Question

What is the focus of the Urban Wildlife Institute? What current issue is receiving special emphasis right now? Why is that significant given current global news? 

Answer 1

Urban wildlife organizations—which include groups focused on wildlife rehabilitation, rescue, removal, advocacy, education, and conflict resolution—have typically been viewed as out of step with the goals of wildlife conservation because of their focus on encounters with individual nonhuman animals, common species, and degraded habitats. The recent shift by large conservation NGOs toward a “humans and nature together” framework, because of its focus on urban natures, has brought the field into discursive relation with urban wildlife organizations. Drawing on a case study of four wildlife organizations in an urban center, this research explores their discourse about human-wildlife relationships in the city, and the challenges and opportunities presented by their emergent intersections.

When we think of cities, our attention is usually drawn to the built and social environment — the architecture, infrastructure and social dynamics of urban human life. When we think about nature and cities, if at all, it is often about landscaping, parks, open space, clean air, clean water — a variety of ecosystem services that sustain and enrich human life.

More recent discourses in urban ecology, urban geography and urban planning emphasize the benefits to human health and well being of green space and green infrastructure (e.g. parks, living walls), urban agriculture and local farming, sustainable transportation and energy production, the challenges that climate change poses to urban areas, and issues of social justice in urban environments. Such topics are now common foci in public policy discussions of creating greener, sustainable and resilient cities.

Yet cities are more than a collection of human beings, their artifacts, and a bit of parkland. They are complex and sometimes fecund ecologies creating unique landscapes — configurations of natural and cultural phenomena — that are not seen in nature alone. Rather they are anthropogenic “humanitats,” designed primarily for people but hosting a wide variety of synanthropes — wild animals, plants and other lifeforms that live near and benefit from human beings.
Ongoing urbanization tends to reduce the biodiversity of wildlife in the humanitat through human depredation (e.g. hunting, trapping), habitat fragmentation and destruction (especially harmful to ecological specialists), and the introduction of alien species. On the other hand, there are many wild animals and plants that thrive in urban areas throughout the world — coyotes, foxes, jackals, bobcats, racoons, deer, hedgehogs, wild boar, monkeys, rats, mice, and a variety of insects like pill-bugs, roaches and silverfish. All these species are ecological generalists capable of inhabiting a wide variety of urban niches.

At the same time, cities are also home to an abundance of domestic animals, populations of which may far outstrip populations of related species in the wild. Dogs and cats are the primary example worldwide, existing in far larger numbers than their nearest evolutionary relatives. While these popular companion animals may often be well cared for, some have become feral with free-breeding urban populations. This can create health and safety issues from diseases like rabies and attacks on people or other animals. Ecological issues may arise as well, such as when outdoor cats prey upon native wildlife.
As cities seek to green their infrastructure through open space, afforestation, and natural landscaping, many species of wildlife have begun to re-inhabit urban areas. So too, suburbanization brings people and their domestic animals into the former habitat of wild animals. People and domestic animals are therefore coming into increasing contact with wildlife. This can creates conditions ripe with conflict — marmots burrowing under a shed, skunks digging for grubs on lawns, and coyotes snatching up dogs and cats for food.

This is also true for those coastal, lake and river-side cities that have significant “blue space”. Conflicts with humans and their urban environments abound — chemical, particulate and thermal pollution from point and non-point sources, degradation of beach habitat by human recreation, over-fishing in littoral waters, development of coastal estuaries, shark attacks on swimmers, crocodiles in backyards, exotic pythons and other constrictors in wetlands, road-kill of amphibians and reptiles, and so on