The evolutionary consequences of human-wildlife conflict in cities

Complex patterns of morphological diversity across multiple populations of an urban bird species

Urbanization presents a natural evolutionary experiment because selection pressures in cities can be strongly mismatched with those found in species' historic habitats. However, some species have managed to adapt and even thrive in these novel conditions. When a species persists across multiple cities, a fundamental question arises: do we see similar traits evolve in similar novel environments? By testing if and how similar phenotypes emerge across multiple urban populations, we can begin to assess the predictability of population response to anthropogenic change. Here, we examine variation within and across multiple populations of a songbird, the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). We measured morphological variations in juncos across urban and nonurban populations in Southern California. We investigated whether the variations we observed were due to differences in environmental conditions across cities. Bill shape differed across urban populations; Los Angeles and Santa Barbara juncos had shorter, deeper bills than nonurban juncos, but San Diego juncos did not. On the other hand, wing length decreased with the built environment, regardless of the population. Southern Californian urban juncos exhibit both similarities and differences in morphological traits. Studying multiple urban populations can help us determine the predictability of phenotypic evolutionary responses to novel environments.

City divided: Unveiling family ties and genetic structuring of coyotes in Seattle

Linear barriers pose significant challenges for wildlife gene flow, impacting species persistence, adaptation, and evolution. While numerous studies have examined the effects of linear barriers (e.g., fences and roadways) on partitioning urban and non-urban areas, understanding their influence on gene flow within cities remains limited. Here, we investigated the impact of linear barriers on coyote (Canis latrans) population structure in Seattle, Washington, where major barriers (i.e., interstate highways and bodies of water) divide the city into distinct quadrants. Just under 1000 scats were collected to obtain genetic data between January 2021 and December 2022, allowing us to identify 73 individual coyotes. Notably, private allele analysis underscored limited interbreeding among quadrants. When comparing one quadrant to each other, there were up to 16 private alleles within a single quadrant, representing nearly 22% of the population allelic diversity. Our analysis revealed weak isolation by distance, and despite being a highly mobile species, genetic structuring was apparent between quadrants even with extremely short geographic distance between individual coyotes, implying that Interstate 5 and the Ship Canal act as major barriers. This study uses coyotes as a model species for understanding urban gene flow and its consequences in cities, a crucial component for bolstering conservation of rarer species and developing wildlife friendly cities.

Co-cultures: exploring interspecies culture among humans and other animals

The concept of 'co-culture' is introduced as a novel framework for understanding the mutual cultural evolution between animal species, including, but not only, humans. It explores the dynamics of interspecies interactions, particularly in how different species influence each other's behavioural and cognitive adaptations. Various instances of interspecies cultural exchange are highlighted, such as the acquisition of medicinal plants from animals resulting in a shared medicinal culture, adaptive behaviours of urban wildlife, and cooperative behaviours between animal species. Co-culture challenges the notion of species-specific culture, underscoring the complexity and interconnectedness of human and animal societies, and between animal societies. Further research into co-culture is advocating and emphasising its implications for conservation, urban planning, and a deeper understanding of animal cognition and behaviour.

Evaluating tramway infrastructure on biodiversity and ecosystem services

Tramways in urban areas for mass transit has been suggested to have a lower environmental footprint than roads. However, studies on the impact of tramways and the surrounding infrastructure on biodiversity is extremely rare despite the potential ecological effects associated with this anthropogenic feature. Surprisingly, we found fewer than 10 papers published on tramway-wildlife interactions, which is significantly lower (vs dozens of thousands) than that of other transportation methods. As tramways and stations may be managed sustainably by planting short vegetation on the track and roofs of tramway stations, they may be good examples of land-sharing policies in green urban planning, improving both biodiversity and people's well-being. The potential environmental benefits of green practices for commercially available tramways should be strictly tested and applied, especially in the context of the growing popularity of tramway systems worldwide.

