Squirrel Hustle

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urban wildlife

**I was inspired by my husband to write this brief photographic tribute to urban squirrels.  None of these photographs I have taken myself (though I wish!) so I gave credit to the sites where I’ve found them.**

You have to be adaptive to be an urban animal

Environmental Justice for Animals

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african american life, displacement of animal life, environmental racism, habitat destruction, habitat loss, habitat restoration, urban wildlife, wildlife habitat

Before some of y’all get mad or confused, the title is not an attempt to co-opt the phrase “environmental justice” away from communities of color plagued by environmental, health, and economic inequalities.  Nor is it an attempt to replace “animal rights.”  This post is concerning issues of space and habitat I’ve been grappling with for a while.  As I’ve started working directly with urban animals, urban black communities living in poverty, and this notion of interspecies community, I’ve had to rethink how I go about labeling some of these intersectional issues of habitat quality, the institutional shuffling of African Americans into ghettos that directly decrease their quality of life, the institutional displacement of animals in the city, unless they are “pets” under constant surveillance by “owners”, “entertainment” in a traveling circus, “livestock” in a backyard, captives in a zoo, or victims in a lab facility.

The Quest for Zoopolis

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ecological design, human-animal relationships, intentional community, trans-species, urban wildlife, zoopolis

From harmonyfl.com

“Zoopolis” was coined by Jennifer Wolch, former professor of Geography at the University of Southern California and current dean at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.  She described it as a “renaturalized, re-enchanted city” that would “allow for the emergence of an ethic, practice, and politics of caring for animals and nature” by “[inviting] the animals back in.”

Cultivating Wild Bonds in Childhood

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animal bond, animal experience, children and wildlife, endangered species, nature experience, nature reserves, online zoo, urban parks, urban wildlife, wildlife appreciation, wildlife documentaries, wildlife education, wildlife refuges, zoo, zoo industrial complex, zoological gaze

In an effort trying to preserve the imperialist zoological gaze, BBC opened an “online zoo” in September 2009.  I actually found out about this via PETA’s blog, where the author described it as “the zoo of the future.”  The “zoo”

The endangered Litoria Sauroni amphibian found by BBC wildlife team inside the extinct Mount Bosavi volcano in Papua New Guinea. Photograph: Ulla Lohmann/BBC

is actually an online video gallery of animals from all over the world, all animals belonging to groups who are endangered of extinction.  It’s unfortunate that both PETA and BBC use the term “zoo” to describe this project, thereby retaining the notion of zoo in society as acceptable.  I just wish radical positive change in our relationship with other animals would actually happen.  An idealist wish, yes, but not impossible.