This is But Why a Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont Public.

I'm Jane Lenton.

In this show, we take questions from curious kids just like you and we find answers.

A few weeks ago, we did a live presentation with and for some students in Burlington, Vermont,

to talk about urban wildlife.

It was a kickoff event for the city's nature celebration, where people who live in Burlington

were encouraged to go out and see what kind of local plants and animals they can find.

This is actually part of a much bigger, global event called the City Nature Challenge.

In the City Nature Challenge, communities around the world have a friendly competition

to see how many species of plants and animals can be documented in their city over a certain

time period.

Last year, more than 50,000 species were recorded.

In Burlington alone, people documented 584 species in just a couple of days.

Here's what we think of cities primarily as human spaces, lots of people, lots of buildings,

cars, and concrete.

But we are just part of the ecosystem of an urban space.

Even with all that human activity, cities are also teeming with wildlife, from ants to

squirrels to hawks to trees.

So we were thrilled to get a chance to talk about urban wildlife with some local students

here in Vermont's biggest city.

At the event, we asked each class to come up with one question they wanted us to explore

and pick a classmate to come to the microphone and share it.

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