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| View from the terrace of the Edificio Italia |
This is the view from the top of the Edificio Italia building in central
São Paulo. A field of skyscrapers as far as the eye can see and what surprises the most is how little it changes if you look in one direction or another. A true urban megalopolis but is it necessarily a concrete jungle?
What is remarkable is that, invisible to the eye from the lofty hights of the
Edificio Italia, there are considerable amounts of
shrubs, trees and green spaces. And within it lives a massive array of wildlife.
According to data from the
UN here is a list of the species currently found in the city:
Flora: 1,909 species of which 1,788 are angiosperms, 30 gymnosperms, 70 pteridophyta, 19 bryophytes, and 3 lichens.
Fauna: 285 species of birds (
Ibirapuera park alone hosts 135 of them), 58 species of mammals, 40 different amphibians and 37 reptiles as well as the 9 species of fish living in the lakes of the municipal parks.
So just as humans in their millions have adapted to
São Paulo's concrete, so it seems have many wild plants and animals. Or at least, they have survived the human invasion, something you wouldn't necessarily take for granted when observing the urban sprawl from the top of the Edificio Italia.
