Animals & nature · 2017
Why do neighbors want different solutions to the same urban wildlife problem?
Neighbors can experience wildlife differently and disagree about both the outcome they want and the ways they consider acceptable to achieve it. An overview of urban wildlife management in the United States and Canada identifies these differences in values as a central challenge, rather than testing which solution works best.
Details
Sharing a neighborhood does not mean sharing the same view of its wildlife. The paper describes how some species are welcomed alongside people while others are considered intolerable, in both urban and traditional wildlife management settings.
Drawing on a broad account of wildlife exploitation, recovery and management of its impacts, the authors explain why a response acceptable to every part of an urban community is difficult to find. Residents can perceive different impacts from wildlife, and their values can shape both their preferred goals and the actions they will accept. Approaches designed specifically for urban settings are described as still developing.
This is a descriptive discussion, not a comparison of tested interventions: the abstract reports no defined sample or measured effectiveness. The authors also warn that unresolved problems with urban wildlife could provoke opposition to wildlife and habitat conservation in or near cities. That is a possible consequence they raise, not an outcome demonstrated by this paper.
What do you think?
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