Beyond Tolerance: Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflict with Hospitality

Tolerance has become a central position in wildlife conservation thought, and a goal in and of itself. Appeals to tolerance are expected to grow as the planet becomes more crowded, species are lost, and habitat is degraded. The concept has been uncritically adopted in wildlife conservation to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts (HWCs). However, scholars have demonstrated that tolerance is burdened with limitations, paradoxes, and shortcomings. Thus, blind adherence to it is not expected to produce a coexistence design necessary to sustain wildlife populations in the long term. This paper is a conceptual scoping project that engages a summary and critique of tolerance as a design principle within wildlife conservation governance. After introducing a resultant theory of dysfunctional human-wildlife coexistence, a pathway toward hospitality as a social institution is outlined via several commitments societies can make to transition to an era of normalizing a process of sincere welcoming, care, and support. The transition from tolerance to hospitality will entail shifting responsibility to humans to modify their behavior to help keep wildlife invisible where it is essential, learning about what wildlife want and need, and ensuring wildlife is not injured for being themselves.

The ratting of North America: A 350-year retrospective on Rattus species compositions and competition

While the impacts of black (Rattus rattus) and brown (Rattus norvegicus) rats on human society are well documented-including the spread of disease, broad-scale environmental destruction, and billions spent annually on animal control-little is known about their ecology and behavior in urban areas due to the challenges of studying animals in city environments. We use isotopic and ZooMS analysis of archaeological (1550s-1900 CE) rat remains from eastern North America to provide a large-scale framework for species arrival, interspecific competition, and dietary ecology. Brown rats arrived earlier than expected and rapidly outcompeted black rats in coastal urban areas. This replacement happened despite evidence that the two species occupy different trophic positions. Findings include the earliest molecularly confirmed brown rat in the Americas and show a deep ecological structure to how rats exploit human-structured areas, with implications for understanding urban zoonosis, rat management, and ecosystem planning as well as broader themes of rat dispersal, phylogeny, evolutionary ecology, and climate impacts.

The use of seismically isolated buildings by urban wildlife in Japan

Some wildlife species that have expanded their range into urban areas use various anthropogenic structures for breeding and resting. We investigated the use of seismically isolated buildings, with gaps between the structures and ground surface, by urban wildlife in Japan. Camera traps set in a building revealed that masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) continued to use the building for approximately 3 years. Civet feces and footprints were found in two buildings during field sign surveys. To ensure public health, civets should be prevented from invading seismically isolated buildings by covering gaps with elastic materials and avoiding placing pipes that could be used by the animals near these gaps.

Developing evolutionary anthropology in local ecosystems

The traditional regional focus of evolutionary anthropology-typically defined as places where hominin fossils, nonhuman primates, and non-western populations reside-forms the basis of much evolutionary anthropological research. Using the highly biodiverse temperate region of Appalachia as an example, we suggest that evolutionary anthropologists have much to gain by stepping outside of this traditional geographic area. Being purposely provocative, we argue that evolutionary anthropologists might also benefit from conducting research in Appalachia and other temperate ecosystems. We briefly discuss multiple areas of study-including studies of seed dispersal, functional redundancy, convergent evolution, human behavioral ecology, and conservation-and how they can be considered within the purview of integrative and evolutionary anthropology. We also highlight broader impacts to higher education that evolutionary anthropologists can help promote by working in local ecosystems.

Cities of the Anthropocene: urban sustainability in an eco-evolutionary perspective

Cities across the globe are driving systemic change in social and ecological systems by accelerating the rates of interactions and intensifying the links between human activities and Earth's ecosystems, thereby expanding the scale and influence of human activities on fundamental processes that sustain life. Increasing evidence shows that cities not only alter biodiversity, they change the genetic makeup of many populations, including animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms. Urban-driven rapid evolution in species traits might have significant effects on socially relevant ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, pollination, water and air purification and food production. Despite increasing evidence that cities are causing rapid evolutionary change, current urban sustainability strategies often overlook these dynamics. The dominant perspectives that guide these strategies are essentially static, focusing on preserving biodiversity in its present state or restoring it to pre-urban conditions. This paper provides a systemic overview of the socio-eco-evolutionary transition associated with global urbanization. Using examples of observed changes in species traits that play a significant role in maintaining ecosystem function and resilience, I propose that these evolutionary changes significantly impact urban sustainability. Incorporating an eco-evolutionary perspective into urban sustainability science and planning is crucial for effectively reimagining the cities of the Anthropocene. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

Identifying the Risk Regions of Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) Incidents in China

