S7E1: Hornbills in a Garden City

A wild bird disappears for 140 years, then returns to one of the most urbanised places on Earth, not by accident, but because a city changes its mind about what nature is allowed to be. That’s the story we’re starting with as we launch a Singapore-focused season with landscape designer and artist Rebecca Shen, whose CAF-funded Atlas Animalia project maps the real, messy relationships between animals and urban life.  Featured:  Rebecca's Hornbill Map Singapore Hornbill Project Devoted Hornbill Delivers Food to Mate by Planet Earth III, BBC Earth  The Ecology and Conservation of Asian Hornbills by F. Margaret et al.  Hornbills are more like us than you may think! By Ariana Loehr Land use and oriental pied-hornbill occurrence in Singapore by Zaheedah Yahya et al.  Signal Group Rebecca Shen joined The Animal Turn team in 2023 as a fellow interested in researching animals in design and podcast production. She is now an Assistant Content Producer and Designer. Rebecca is a landscape designer and researcher. She is inspired by design as pursuits of worldmaking, especially to advance interspecies justice and collectivity during times of challenge. Rebecca graduated with a Master in Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2023, where she completed her design thesis, Sanctuary State: California’s Cowscape in Transition. Through her design work, she explores human-animal relationships in the built environment, ecological restoration, and regenerative food systems. Credits: Recorded: 16 June 2026 Claudia Hirtenfelder: executive producer, editor and co-host  Rebecca Shen: script writer, narrator and co-host, episode artwork and logo Gordon Clarke: bed music Sound effects: Epidemic Sound, BBC Sound Effects, Planet Earth III BBC, Pixabay, Xeno-Canto Support the podcast via:  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn  Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn  Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/  Send us Fan Mail The Animal Turn The Animal Turn is the sister podcast to The Animal Highlight. Culture and Animals Foundation The Culture & Animals Foundation advances animal advocacy through intellectual & artistic expression Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Support the show The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast. Connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.