Around the world, human-animal conflict is rife in our cities. Yet despite the problems some animals cause, we can't help but love them.
by Brooke Jarvis. Many Staten Islanders are pleased to see the deer return. As Jarvis writes, white-tailed deer are seen as “icons of the American wilderness”, although this symbolism is partially rooted in a misinformed nostalgia.
I can relate to the Staten Islanders who felt the need to put out food for the deer, thinking they needed help to survive in their urban environment. But a 2014 survey suggested that there are more than 15 deer per square kilometre of park in Staten Island. Such a high density is a problem for people, as deer cause traffic collisions and carry the ticks that cause.
There are hopes that sterilisation might also help solve a problem people in Delhi are facing with macaques. In her absorbing book, Mary Roach explains how food offerings at temples have taught the monkeys to expect food from people, and they will aggressively demand it. A large urban population of macaques can’t help but lead to a degree of mayhem. Delhi hospitals reported 950 incidents of the monkeys biting people in 2018.
This has proven a difficult issue to tackle. Animals in India are pretty much protected unless a state declares that a species is vermin, and that’s unlikely to happen with monkeys due to their association with the Hindu deity Hanuman. As Qamar Qureshi, research director of the Wildlife Institute of India, tells Roach, many people don’t want the monkeys killed, they just want them to disappear..
All this so-called conflict reflects poorly on us. Not content with wrecking the world’s wild habitats, we also expect any animals that adapt to our cities to abide by impossible rules. It’s hard to see a solution, but recognising that we all play a role seems important – people feeding pigeons and gulls next to signs warning that such behaviour is ultimately bad for wildlife is a very common sight in urban parks.
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