Difficultés de cohabitation entre l'homme et l'animal: Le cas des concentrations d'oiseaux en site urbain

Abstract

Birds have long been present in our cities but complains against gatherings of some birds, such as gulls or starlings, are becoming ever more frequent. The contradiction between a serious need for more nature in towns and this strong immediate rejection of bird gatherings made us try and understand the biological and sociological basis of the problem. The results from Brittany (France) reported here confirm that the biological process has accelerated : the species involved have increased constantly since the 1950's and are becoming increasingly common in towns. Similarly, complaints against birds are becoming ever more numerous. A prospecting study of complainants in the city of Rennes shows that complaints mainly result as a form of social action. The handling of complaints and the management of this urban problem (acting on the birds themselves or on their roosts, their nest sites...) should thus now take into account both the scale of the biological and environmental factors, and the human aspects of the complaints.