Anyone can download the podcasts onto an MP3 player and then listen to information about animals that can be found in the areas they pass through while riding the subway. The segments are timed so as to correspond with subway stops.
   “This is a kind of broadcast of information about animal life in the city,” said Janette Kim, director of the Urban Landscape Lab. “It’s a celebration of the biodiversity of the city and an understanding that we already live in a very rich ecosystem, but we don’t always acknowledge or understand it.”
   In addition to segments about common city critters such as rats, squirrels and pigeons, there’s a piece on life forms that inhabit Calvary Cemetery, and one about the city’s cormorants, many of which reside on U Thant Island, a small bit of land constructed of the leftovers from the 7 line’s Steinway Tunnel.
   Then there are the quirkier pieces as well — for example, one about germs. Though the online description of the germ podcast says “more germs ride the Number 7 line each day than people do in a year,” Kim said the segment is “actually very pro-germ.”
   Some of the podcasts talk about animals that have come to be the way they are as a direct result of living in New York City. For example, Kim said one segment explains that male dope fish in the East River have started experiencing gender changes, as a result of discarded birth control pills. Waste management plants don’t process drugs that people throw out, Kim said, so the active ingredients — in this case estrogen — are flushed out into the city’s waterways.
   The podcasts, along with a series of maps which are still in the works and will be available this summer, are meant to enable commuters, school children and tourists alike to go on self-guided New York City nature tours.
   “The project really came out of our own thoughts about the National Parks Service and the parks system,” said Kim. “There’s this idea that ... we have to leave the city to experience nature, but we really thought you don’t.”
   The students interviewed ecologists and Parks Department officials, as well as specialists from a range of environmental organizations, when compiling the information for their podcasts.
   Safari 7 will be distributing maps through Queens Art Express, an arts festival beginning May 30 and featuring exhibitions, festive events and live performances in public spaces throughout neighborhoods clustered along the 7 line route.
   For more information, or to download podcasts, visit safari7.org.