Urban wildlife management: an emerging discipline

Urban wildlife comprises those native animals living in habitats that are found in cities and towns. Since most Australians live in cities, this is the wildlife that the majority of people encounter on a daily basis. We consider that this wildlife is a legitimate subject for study, not just as a pale version of research in rural Australia or in national parks and nature reserves. It is the urban environment where many people will form their ethic of care for our native fauna, concern for the conservation of remnant bush and the desire to restore degraded habitats. It is for these reasons that urban wildlife deserves its own roadmap for survival. Much native vegetation is planted in backyards or is rehabilitated in urban green spaces, but whether or not it is a project to restore wildlife, the habitats of urban animals need to be taken into account at the planning stage. The many contributions in this book point the way to seeing how and where this can be achieved. As a basis for such planning, we encourage others to publish the results of their urban studies both in the standard scientific literature as well as in cross-disciplinary publications that provide the opportunity to integrate urban wildlife management with other disciplines.