It’s a Wild City! Funny Wildlife PSAs Appear in NYC

Have you spotted any of these funny, guerrilla PSAs about New York City’s wildlife? “MISSING” says one in connection to the Central Park Mandarin Duck. “FAST AS F*CK” says one about the falcon. “LEARN TO BIRD” with no money down!  In homage to the DIY advertisements you might find on telephone poles and newspaper boxes, the informational flyers have stripes on the bottom you can rip off for more information. These reveal the source of the humorous PSAs: It’s from the author of Wild City: A History of New York City in 40 Animals, Tom Hynes.

Photo courtesy @WildCityNYC

Hynes got his start writing for Untapped New York and turned his animal-focused column into Wild City, which was released earlier this year. It’s an illustrated exploration that highlights everything from the return of the humpback whale to the pizza rat. Hynes started putting these up in anticipation for the release of his book and has continued throughout the summer and as recently as a week ago. He tells Untapped New York, “I’ll probably keep doing them now and then. The anti litter PSAs I put up around the time the parks dept was mentioning their own budget shortfalls and the need for park goers to pick up their own trash.”

Photo courtesy @WildCityNYC

The illustrator of the animals on the posters is Kath Nash, who also illustrated Wild City. Each of the PSAs have more highlights about each creature. The Mandarin Duck one says “Remember this little guy? Used to be around all the time! Loved to swim in Central Park and have his picture taken. But now he’s just gone! We will always love you, Gucci duck. Please come home soon! ENJOY YOUR LOCAL WILDLIFE TODAY!” One of the mastodon says, “NEW YORK GIANTS. Mastodons were the original New Yorkers. These big buddies lived all over the city back in the day. Just imagine this furry elephant roaming around Inwood or wherever. It’s wild.”

Photo courtesy @WildCityNYC

Here, we have all eleven posters Hynes has up around New York City. In addition to the ones we mentioned, there are posters for the Black Crowned Night Heron, the Coyote, the Diamondback Terrapin, the Hawk, Honey Bees, the Humpback Whale, the Monk Parrot, Oysters, and Rats.

Photo here and below courtesy @WildCityNYC

You can get a copy of Wild City: A History of New York City in 40 Animals and see the talk we hosted with Tom Hynes earlier this year in our Video Archive available just to members of Untapped New York Insiders.