The objectives of this study were to identify the risk regions of wild boar incidents in China and to draw a risk map. Risk maps can be used to plan the prioritization of preventive measures, increasing management effectiveness from both a short- and a long-term perspective. We used a web crawler (web information access technology) to obtain reports of wild boar incidents from China's largest search engine (Baidu) and obtained 196 valid geographic locations of wild boar incidents from the reports. Subsequently, a system of environmental variables-with climate, topography, landscape, and human disturbance as the main variable types-was constructed, based on human-land-system thinking. Finally, the Maxent model was applied to predict the risk space of wild boar incidents in China by integrating the geographic location information for wild boar incidents with the environmental variables. We observed that the types of environmental variables that contributed to wild boar incidents were in the descending order of climate (40.5%) > human disturbance (25.2%) > landscape (24.4%) > topography (9.8%). Among the 14 environmental variables, annual precipitation, the GDP index, and the mean annual temperature were the main environmental variables. The distance from woodland, distance from cultivated land, and elevation were the secondary environmental variables. The response curves of the environmental variables demonstrated that the highest probability of wild boar incidents occurred when the annual average temperature was 16 °C, the annual precipitation was 800 mm, and the altitudes were 150 m and 1800 m. The probability of wild boar incidents decreased with an increase in the distance from cultivated and forested land, and increased sharply and then levelled off with an increase in the GDP index. Approximately 12.18% of China was identified as being at a high risk of wild boar incidents, mainly on the eastern side of the Huhuanyong Line.

Urban Human-Coyote Conflicts: Assessing Friendliness as an Indicator of Coexistence

Human-coyote sightings and interactions are becoming more frequent in urban areas across North and Central America. While many species have lost territory, the coyote range has expanded. Relatively recently, ecologists have coalesced around the idea that coexistence is the most promising avenue to reduce human-coyote conflict in urban areas. Despite this, calls for the eradication of coyotes continue. We apply and extend the theory of survival of the friendliest to evaluate how the media is framing coyotes and management strategies and what the implications of this framing might be. Through a content analysis of newspaper articles from three different urban areas in the US (Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA; and Boston, MA), from 2000 to 2022, we find that friendly language is used to promote coexistence, while unfriendly language (threat, hostile, unfriendly, and danger) is used to justify eradication. We also find considerable variation in the type of coverage and consistency with scientific consensus across cities, likely reflecting the cities' varied histories and cultural understandings of the species. Given the media's influence on the public's views of coyotes and their support for management strategies, these findings suggest that the media plays a central role in shaping coyote-human relationships and management strategies.

A vision for incorporating human mobility in the study of human-wildlife interactions

As human activities increasingly shape land- and seascapes, understanding human-wildlife interactions is imperative for preserving biodiversity. Habitats are impacted not only by static modifications, such as roads, buildings and other infrastructure, but also by the dynamic movement of people and their vehicles occurring over shorter time scales. Although there is increasing realization that both components of human activity substantially affect wildlife, capturing more dynamic processes in ecological studies has proved challenging. Here we propose a conceptual framework for developing a 'dynamic human footprint' that explicitly incorporates human mobility, providing a key link between anthropogenic stressors and ecological impacts across spatiotemporal scales. Specifically, the dynamic human footprint integrates a range of metrics to fully acknowledge the time-varying nature of human activities and to enable scale-appropriate assessments of their impacts on wildlife behaviour, demography and distributions. We review existing terrestrial and marine human-mobility data products and provide a roadmap for how these could be integrated and extended to enable more comprehensive analyses of human impacts on biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Building a resilient coexistence with wildlife in a more crowded world

There is an urgent need to sustainably coexist with wildlife. However, realizing this goal is hampered by scant understanding of the processes that facilitate and maintain coexistence. Here, we synthesize human-wildlife interactions into eight archetypal outcomes, from eradication to sustained co-benefits, which collectively serve as a heuristic for forms of coexistence across a wide range of species and systems worldwide. We utilize resilience theory to elucidate how and why human-wildlife systems shift between these archetypes, yielding insights on research and policy priorities. We underscore the importance of governance structures that actively enhance the resilience of coexistence.

Trend of Conflict Rate in Iran from 2014 to 2020: An Ecological Study

BACKGROUND

Detecting the correlation of conflict rate within provinces over time provides a better understanding for health policymakers in identifying potential causes. The purpose of this study was to assess the trend of conflict rate in 31 provinces of Iran using the growth mixture model (GMM).

METHODS

This ecologic study was conducted based on the data obtained from the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization (ILMO) by gender and provinces between March 21, 2014 and March 21, 2020. First, the 7-year cumulative incidence rates were described; second, the trend of conflict rate was modeled by a linear mixed-effects model according to gender and overall; finally, distinct classes of provinces with similar conflict trends in seven years were identified using the GMM. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.

