Do you mind sharing your seat with a brown pelican? Don’t worry, you won’t have to. These endangered species are on the outside of the bus. Endangered Species is an art project on San Francisco’s public buses. Images of endangered species are wrapped around the buses with information about the species on the back of the bus.
The project was the idea of artist Todd Gilens, inspired by the visual elements of everyday urban life. “Buses are so assaulted by advertising, it’s as if our transit system is not our own. But whose environment is it? How can we best look after the places we live?” questioned Gilens. “Public transit is about pooling and sharing resources. Bringing the bus together with local ecosystems and vulnerable animal species was a natural fit once I started to think about it that way.”
The Endangerbuses will be prowling the streets of San Francisco from January to April 2011, dispatched to different routes each day. You can follow the Endangerbus adventure on Twitter at #endangerbus. If you visit or live in the San Francisco area, post your pictures on Flickr tagged with endangerbus.
This blog first appeared on Defenders experts blog.
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