Challenging the Demonization of Wild Animals: Examining the Cultural Context for Conflict and Co-existence

Certain wild animals are targeted for killing when they are perceived to be a threat to humans, livestock, crops or fish. Such animals include wolves, sharks, buffalo, bats, vultures, orcas, bears, snakes, owls, sloths, hawks, and jaguars. Once these animals are declared to be a “problem,” support for killing them is mobilized through political assumptions that usually remain unexamined. These conflicts often derive from severe disruptions in animal habitats caused by human actions, such as encroachment by humans and disruption of migration pathways. These problems have been exacerbated by the climate crisis with the ensuing forest fires and flooding. Moreover, in some cases there is little or no scientific evidence to support such claims about animal threats, and other possible explanations are ignored. When the demonized animal image is applied to targeted human groups, this is used to justify repression and even genocide by referring to people as “animals.” Yet in other cases the same animal may be viewed as threatening in one context and beneficial in another. This session asks how an ethnobiological perspective can clarify the underlying symbolic meaning of these perceptions and suggest alternative responses to perceived threats.