RESULTS

Among provinces, Ardebil and Sistan Baluchistan had the highest and the lowest 7-year conflict incidence rates (95% CI) with 66.6 (52.38, 84.67) and 20.79 (13.53, 31.95) per 100000, respectively. The results of the linear mixed-effects model showed that the annual rate of conflict in Iran decreased by 0.37% from 2014 to 2017 and then slightly increased by 0.07% after 2017. In addition, the GMM results indicated that the trends for Iranian provinces can be clustered into four distinct classes.

CONCLUSION

Our study showed the increasing growth of conflict in the last years in most provinces of Iran. Necessary interventions are important to prevent the rising conflict rate due to the various effects of conflict on psychological, social, and health factors.

Evaluating the genetic consequences of population subdivision as it unfolds and how to best mitigate them: A rare story about koalas

The genetic consequences of the subdivision of populations are regarded as significant to long-term evolution, and research has shown that the scale and speed at which this is now occurring is critically reducing the adaptive potential of most species which inhabit human-impacted landscapes. Here, we provide a rare and, to our knowledge, the first analysis of this process while it is happening and demonstrate a method of evaluating the effect of mitigation measures such as fauna crossings. We did this by using an extensive genetic data set collected from a koala population which was intensely monitored during the construction of linear transport infrastructure which resulted in the subdivision of their population. First, we found that both allelic richness and effective population size decreased through the process of population subdivision. Second, we predicted the extent to which genetic drift could impact genetic diversity over time and showed that after only 10 generations the resulting two subdivided populations could experience between 12% and 69% loss in genetic diversity. Lastly, using forward simulations we estimated that a minimum of eight koalas would need to disperse from each side of the subdivision per generation to maintain genetic connectivity close to zero but that 16 koalas would ensure that both genetic connectivity and diversity remained unchanged. These results have important consequences for the genetic management of species in human-impacted landscapes by showing which genetic metrics are best to identify immediate loss in genetic diversity and how to evaluate the effectiveness of any mitigation measures.

The current state of carnivore cognition

The field of animal cognition has advanced rapidly in the last 25 years. Through careful and creative studies of animals in captivity and in the wild, we have gained critical insights into the evolution of intelligence, the cognitive capacities of a diverse array of taxa, and the importance of ecological and social environments, as well as individual variation, in the expression of cognitive abilities. The field of animal cognition, however, is still being influenced by some historical tendencies. For example, primates and birds are still the majority of study species in the field of animal cognition. Studies of diverse taxa improve the generalizability of our results, are critical for testing evolutionary hypotheses, and open new paths for understanding cognition in species with vastly different morphologies. In this paper, we review the current state of knowledge of cognition in mammalian carnivores. We discuss the advantages of studying cognition in Carnivorans and the immense progress that has been made across many cognitive domains in both lab and field studies of carnivores. We also discuss the current constraints that are associated with studying carnivores. Finally, we explore new directions for future research in studies of carnivore cognition.

SARS-CoV-2 and West Nile Virus Prevalence Studies in Raccoons and Raccoon Dogs from Germany

Unlike farm animals, wild animals are not subject to continuous health surveillance. Individual projects designed to screen wildlife populations for specific pathogens are, therefore, also of great importance for human health. In this context, the possible formation of a reservoir for highly pathogenic zoonotic pathogens is a focus of research. Two of these pathogens that have received particular attention during the last years are the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2), due to its fast global spread and high impact to the human health, and, since its introduction into Germany, the flavivirus West Nile virus (WNV). Especially in combination with invasive vertebrate species (e.g., raccoons (Procyon lotor) and raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) in Germany), risk analysis must be done to enable health authorities to assess the potential for the establishment of new wild life reservoirs for pathogens. Therefore, samples were collected from raccoons and raccoon dogs and analyzed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and WNV infections in these populations. Molecular biological and serological data obtained imply that no SARS-CoV-2 nor WNV reservoir has been established in these two wild life species yet. Future investigations need to keep an eye on these invasive carnivore populations, especially since the close contact of these animals to humans, mainly in urban areas, would make animal-human transmission a challenge for human health.

