Animal Nation: The True Story of Animals and Australia

by Adrian Franklin

Animals can tell us a lot about ourselves. The way we love them as pets, eat them for dinner, make them symbols of the nation or shun them as invaders and pests illuminates much about our society and culture. Animal Nation traces the complex relationships between animals and humans in Australia. It starts with the colonial period—when unfamiliar native animals were hunted almost to extinction and replaced with preferred species—and brings us full circle to the present when native species are protected above all others.

Genres: Australia

270 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2006

About the author

Adrian S. Franklin (born 19 December 1955) is a British-born Australian sociologist, who is a professor of sociology at the University of Tasmania and a television and radio presenter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was worked on several ABC radio and television programs as By Design on ABC Radio National and the television series Collectors where, with Gordon Brown and Claudia Chan Shaw, he was one of the panel of experts.

Franklin was born in Canterbury, England and holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Kent, and was awarded his PhD in Sociology from the University of Bristol in 1989 for his thesis Privatism, the Home and Working Class Culture. He held professorships at Bristol and the University of Oslo, before emigrating to Australia as a reader of sociology at the University of Tasmania.

Reviews

[Clare Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in 2008 and this is what I wrote back then.

The book is about Adrian Franklin’s research into our views on animals. At times Franklin’s writing tends towards the academic (I zoned out a bit during the discussion of Durkheim’s theories of Totemism) but it’s written for a general readership and most of the time the writing is accessible. His references are endnotes, so they don’t interrupt the flow of the text, but they’re available if you want to read more.

Some of Franklin’s ideas are confronting. I was shocked at his questioning of the continued effort to eradicate feral animals, particularly cats. Franklin wonders why we continue in these eradication efforts when scientific opinion shows this can’t possibly succeed. Around the time I read the book, I read an article about feral cat control in WA, and it’s not pointless. I was both saddened to see the cute litter of tabby kittens that would grow into “murderous moggies” and heartened that small steps toward conservation gains are occurring. Cats are amazingly ingenious at learning to avoid baits, and survive well in dry and drought-prone environments, common in WA. This, combined with the fact that cats arrived in WA before foxes, and evidence from CSIRO, means

"Tim Flannery’s claim that the majority of those who assert that cats have caused extinctions in Australia are simply cat-haters who have allowed their prejudice to override their scientific reason." - Dr Jeff Short [1]

I’m glad not everyone is as cynical as Franklin. Work towards eradicating feral animals is necessary and continuing, even if we're never entirely successful as Franklin contends.

An interesting aspect of Animal Nation is Franklin’s discussion of how the British, Americans and Australians talk about their countries’ wildlife. Australians are the only ones who talk about feral (introduced) animals as pests.

I love dogs, so of course I love dingoes. I also love wolves, but I know a wolf in Australia would cause havoc. Dingoes are pretty much wolves in Australia. They were introduced from Asia about 4000 years ago and they caused havoc. Dingoes never made it to Tasmania where two iconic Tasmanian predators – the Thylacine and the Tasmanian Devil – survived, while they didn’t on the mainland. (Thylacines didn't survive the arrival of Europeans)

Then there’s the dilemma of galahs vs rainbow lorikeets. I grew up with pink and grey galahs foraging for seed on road verges and I love them.

Rainbow lorikeets are a pest in Perth. They come from the eastern states and in 1968 at the end of a research project on the birds UWA scientists set them free and every rainbow lorikeet in Perth is descended from those birds [2]

I never saw rainbow lorikeets during my childhood, so anytime I see one now I think of them as not belonging in Perth. My mum told me that when she was a kid (1950s) there were no galahs in Perth. They come from the Wheatbelt region east of Perth. As more land was cleared for farming, there was less habitat for galahs and they migrated to Perth. This means galahs are just as "introduced" as rainbow lorikeets and might have arrived in Perth after rainbow lorikeets. The conundrums keep mounting!?

Franklin was kind enough to clear up something for me. Years ago I saw a front page newspaper story, complete with photo of a cute furry possum, about keeping native animals as pets. When I read the story I thought that would be cool. Franklin explained the spin that went with the story. In 1996 a WA Federal politician fishing for votes told the newspaper he wanted to eradicate all feral cats in Australia by 2020* and find some nice cuddly native animals to be domesticated as replacements for all the unhappy cat lovers. The newspaper added a photo of a possum to pad out their slow news day.

Animal Nation provided me with much to think on and I will continue to mull over Franklin’s ideas for quite some time. I recommend this excellent read to anyone with an interest in Australia's nature.

*In 2024 all us crazy cat ladies, haven't morphed into crazy possum ladies

Refs

Jeff Short (2007) "Controversial cats" Landscope magazine, vol.23, no.2, p.55-61.
Storr & Johnstone (1985) Field Guide to the Birds of Western Australia. Perth: WA Museum.