Nuisance species: beyond the ecological perspective

Abstract

‘Nuisance species’ (or ‘invasive’ species) are often proposed to be the second most important concern in the context of the current biodiversity crisis. Despite increasing evidence that exotic species do not always become invasive, this perception is still common in the scientific community. This suggests that other issues are at stake in the concept of nuisance species rather than just the problems they raise, grounded mostly in ecological or economic arguments. We retraced the evolution of pigeon representation in France through an extensive review of ancient texts related to pigeons and reviewed more than 240 source texts, dating from the seventh century to the 1990s. We completed these data with literature on human-animal relationships and animal conceptions in religious, philosophical, scientific, and political currents of thought that were representative of Western and, specifically, French tradition. We used the heated debate over pigeons (Columba livia) as pests as a case study by analyzing the ecological, social, economic, and political relations regarding pigeons. Through a historical perspective of the debate about and understanding of pigeons, we propose a new and complementary explanation for the modern thinking of pigeons as a nuisance species, based on what we termed their socio-nature characteristics. In particular, we used social representations theory to highlight the issues of human identity construction at stake in the construction of pigeons as a nuisance species. We invite the reader to consider the impact of such human self-definition on environmental stances, as it could constrain further developments or improvements of conservation perspectives.