Skip to main content

Wild About: Natural Inhabitants of Washington Square Park

Image: Map of the Natural Inhabitants & Visitors of Washington Square Park by Eric Chase Anderson (source)

If you've seen Wes Anderson's films then you've seen the artwork of his illustrator brother, Eric Chase Anderson. Eric Anderson developed a Map of the Natural Inhabitants & Visitors of Washington Square Park for the NYU Alumni Magazine. The map is an insert in Issue #23. You can view the map online (scroll to the last page then flip inward two pages). Issue #23 is also embedded at the end of this post.

Humans - and their dogs - made the list! The 14 animal inhabitants and visitors featured on the map are the

1. American tree sparrow
2. Cedar waxwing
3. Dark-eyed junco
4. Domestic dog
5. Downy woodpecker
6. Eastern gray squirrel
7. House mouse
8. House sparrow
9. Human
10. Little brown bat
11. Northern cardinal
12. Norway rat
13. Red-tailed hawk
14. Rock dove [aka rock pigeon or pigeon]

One of my favorite features of the map is the proper collective noun or grouping name for most of the animals on the list. Here's an example: An earful or museum of dark-eyed juncos.


Comments