Environmental, individual and social traits of free-ranging raccoons influence performance in cognitive testing

Cognitive abilities, such as learning and flexibility, are hypothesized to aid behavioral adaptation to urbanization. Although growing evidence suggests that cognition may indeed facilitate persistence in urban environments, we currently lack knowledge of the cognitive abilities of many urban taxa. Recent methodological advances, including radio frequency identification (RFID), have extended automated cognitive testing into the field but have yet to be applied to a diversity of taxa. Here, we used an RFID-enabled operant conditioning device to assess the habituation, learning and cognitive flexibility of a wild population of raccoons (Procyon lotor). We examined how several biological and behavioral traits influenced participation and performance in testing. We then compared the cognitive performance of wild raccoons tested in natural conditions with that of wild-caught raccoons tested in captivity from a previous study. In natural conditions, juvenile raccoons were more likely to habituate to the testing device, but performed worse in serial reversal learning, compared with adults. We also found that docile raccoons were more likely to learn how to operate the device in natural conditions, which suggests a relationship between emotional reactivity and cognitive ability in raccoons. Although raccoons in both captive and natural conditions demonstrated rapid associative learning and flexibility, raccoons in captive conditions generally performed better, likely owing to the heightened vigilance and social interference experienced by raccoons in natural conditions. Our results have important implications for future research on urban carnivores and cognition in field settings, as well as our understanding of behavioral adaptation to urbanization and coexistence with urban wildlife.

Genetic population structure defines wild boar as an urban exploiter species in Barcelona, Spain

Urban wildlife ecology is gaining relevance as metropolitan areas grow throughout the world, reducing natural habitats and creating new ecological niches. However, knowledge is still scarce about the colonisation processes of such urban niches, the establishment of new communities, populations and/or species, and the related changes in behaviour and life histories of urban wildlife. Wild boar (Sus scrofa) has successfully colonised urban niches throughout Europe. The aim of this study is to unveil the processes driving the establishment and maintenance of an urban wild boar population by analysing its genetic structure. A set of 19 microsatellite loci was used to test whether urban wild boars in Barcelona, Spain, are an isolated population or if gene flow prevents genetic differentiation between rural and urban wild boars. This knowledge will contribute to the understanding of the effects of synurbisation and the associated management measures on the genetic change of large mammals in urban ecosystems. Despite the unidirectional gene flow from rural to urban areas, the urban wild boars in Barcelona form an island population genotypically differentiated from the surrounding rural ones. The comparison with previous genetic studies of urban wild boar populations suggests that forest patches act as suitable islands for wild boar genetic differentiation. Previous results and the genetic structure of the urban wild boar population in Barcelona classify wild boar as an urban exploiter species. These wild boar peri-urban island populations are responsible for conflict with humans and thus should be managed by reducing the attractiveness of urban areas. The management of peri-urban wild boar populations should aim at reducing migration into urban areas and preventing phenotypic changes (either genetic or plastic) causing habituation of wild boars to humans and urban environments.

Wildlife is imperiled in peri-urban landscapes: threats to arboreal mammals

Urbanization and deforestation impose severe challenges to wildlife, particularly for forest-living vertebrates. Understanding how the peri-urban matrix impacts their survival is critical for designing strategies to promote their conservation. We investigated the threats faced by brown howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba clamitans) in peri-urban regions of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and Santa Catarina (SC) states, southern Brazil, by compiling negative interaction events (hereafter NIE) reported over more than two decades. We assessed the major NIEs, their distribution among age-sex classes, and the predictors of NIE-related mortality. After 20+ years of monitoring, we compiled 540 NIEs (RS = 248 and SC = 292). Electrocution by power lines was the most frequent cause of death or injury (37%), followed by dog attack (34%), vehicle collision (17%), and human mistreatment (12%). The occurrence of lethal injuries ranged from 5% to 69% depending on the type of NIE and on which state it occurred in. The overall post-NIE mortality was 56%. Adults of both sexes were the most affected individuals in both study regions. The minimal adequate GLM model explained 83% of the variation in NIE-related mortality. State, NIE type, and age-sex class were the main predictors of mortality. Overall, mortality was lower in SC and higher among adult females than in the other classes. We found that the survival of brown howler monkeys in the forest-urban interface is constrained by both the urban infrastructure and the growing interactions with humans and domestic and stray dogs (Canis familiaris). We propose the placement of aerial bridges, road signs and speed bumps in areas of frequent animal crossing, the sterilization of stray dogs, and the sensitization of local inhabitants on the importance of respecting and protecting wildlife to reduce their NIEs with humans and domestic animals in the forest-urban interface.

