From ibis to hyenas, urban life attracts a surprisingly diverse range of scavengers. Here's how they live in cities across the planet.
On the way to the Cape Point nature reserve, on the outskirts of the South African city of Cape Town, people have to endure the "hot rabbit" of the gang every day, which has a habit of "hijacks cars".
The perpetrators are notorious - probably as famous for the occasional car break-in as they are for their potentially foul breath.
They are, in fact, baboons.
And they adapted to life among humans with surprising alacrity.
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Deeper in the city, marauding primate troops have learned to raid dumpsters and even break into homes in search of a free meal.
These scavengers have become so productive that it now exists 24-hour telephone helpline for baboon situations, where residents can report violations, as well as concerns about compromised security.
Of course, baboons are not the only wild animals attracted to the urban sprawl of humanity.
Across the planet, the original inhabitants of the areas now occupied by cities have resisted and learned to flourish, side by side with millions of people.
Here are some of the remarkable transformations taking place there.
Foxes
Every night, as dusk falls on cities across Europe, red foxes come out of hiding and roam the streets.
Sometimes they confidently insert themselves into crowds of people, blending seamlessly with bipedal pedestrians.
From time to time it is possible to see only the end of the bushy tail, while one of them is digging in the container.
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These adaptable omnivores will dig for wild foods such as berries or insects, supplementing them with freshly caught pigeons and scraps found in the trash.
There are at least ten different species of "real" fox scattered around the planet - from the unusual bat-eared fennec fox to the charismatic Tibetan sand fox.
They have lived among humans for millennia - in 1991, researchers unearthed the ancient bones of one in Argentina, which recent research has revealed could have been pet.
Today, the fox is more and more in urban areas, with 18 per square kilometer in London alone.
They can also be found in cities in the US, especially in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
Coyotes
In recent decades, coyotes have become ubiquitous in American cities.
These canine relatives are opportunistic scavengers; they will eat anything at their disposal - mice, rabbits, frogs, lizards and food scraps taken out of the dumpster.
A 2022 study who analyzed the diet of coyotes in New York, found that they ate large mammals such as deer and raccoons, as well as human foods such as chicken, pork and beef.
Their flexible diet makes them adept at urban living.
However, scientists warn that their consumption of food waste poses a risk to humans, because urban coyotes carry more parasites and have unhealthier microbiomes—a trait linked to aggressive behavior.
Sea gulls
Many a carefree walk through seaside towns was interrupted by seagulls that rudely snatched food from passers-by in flight.
In coastal towns, these birds can appear to be reckless opportunists, raiding settlements to steal rich catches from picnics, barbecues or even snacks bought on the street.
In fact, we are the ones who invaded the habitat of these birds.
Dwindling fish stocks and loss of natural habitat are thought to have contributed to the seagulls' search food elsewhere, both in cities and at landfills.
"Over time they develop a repertoire of quite adept behaviors that allow them to take food either from your containers or from people directly," he tells BBC News Paul Graham of the University of Sussex in the UK.
"We have to learn how to live with them."
The next time a ravenous seagull grabs your food, it might not be a bad idea to think about whether we were the first to steal your fish.
Boars
Although they are hermits by nature, the attractiveness of suburban life brings boars to the light of street lamps.
From the hills Hong Kong to the beaches of Mediterranean Marbella, where once wild boars roamed the earth, they now dig through garbage.
In Berlin, napping in kiddie pools.
In Spain, it's a couple stole the purse of Colombian pop star Shakira.
Wherever they are, they will follow frequent meetings with local authorities or euthanasia teams.
In the US, where wild boars are not a native species, they are considered invasive pests.
With a population thought to be approx six million and growing, at least 35 US states now report their presence.
The result is, it is estimated, damage in the amount of $ 2,5 billion for American crops, such as peanuts and corn.
Just because they're invasive doesn't mean their impact is all bad.
What's more, new research is looking at the ways in which their prowling noses and hooves may actually benefit local ecosystems; mitigating the impact of dominant plants and potentially mimicking the effects of ancient mega-fauna.
Hyenas
Hyenas are notorious villains of the animal kingdom.
However, these scavengers are not all bad.
Hyenas bring significant health and economic benefits African cities they visit, according to a 2021 study by the University of Michigan.
Collectively, hyenas annually remove 207 tons of animal carcass waste in Mekele, northern Ethiopia, preventing an estimated five cases of anthrax and bovine tuberculosis among residents and 140 cases of cattle, sheep, and goats each year.
In the city of Harar in eastern Ethiopia, these animals even go inside the city walls at night, where they feed on the waste and offal left by the city's butchers.
Small openings in the city walls from the 13th century - known as "hyena gates" - allow these animals to pass freely.
