The Influence of Animals on the Form of Modern Urban Space

Abstract

Animals have accompanied humans in urban space since the very beginnings of their sedentary life. Equally, the significance of the role that animals play in the everyday lives of humans is widely known and unquestionable. However, it was not that long time ago that humans came to terms with the fact that animals tend to abandon city centres with a view to finding a more peaceful and less dangerous habitat. It was Peter Singer who paved the way for the counter-movement, i.e., the return of animals to their former urban habitats. Singer’s thought has served as the foundation of the movement whose aim is to raise the awareness of the importance of the presence of wild animals in urban areas. The present article attempts to characterize the factors that contributed to the change of atti-tude to urban space as a human monoculture and resulted in changing the said space into a site of integration – an interspecific space.