Geographies of Coexistence: negotiating urban space with the Grey-Headed Flying-Fox

The global phenomena of wildlife migration to urban areas unsettle notions of the city being exclusively for humans. Using a dialogue between urban political ecology and multispecies ethnographies we explore entanglement as a way forward for humans and non-humans to work together. Over the last two...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian geographer 2024-01, Vol.55 (1), p.95-114
Main Authors: Smith, Paul, McManus, Phil
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal migration
Coexistence
Critical discourse analysis
entanglement human-animal relations
Flight
Flying
Foxes
Humans
multispecies perspectives
Parks & recreation areas
Policy and planning
Political ecology
Public policy
Recreation areas
social licence to operate (SLO)
Threatened species
Trees
Urban areas
urban political ecology
urbanisation
Wildlife
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Summary:The global phenomena of wildlife migration to urban areas unsettle notions of the city being exclusively for humans. Using a dialogue between urban political ecology and multispecies ethnographies we explore entanglement as a way forward for humans and non-humans to work together. Over the last two decades the Grey-Headed Flying-Fox has become increasingly prevalent in the urbanised spaces of south-east Australia, establishing roosts in trees in urban parks, recreational areas and residential yards. Human-flying-fox relations are complex, and tensions between demands for lethal control and recognition of their ecological role and threatened species status forces humans to negotiate urban space for coexistence. Public policy and planning documents are analysed to identify emerging narratives as coexistence is negotiated around human amenity, the withdrawal of what we call the social licence to harm, legislative conservation and flying-fox agency.
ISSN:0004-9182
1465-3311
DOI:10.1080/00049182.2023.2289198