Safari on the 7 train

From the Queens Chronicle:

You might not think of the subway as an ideal place to find wildlife, but architecture students from Columbia University and Barnard College are trying to introduce people to the array of animals that can be found along the 7 line.

The students, working through Columbia’s Urban Landscape Lab and collaborating with a graphic designer, have developed a series of about 12 podcasts called Safari 7, which together offer an “urban tour” of the wildlife that exists along or near the 7 line.

Anyone can download the podcasts onto an MP3 player and then listen to information about animals that can be found in the areas they pass through while riding the subway. The segments are timed so as to correspond with subway stops.

“This is a kind of broadcast of information about animal life in the city,” said Janette Kim, director of the Urban Landscape Lab. “It’s a celebration of the biodiversity of the city and an understanding that we already live in a very rich ecosystem, but we don’t always acknowledge or understand it.”

In addition to segments about common city critters such as rats, squirrels and pigeons, there’s a piece on life forms that inhabit Calvary Cemetery, and one about the city’s cormorants, many of which reside on U Thant Island, a small bit of land constructed of the leftovers from the 7 line’s Steinway Tunnel.

For more information, or to download podcasts, visit safari7.org.