It is a weekday evening, the city is slowly falling into the twilight when a kind of small, elongated cat walks over the fence in the middle of the city center of Tilburg. What turns out? It concerns a stone marten that is increasingly found in the city. A good development, says urban ecologist Rob van Dijk. “We haven’t hunted stone martens for a long time and we are only now seeing the effect.”
According to the urban ecologist, there are several reasons why animals are increasingly seen in the city. “It may have to do with the fact that there is more habitat.” As an example he mentions the tree frogs in the Reeshof, which for a long time only occurred in one place in Brabant.
The second important reason is time. “We haven’t hunted beavers, martens and wolves for a long time. We are only now seeing the effect of that,” he explains, as he walks through the green strip along Cobbenhagenlaan. “Nature took a long time to recover. The stone marten was only in a corner of Limburg, but has come back completely.”
But how does the urban ecologist know that there are more wild animals in the city? “One of the ways is that we keep an eye on them with wildlife cameras,” he says. The other way is a bit sadder. “Unfortunately, you can also see it in the number of collisions, which has increased in recent years.”
“For the animals, a green strip is their highway.”
According to Van Dijk, wild animals such as stone martens need a route to and from the city. “I try to see the city through the eyes of the animals. We see the city very differently, because we mainly benefit from strips of asphalt. For the animals, a green strip is their highway.”
Such a route can be a park or piece of forest, but also a stream. “The beaver came swimming from Oisterwijk across the Voorste Stroom and entered the Leijpark. “Trees are sometimes gnawed down there, but there is no castle yet. That beaver is just a city dweller. I think that’s so cool.”
“Such an animal wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t a wild piece of forest.”
Where the urban ecologist would also like to take a look is the Spoorpark. Very busy on a sunny day, but there are also pieces of unspoilt nature to be found there. When a long-tailed tit lands on one of the flowery branches of a wild apple tree, urban ecologist Rob van Dijk automatically starts whispering. “Such an animal wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t a wild piece of forest.”
The Spoorpark was built on an old shunting yard. “On a small part of that area where no work was being done, a forest grew spontaneously. It is now next to the beach volleyball courts.”
There are a lot of trees in that part of the forest and if you look closely you can see rabbit holes between the blackberry branches. “It’s a bit busier in the park now, so you don’t see them during the day. But if you come here at dusk, you might just see them. There are literally dozens of them.”
“I’m afraid we can’t stop that completely.”
Not much further on, Van Dijk suddenly sees an egg. “I think it is a duck egg, because it is too small for a pigeon. It could be that this egg was broken open and eaten by a stone marten.”
So the wildlife in the city is doing well and Van Dijk expects that more species will be added in the coming years. “There could be otters within the next ten years,” he says enthusiastically.
He is less happy with another future city resident. “The raccoon is also coming, but it doesn’t occur naturally here. You don’t have to be very happy about that, because it robs everything, from bird nests to garbage cans. I’m afraid we can’t stop that completely.”
Just like Rob van Dijk, ranger Frans Kapteijns also talks enthusiastically about nature. Listen to his weekly podcast Stuifmail here:
