, but as it turns out, coyotes go anywhere they fucking want to. What's more interesting is that the coyotes in NYC are a new breed of coyote, some call it a new species, called the Eastern Coyote. Before humans, the eastern USA was ruled by wolves. Now that the wolves have been kicked out by humans, coyotes are starting to move in. But coyotes can make babies with wolves and dogs, and the first coyotes to move out east made sweet love to anything they could find. Thus the new Eastern Coyotes have about 25% wolf DNA and up to 10% dog DNA. This makes Eastern Coyotes noticeably larger than original blend Coyotes, and unpredictable in their behavior. Eastern Coyotes are also all over New England to the north, where the wildlife website of my own state claims that coyotes are literally everyone, every resident, rural, suburban or urban, lives within one mile of a coyote.
Coyotes have a more generalized digestive system than wolves and dogs, and can supplement their meat diets with various fruits and vegetables. This adaptation allows them to take advantage of NYC's number one food source, garbage. Coyotes also lack the majestic fearsomeness of a wolf, so unless you're familiar with the animal, a wandering coyote looks just like a stray dog. But coyote packs hunt and kill large animals like deer, and the Eastern Coyote's wolf ancestors hunt and kill animals like bison and bear, so there's a danger that NYC coyotes might get bored of eating trash and roadkill and start hunting pets, kids and humans. However, from an ecological point of view, it's amazing to see that such an urban jungle like NYC is ecologically healthy enough to support something as high on the food chain as a coyote.
This has been Ace the Super Villain's Real-as-Fuck Animals. Tune in next time as I ask the question, "really? REALLY???"