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

• Published in: Australian geographer Vol. 55; no. 1; pp. 95 - 114
• Main Authors: Smith, Paul, McManus, Phil
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sydney Routledge 02.01.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 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
• ISSN: 0004-9182; 1465-3311
• DOI: 10.1080/00049182.2023.2289198

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.