Buildings as accidental habitat: Where animals nest, sleep and forage

Vollständiger Abstract

Worum geht es in dieser Arbeit?

Abstract Animals have long inhabited human buildings alongside us, but our understanding comes from isolated studies, such as reports of a possum in the roof or a bat in our walls. What we lack is the building's perspective: which building features actually serve as habitat and for whom? We first conducted a literature review to identify building features used by wildlife and to develop a classification of architectural elements relevant to habitat use. We then analysed over a decade of wildlife rescue records from Victoria, Australia (2013–2022). Using automated content analysis and manual validation, to identify wildlife behaviours and building features involved in human–wildlife encounters. In total, 2399 wildlife‐building interactions were found, including nesting, sleeping and foraging behaviours, by 36 native species that used 27 different building features. Mammals (78%), for example brushtail & ringtail possums (26%, 24%), microbats (15%) and bare‐nosed wombats (10%), dominated the records, followed by birds (18%) and reptiles (2%). Building cavities were the most frequently used locations (40% of records), followed by shelters and garages (19%), external surfaces (16%), interior rooms (10%), under houses (9%) and utility services (6%). Building cavities were primarily used for sleeping (41%) and nesting (39%), while foraging activities were more evenly distributed across external surfaces (26%), decorative features (23%) and cavities (22%). These patterns demonstrate that wildlife use building locations corresponding to their natural habitat, with arboreal mammals preferring upper cavities and ground‐dwelling wildlife using foundation spaces. Our findings represent a critical step toward a social–ecological transition from reactive wildlife management to evidence‐based design. While this study documents how wildlife currently use buildings, the broader ambition of intentional design for human–wildlife coexistence remains an emerging field requiring further research. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.