Sharing Space

Wherever we live on this big green planet, we have wild neighbours.  No matter if our home is in the frozen north, on a mountaintop in Switzerland, in a forest in Africa or a desert in Arizona, we do not live there alone.  In cities, towns and villages, farms, resorts and rural areas, we share our space with everything from insects to elephants. 

We often forget that when we build our homes someone else has to move—the animals that were living there first: creatures whose ancestors have lived there for longer than we can even imagine.  Animals can be very territorial, and the place where we choose to make a home for ourselves may also be the only space available for an certain animal to live.  Imagine how very frightening and confusing this must be.  Suddenly, the animal is surrounded by new odours and sounds.  People and their pets are now crashing around an area that was an animal's private place, no so long ago.

Sometimes, when wild animals appear in yards and gardens, people feel  “invaded”.  They don’t want wildlife around because they are afraid of the animals or protective of their gardens and crops.  Animals are chased away or even killed.  This kind of conflict has caused many species to be lost or become endangered.

There is a limited amount of space on our planet.  As the human population of planet Earth increases, much of the animal population declines.  Today, we have a better understanding of how that happens and we know there are ways to prevent it from happening.  We understand that we need to share the world and we understand that we have a responsibility to respect and cherish it.

Some of us live in areas where many wild animals live too.  We're used to having them around and appreciate them. Some of us live in areas with very little wildlife.  We’d like to see the animals come back.  What can we do?

We can learn more about the animals themselves: their habits, their traits and their needs.  We can build our homes or repair existing homes so that animals won't be tempted to move into the attic or the basement or under the eaves.  We can learn to plant our gardens in ways that don’t make them so appealing to wildlife visitors.  We can learn to make decorative trees and shrubs “out-of-bounds” to those who would normally nibble on them.  We can plant special things just for animals to lure them away from what we’ve planted for ourselves.  In short, we can create wildlife habitat wherever we are, and wherever the animals need it.  By learning about just how to share the space we’ve created, we can coexist peacefully and happily.