Where the wild things are: the evolving iconography of rural fauna

This paper explores the changing relationship between ‘nature’ and rurality through an examination of the shifting iconography of animals, and particularly ‘wild’ animals, in a rural setting. Drawing upon a set of examples, the paper argues that the faunistic icons of rural areas are evolving as alternative conceptions of the countryside, of nature and of the classic dichotomy between ‘wild’ and ‘domesticated’ animals are being re-constructed. The re-introduction of wild species, either through deliberate strategies or through natural migration, the diversification of husbandry to include rare and protected breeds and the increasing number of reported sightings of strange and unfamiliar animals all point to a change, or changes, in the place accorded to ‘wild’ things in countryside that have become, themselves, domesticated and gentrified.