Communities on the outskirts of Ethiopian cities value hyenas because they "understand the sanitary services they provide," he tells BBC Buducnost Chinmay Sonavane, a biologist at Stanford University in California.
Elephants
These animals can often be seen sniffing around the smelly piles of garbage on the outskirts of Kotdwar, a city in the Uttarakhand region of northern India.
They pick through the waste with their noses, occasionally pausing to swallow a tasty morsel.
However, these creatures are not rats or feral dogs feasting on the discarded spoils of human habitation - they are among the largest land animals on the planet: Asian elephants.
Kotdwar - a fast-growing city with an estimated population of 45.000 - rests on the fringes of forest habitats where elephants are commonly found.
As the human urban population expanded into the forests, it brought new and surprising food sources to the elephants.
One study on elephant dung found in and around the forests of Uttarkhand she discovered the telltale signs that the animals were picking through human waste in search of food.
The elephants living near Kotdwar seem to be particularly fond of the dump-diving lifestyle.
Unfortunately, all of their poop samples from the Kotdwar area contained plastic packaging, food packaging and even a disposable escaige that they ate while gorging on food scraps, according to researchers at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
This is a habit observed in Asian elephants in Sri Lanka, where garbage dumps provide easy food sources for animals.
One study on elephants that were fed garbage from a landfill in southern Sri Lanka she found that the animals were in "better physical condition" than those that did not dig through human trash.
There have also been reports of elephants dying after eating large amounts of plastic waste.
There is also concern that as human urban populations grow in areas where wild elephants are usually found, the risk of a dangerous encounter between our species only increase.
Conflicts between humans and elephants can often have deadly results on both sides.
Vultures
Since ancient times, vultures have been seen as symbols of bad luck and harbingers of death.
These carrion birds, which eat exclusively the carcasses of dead animals, play key role in preventing the spread of pathogens on humans and wild animals and the transfer of contaminants into the environment.
Vultures are disappearing at an alarming rate in South Asia and Africa.
Widespread poisoning with the veterinary painkiller diclofenac in the 1990s and 2000s led to a decline of 99 percent in the population of the three most common vulture species in India.
That decline has been halted for now due to the ban on the use of the drug.
In Africa, many vultures are victims of religious beliefs, as their heads are sold as good luck charms or ground up and used in folk remedies.
Bears
In the US, you are more likely to to kill a bee nego medved, but incidents where bears enter human areas are becoming more common.
Or maybe it is vice versa?
Grizzly bears used to be inhabited most of the western United States, while black bears were common in forested areas across the country.
Today, 2.000 grizzlies inhabit only six percent of their former habitat, while 300.000 black bears live in 50 percent of theirs.
They are extremely intelligent and inquisitive creatures, and their powerful noses and insatiable appetites mean they will do anything just to find food.
To the majority of conflicts with bears comes when human food - such as waste or trees with fruit - is freely available.
Bears have been filmed breaking into homes to steal food, earning one 226-pound bear burglar the nickname "hank the tank" .
Although the bear hunt is still on allowed in some states, government wildlife agencies educate the public how to peacefully coexist with bears.
Ibis
With a plump white body and long, wrinkled neck and feet, the Australian white ibis is sometimes described as graceful and elegant - even when in its natural marshy habitat.
In Australian cities, that story is completely different.
The "garbage hen" or "bucket turkey," as this bird is not endearingly called, can often be found flying around the wastewater treatment plant or pecking at garbage.
Although urban communities often see this bird as more of a pest than a national treasure, research shows that it could represent a vital reservoir of genetic diversity which could help replenish wildlife populations elsewhere.
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Wasps enjoy a reputation as constant picnic-spoilers, as they fly in to feast on bread jam, fruit salad and other goodies.
Their love of sweets may be exaggerated; in the wild they feed on carrion as readily as on rotting fruit.
In areas where European wasps arrived relatively recently - such as Australia and New Zealand - scientists have been able to record their dramatic impact on other scavenger species.
A 2020 study, conducted in Australia, showed that wasps quickly arrived to feed on fresh carcasses and aggressively attacked competing wasps—so much so that the flies failed to lay eggs.
Larger scavenging vertebrates such as dingoes were also attacked.
There is also evidence that wasps are adapting to city life, even at the genetic level.
As temperatures rise due to climate change, a recent study showed that hotter urban areas with less vegetation usually became home to smaller wasps.
This could give them an evolutionary advantage because lighter bodies need less energy to stay in the air.
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Additional reporting: Zaria Gorvet, Isabel Garretsen, Richard Gray, Lucy Sheriff, Stephen Dowling, India Burke and Marta Enriquez.
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