More and more animals are moving to the city. Here they find favorable living conditions for themselves and their offspring - but they also have to assert themselves. What if we saw wild animals as city dwellers?

Despite freezing temperatures and the first snowflakes, around 15 young and old researchers joined AHA - The Science Communication Hub and the UnDesignUnit on a foray through Neuperlach on November 21, 2025: Where and how do animals live on, in and between built-up areas? What conditions do they need? Where do they feel comfortable?

On the participatory species trail, participants learned more about the habitats of house sparrows, wild honeybees, great spotted woodpeckers and sand lizards and collected ideas: How can this knowledge be taken into account in urban planning?

UnDesignUnit used playful activities with props to encourage a change of perspective: Color filter glasses, for example, made it visible that many animals perceive colors differently than we humans do. An artificial "beak" enabled the group to examine different surfaces like a woodpecker: What sounds are produced when you tap on an insulated house wall? Which ones on a hollow tree trunk? The great spotted woodpeckers use such acoustic information to communicate - and in their search for suitable cavity locations into which they can move.

With their experiences from the animals' point of view, the participants will certainly use one or two ideas from the AHA district walk and make their personal environment a little more attractive for other living creatures too.

About UnDesignUnit

Sarah Dorkenwald and Karianne Fogelberg design new discursive and participative formats with their Munich studio UnDesignUnit, with which they convey complex contemporary issues and make them tangible.

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