“The darkness of ecological awareness is the darkness of noir which is a strange loop: the detective is a criminal. In a strong version of noir the narrator is implicated in the story…”

— Dark Ecology, Timothy Morton


In this era of the Anthropocene, humans and their activities are having a huge impact on other species. This is true right across the globe but we can also see it very close to home in the situation of the urban wildlife that share the same heterogeneous city as us. Surrounded by artificial light, industrial noise, the culture of cars, and constant acts of discrimination and dislike from humans, more and more wildlife have had to adapt and change their way of living. Songbirds sing at night, foxes search for food at night…these animals have no choice but to hide in the dark, hide from humans.


I wish to tell the story of these marginalized citizens: to reveal the plight of urban wildlife through different narrations. My aim is provocatively to examine how the public consumes, exploits, and ridicules these creatures, reducing them to a source of entertainment: how they are actively discriminated against and slaughtered, even though sometimes this is not intended. I question the privilege that we claim as human beings, and the ethics of what we are doing to these, our fellow non-humans.

My work poses lots of questions:
Can urban wildlife help us regain our connection with nature?
Can morality help to save animals?
Can human empathy make the lives of animals better?
Can human beings fight for the rights of animals? Do humans have the right to speak on behalf of other species?
Are we hypocrites? When we try to use our human way of thinking to conjecture the needs of animals, to save animals for instance, what do animals think?
Do animals need our attention? Is this reaction too extreme?