Living with Everyday Native Animals in Brisbane

Wild urban companions: Living with everyday native animals in Brisbane Gillian Louise Paxton BA/BSc, MEnvSci A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2017 School of Social Science 1 Abstract In the subtropical city of Brisbane, encounters with many species of native wildlife are a daily occurrence. For these animals, the human-altered conditions of the city do not pose an insurmountable challenge, but a plethora of ecological opportunities. As they adapt to and do well in association with humans and cities – a phenomenon known by ecologists as synurbisation – they become Brisbane’s everyday wildlife, common and taken-for-granted amongst the broader urban crowd. Human responses to this wildlife are often inconsistent and ambiguous. In an era being heralded as the Anthropocene, when we must address the overwhelmingly negative outcomes that human activity has had on most animal species, our obligations to these animals demand more careful reflection. In this thesis, I aim to take Brisbane’s synurbic wildlife seriously by exploring how they are companion species and significant others in the composition of collective worlds. In this thesis, I present a series of empirical accounts that challenge anthropocentric assumptions about wildlife that thrives in relation to cities and urbanisation. I illustrate that synurbisation cannot be understood as wildlife simply hitching a wagon to human civilisation, but as an ontologically enactive, political process in which wildlife enters, holds its shape and exerts influence in urban assemblages. As humans and everyday wildlife attune to each other in these assemblages, they become urban together, weaving chains of knowledge and power in an anthropo-zoo-genetic choreography of affect and response. This choreography enacts the city in multiple and specific ways, drawing together ecological, historical and spatial trajectories that extend far beyond urban boundaries. In my first account, I interrogate the idea that Eastern water dragons flourish in Brisbane as a result of learning to tolerate the presence of humans. Taking a more generous approach to the processes at play in human-water dragon encounters, I demonstrate that this tale of synurbisation is not only about lost fear, but expanded authority and courteous articulation as water dragons influence humans with displays of bravado. By acquiescing to these displays, humans affirm the water dragon’s urban dominance and are taught how to live politely with them. Knowledge, trust and 2 confidence circulates as humans and dragons become urban together, circulations that can be woven in to domestic, public and even scientific experiments with them. The second account concentrates on the trickier relationships formed as flying foxes become urban. Aerial, nocturnal and nomadic, urban flying foxes are masters at achieving intangibility with humans as they forage Brisbane’s eclectic cultivated forest, weaving loose chains of knowledge in a choreography that often leaves humans feeling somehow lacking. However, flying foxes become far more knowable when they are injured navigating the urban forest. Here, far closer relationships – and tighter chains of trust - form between the animals and flying fox rescuers as humans engage them in practices of assisted synurbisation. Under wildlife legislation, however, this proximity can only be temporary. As part of the requirements of assisted synurbisation, flying foxes and their rescuers must work together to navigate a relationship that demands proximity, response, and ultimately detachment. My third account follows the Australian white ibis and its extraordinary shift to the downtown ecologies of civic squares and eating spaces. I explore how this shift stems from the animal’s keen attention to, and eagerness to experiment with, the rich nutritional flows associated with urban food consumption. In the city, this has resulted in an almost complete denial of the ibis’ value, with the birds commonly derided as defective, corrupted wildlife, pests and trash animals. Highlighting the bird’s unique inventiveness as it forages highly public urban spaces, I present an alternative understanding of the ibis as a provocateur that enlivens public spaces in ways that expose human endeavours to ignore or forget their own waste. This synurbisation is not about loss, but gain, as the ibis catalyses new ways of managing and even valuing urban material flows. The final account investigates what happens when humans act to regulate the risky or uncomfortable natures that emerge when everyday wildlife becomes urban in problematic ways. I demonstrate that the biopolitical process of making everyday wildlife manageable involves more than the extension of human power over the non- human. It can bring about opportunities for managers and animals to find ways to make the city liveable for both human and non-human. Everyday wildlife can become responsive and manageable members of the city as managers gain expertise and 3 authority as facilitators of urban environments. This is not always the case, however. Using the example of urban flying fox management, I demonstrate how more-than- human experimentation can quickly become derailed, leading to little more than ineffective and dangerous acts of cruelty performed upon animals unable to respond as they ‘should’. In the Anthropocene, as the modernist orthodoxies that exclude wildlife from the city are dissolved, finding ways to build better relationships with everyday wildlife is important. Acknowledging the novel human-wildlife relationships made possible by synurbisation is a crucial first step. By extending the concepts of co-training, shared knowledge and anthropo-zoo-genesis to urban wildlife, this thesis forges new ways of thinking about everyday wildlife by demonstrating that these species are not somehow lacking in comparison to more fragile species, but creatively engaged in the flows of urban life. By attending empirically to the different ways that wildlife becomes urban, this thesis paves the way to inclusive and specific forms of security and conviviality. As cities around the world continue to grow at an unforeseen rate, the task of ensuring they flourish as sites of heterogeneous, more-than-human life only becomes more urgent. 4 Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly- authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the General Award Rules of The University of Queensland, immediately made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. 5 Publications during candidature No publications. Publications included in this thesis No publications included. Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None. 6 Acknowledgements I dedicate this thesis to my mother, Ellen Paxton, and my father, Dr David Paxton. Thank you for your extraordinary strength, and for teaching me to always pay attention to the others with whom we live. Love always. For invaluable feedback, wisdom, and support over the course of this project, thank you to the excellent Prof Gay Hawkins, Dr Yancey Orr, Dr Sally Babidge and Prof David Trigger. Love and thanks to my sisters Samantha and Belinda, my brother Andrew, my brother- from-another-mother Michael, brothers-in-law Steve and Rich, and the extended Paxton-Boland-Tjia family, for thoughtful discussions and accommodation around Australia when I needed it. A warm thank you to the friends I made during this project whose generous support was always forthcoming. Particular thanks to Carla Meurk, Andrew Clarke, Sari Mangru, Laura Cox, Morgan Richards, Sarah Webb, Kathleen Varvaro, Jo Towsey, and Amy McMahon. Old friends also helped me across the line in a difficult final year. Love and thanks especially to Delia Fetter, Janelle Thompson, and Catherine Carol. I also acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the University of Queensland Research Scholarship, the Joan Allsop Travel Scholarship, as well as conference and workshop funding provided by the University of Queensland’s School of Social Science and the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies. Finally, I thank my research participants for sharing their passion, time, and knowledge,

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