HABRI Central

Animals are invading the city. Coyotes are sighted on downtown streets with greater frequency, raccoons notoriously forage through greenbins as their primary source of food, and all forms of animals inhabit the surfaces, edges and cavities of the built environment. Once wild animals are now adapting to the urban ecosystem and a new human animal relationship is emerging. Between the domestic and the wild are the synanthropic species, defined as animals who benefit from living in close proximity to humans yet, remain beyond their control. Since these animals are neither beloved pets, nor wild beasts, synanthropes are often deemed pests. However, they are the urban mediate, capable of living alongside the pervasive human population by adapting to anthropogenic behaviours and environments. As the conceptual division between city and nature dissolves, architecture is called upon to negotiate the physical boundary between human and synanthropic animal.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

1. Animal roles
2. Architecture
3. Ecology
4. open access
5. raccoons
6. suburban areas
7. urban areas
8. Wild animals