Repenser la nature sauvage avec la géographie animale

Abstract

During the last twenty years, geographers have witnessed the rise of an animal geography. Take full advantage of the geographical study of animals, neglected both by the proponents of physical geography, often intellectually disarmed to study them, that by those of the human geography, often numerous to reject the environmental considerations for epistemological reasons (it would be “geographic determinism ») or ideological (environmental skepticism, "humanism"), in fact paved the way for new approaches to a reconciled geography. Animal geographies make possible to revisit the notions of territory, dwelling, to rethink the methods of animal mapping used by biologists / ethologists and also to ask ethical questions about our relationship with the environment. By decentering the gaze from strictly human goals towards human-nonhuman relationship, or even by allowing to apprehend the animal point of view, animal geographies also make possible to rethink the concept of “nature” both by going beyond the nature / culture dichotomy already denounced but also by explicitly asking the question of our definitions of these terms, and in particular of the notion of wilderness.First, we will examine the epistemological contributions of animal geography to the approach of "natural" environments. We will show how these new approaches should lead to revise our geographer’s view of "nature". For this, we will rely on the issue of wildlife management based on the case of the sacred Ibis in the west of France.

Keywords

• Epistemology of geography
• Nature
• Allochtonous ecology
• Animal’s point of view