Organism kui agent zoosemiootilises perspektiivis: omailma tagasipöördumine
Organism as an agent in zoosemiotic perspective: umwelt reversion

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to research animal agency in situations where the living environment of said animals changes radically. Our empirical material is constituted by the case of reintroducing the European mink, which we introduce through local knowledge gained by interviews conducted on the island of Hiiumaa, and relevant scientific literature. We are interested in the changes that take place in the umwelt of the mink when the animal is taken from an ex situ environment to an in situ environment. By employing the concepts of functional circle, meaning-carrier and umwelt transition it is possible to explicate the changes that take place in these animals’ lives, thanks to their agency, when there are major changes in their environments. In the case of the European mink agency manifests itself mainly through choices that they make in that altered environment regarding food and relations to humans. The functional circles undergo a transformation that can be described as Umwelt reversion, i.e., some basic functional circles, that have been heavily altered in captivity, obtain characteristics common to functional circles of in situ populations due to the minks’ own activities. We can see that the agency of the minks is strongly dependent on the environment that they live in, and we can, to a certain degree access it through the way they interact with their environment.

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