Abstract
AN exhibit entitled “The Population of a Seaport” was recently installed in the Zoology Department of the National Museum of Wales. It is based on the fact that any great city to-day is a habitat characterized by a particular community of animal species ; in this case including, and largely dependent on, man. Examples of this urban fauna-certain birds, domestic animals, rodent and insect pests, etc.-are shown ; and the interrelationships of the species, between themselves and with man, illustrated by coloured tapes running from one animal to another and thence to a small bust representing man. As man created the habitat for this community, he can control it for the better, notably by improved town-planning, whereby, for example, desirable bird-life may be increased, and improved house-building, whereby rats, cockroaches, etc., may be diminished. As indicated in the labels, these and some other urban pests were originally introduced by shipping, and specimens are displayed of the numerous alien species that thus reach our seaports ; those which have established themselves, however, have mostly spread inland and are to-day familiar in all large towns. As about 80 percent of the population of Britain are urban dwellers, such an exhibit should assist the majority of visitors to envisage this biological background to their environment, and the advantages to be achieved by its improvement and control. An article describing the exhibit appears in the October number of the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
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Animal Population of a Seaport. Nature 152, 656 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152656c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152656c0