5 Cool Ways that People and Animals Coexist Around the World

Many different cultures from all over the world incorporate and use animals into their tasks, whether it be for scientific reasons, helping with chores or on farms, and companionship, there is a very special bond that can be grown between the native animals and native people of a specific place. Here are 5 cool ways that people around the world cooperate with animals to help each other.

1. This image gallery by National Geographic displays how people from Switzerland help their animals get around the concrete jungle or manmade structures by ‘cat ladders’ that seem to be layered and incorporated throughout their houses and cities. This may help with cats dying from avoidable human imprints on the landscape like highways with fast cars, introduced invasive species, and other obstacles. 
2. People from all over the world like to tell stories of kids being raised by animals or adopting their behavior otherwise, and these real stories are often more sad then mythical, with kids being abandoned by their parents and left in the woods to be cared for by animals. But did you know that Rome, Italy has a story about Romulus, the founder of Rome, and Remus, his twin brother? They were mythically told to have been raised by a she-wolf and inspired many stories and art of the time. 
3. Roadkill is a common example of what sadly happens to animals when they are forced to mix into the human urban areas like cities. Wildlife Crossings, or bridges that are places where animals can cross the road, and fences separating places where animals are and where cars are. These can help lower the amount of animals killed by cars, and if you want to do that in your community, consider checking if nearby parks or wildlife areas have crossings for deer and other wild animals.
4. Another, more current example, is of how animals have been, for many people, comforting companions during a time of loneliness such as COVID-19. Many articles have been theorizing about the future, like what will happen to our animal’s psyche when we all go back to work after spending so much time at home. If you want a good laugh, here is a compilation of tweets about how animals have been helping their humans during this time.
5. In many parts of the world children are known to keep small animals as pets, but what type of animal this is can change depending on where they are. For instance, in the United States many kids keep large bugs like butterflies as pets, but, when I visited Ecuador and Peru on a study abroad program, I found that a lot of kids kept frogs and mice as pets! One great documentary series called BBC Human Planet has an episode called Jungles, and focused on a rural town in South America where women would take care of monkeys abandoned by monkeys. When I was younger I was sooo jealous! But I realize now that keeping exotic pets wouldn’t be very kind as someone who lives in the suburbs. 🙂 

Want to read more? Read this story here, which has photographs of different cultures and their relationships to animals along with written explanations.