Animals in the Garden City

Hornbills as Urban Co-Designers

Oriental pied hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) | Podcast Episode | Blog Post

Opportunistic Monitor Lizards

Asian Water Monitor (Varanus salvator) | Podcast Episode | Blog Post

Otters' Shifting Territories

Smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) | Podcast Episode |Blog Post

Koi Fish Beyond Ornament

Koi fish (Cyprinus rubrofuscus) | Podcast Episode | Blog Post

Wild Boars and the Violence of Population Control

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) | Podcast Episode | Blog Post

Javan Mynas, Singapore's Most Abundant and Audacious Bird

Javan myna (Acridotheres javanicus) | Podcast Episode | Blog Post

Red Junglefowl, the Ancestors of the Modern Chicken

Red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) | Podcast Episode | Blog Post

Animals in the Garden City

A series on The Animal Highlight Podcast with Claudia Hirtenfelder

October 2026 Release

Supported by Culture and Animals Foundation

Singapore is a city-state that sits in one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, and it calls itself a "Garden in a City." It’s a city that has been praised for all its successful green infrastructure and biophilic design implementations. But what does that identity mean when you look at the animals who live in this city in nature, and how do they share the land-scarce island of Singapore with humans? This series looks at eight quintessentially Singaporean animals who each have a story to tell. But interspecies coexistence has been proven to be complicated, putting Singapore’s "Garden City" image into question. Singapore's approach to wildlife management, overseen by the National Parks Board, includes controversial, lethal population control measures that have drawn scrutiny.

In the podcast series, Rebecca Shen and Claudia Hirtenfelder focus on the animals's stories, looking at how they've adapted to urban pressures, how unlikely relationships have formed between them and their humans neighbors, and the roles these animals play in Singapore's ecosystems, history, and culture. Accompanying each animal's story is an illustrative drawing visualizing the animal's spatial relationships in Singapore and an accompanying blog post on The Animal Turn.