Urban Home Gardens for Small Native Mammals

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For centuries, home gardens have been used in many urban homes for aesthetic value. According to Anderson (1998), many urban homes have home gardens that are strategically located within the compound to create the feeling of being close to nature. In most of the urban settings, it is rare to find forests in settlement areas. However, people value the green environment, and the beauty that comes with it. This can only be obtained from home gardens.

*Figure 1: Rate of Reliance on Urban Home Gardens by Small Mammals*

According to Lindenmayer and Burgman (2005), when developing the home gardens, people always do not have even the faintest of the ideas that such gardens would be of any significance to other animals staying within these homes. However, the truth is that some of the mammals within these homes find the gardens more valuable to them than they are to the people who plant them. While people may only enjoy shade and other aesthetic value from them, some mammals rely on these gardens for their survival. They get their food and shelter from these gardens. It is important to evaluate how individual mammals may find these gardens important for their normal life. Dogs are the most common pets in most of the Australian homes. According to Kaplan and Blume, (2011, p. 56), they are the first mammals to be kept by the human beings. Figure 2 below shows the level of importance of the small mammals to the home gardens.

*Figure 2: Benefits of Small Mammals to Urban Home Gardens*

Domesticated rabbits may also benefit a lot from these gardens because of a number of reasons. Sometimes they may be released out of their cages once in a while. The gardens offer the best alternative within the compounds where they can rest in the cool shades. While in the gardens, the rabbits may find some plants which they can eat to supplement what they are given by their keepers. Staying outside their cages in an open space may be dangerous to them, especially if there are dogs around the place. The gardens offer some form of security to them because they can easily hide from these dangerous predators. As mentioned before, it is not common to find goats in the Australian urban homes because of their size, and the amount of food they need to survive. In such cases, the home garden will offer goats the much needed food. The figure below shows a goat grazing in a garden

Although these are animals which are not desirable within the settings where people live, sometimes it may not be easy to eliminate them. The home gardens are always of great benefit to them. Rabbits also benefits from such gardens. Below figure shows a rabbit in a garden.