Urban Wildlife Information Network: Building a global picture of city wildlife

A paper by Seth Magle, director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, lays out the origins, growth, and ambitions of the Urban Wildlife Information Network in detail. Written as both a scientific overview and a call to action, the piece explains why studying urban wildlife city by city was never going to be enough, and how UWIN was designed to change that.

The core problem Magle identifies is that urban wildlife research has historically been fragmented, with individual researchers studying single species in single cities using their own methods, making meaningful comparisons nearly impossible. UWIN addresses this by bringing partner cities together under shared research protocols, allowing data to be compared across regions and at continental scale. From an initial partnership between Chicago, Madison, and Indianapolis, the network has grown to 47 cities across four countries, including partners in Germany and South Africa, with ongoing efforts to expand into the Global South.

The paper outlines both the strengths and honest limitations of the network. Current data collection relies heavily on camera traps focused on medium to large mammals, leaving invertebrates, fish, reptiles, and amphibians largely unstudied. Geographic coverage also remains heavily weighted toward North America. Magle frames these not as failures but as the next challenges to tackle.

Beyond research, the paper describes how UWIN data is being used to shape real urban policy, including Chicago's Wildlife Management and Coexistence Plan, and how the network is working to connect scientists with city planners, landscape architects, and developers to build more wildlife-friendly cities.

Read the full paper →