Is the Hitchcock Story Really True? Public Opinion on Hooded Crows in Cities as Input to Management

Simple Summary

Human-wildlife conflicts are a novel topic in urban environments. The recent increase in hooded crows in cities across Europe has increased the frequency of such conflicts, and in some places, the control of crow populations has become a necessity and a hotly debated issue. We surveyed the attitude of people towards hooded crows using an online questionnaire developed to assess their knowledge of crows and which control method is acceptable to most people in Hungary. Many respondents had experience with hooded crows and agreed that their high numbers can cause problems. Most people expressed their willingness to learn about the crows and their management yet did not wish to get directly involved in management activities, which they believed should be the responsibility of professionals. In addition, most people supported the use of non-invasive or less harmful control methods and opposed more intrusive or destructive ones. These results clearly express the difficulty in identifying the most suitable and tolerable way to manage urban crow populations and thus address emerging human-wildlife conflicts in urban environments.

Abstract

In recent years, the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) has become one of the most successful wild bird species in urban environments across Europe. Hooded crows can cause several problems in cities, including trash scattering, noise disturbance, and aggressive behavior toward humans or pets, and they can be potential vectors of pathogens. To find effective solutions, the public has to be involved in the decision-making process in urban planning management, managed by the city administration. In this study, we surveyed the attitude of people in Hungary towards crows and crow management by collecting information using an online questionnaire containing 65 questions published in 14 Facebook groups. We found that many people were familiar with corvid species and had personal experience with them. In most cases, these experiences were not negative, so the crows were not or only rarely perceived to cause problems to people, such as aggressive behavior, damage to cars or stealing something. Most respondents recognized that the presence of large numbers of hooded crows is a problem to be solved and acknowledged that they do not know how to resolve it. The majority of people expressed their interest in raising public awareness of crows but not in their management actions, which they believe should be implemented by experts. Most respondents preferred passive, harmless methods. More direct methods such as egg/chick removal from the nest, control by trapping, poisoned baits or firearms, or oral contraceptives were the least acceptable. These results express the difficulty in identifying a control method for managing hooded crow populations that is both acceptable to most people and effective at the same time. This study demonstrates the importance of involving public opinion in wildlife management and providing more information to citizens to reduce human-crow conflicts.

Scavenging vs hunting affects behavioral traits of an opportunistic carnivore

Background

Human-induced changes to ecosystems transform the availability of resources to predators, including altering prey populations and increasing access to anthropogenic foods. Opportunistic predators are likely to respond to altered food resources by changing the proportion of food they hunt versus scavenge. These shifts in foraging behavior will affect species interactions through multiple pathways, including by changing other aspects of predator behavior such as boldness, innovation, and social structure.

Methods

To understand how foraging behavior impacts predator behavior, we conducted a controlled experiment to simulate hunting by introducing a prey model to captive coyotes (Canis latrans) and compared their behavior to coyotes that continued to scavenge over one year. We used focal observations to construct behavioral budgets, and conducted novel object, puzzle box, and conspecific tests to evaluate boldness, innovation, and response to conspecifics.

Results

We documented increased time spent resting by hunting coyotes paired with decreased time spent active. Hunting coyotes increased boldness and persistence but there were no changes in innovation. Our results illustrate how foraging behavior can impact other aspects of behavior, with potential ecological consequences to predator ecology, predator-prey dynamics, and human-wildlife conflict; however, the captive nature of our study limits specific conclusions related to wild predators. We conclude that human-induced behavioral changes could have cascading ecological implications that are not fully understood.

Animal tracking moves community ecology: Opportunities and challenges

1. Individual decisions regarding how, why, and when organisms interact with one another and with their environment scale up to shape patterns and processes in communities. Recent evidence has firmly established the prevalence of intraspecific variation in nature and its relevance in community ecology, yet challenges associated with collecting data on large numbers of individual conspecifics and heterospecifics has hampered integration of individual variation into community ecology. 2. Nevertheless, recent technological and statistical advances in GPS-tracking, remote sensing, and behavioral ecology offer a toolbox for integrating intraspecific variation into community processes. More than simply describing where organisms go, movement data provide unique information about interactions and environmental associations from which a true individual-to-community framework can be built. 3. By linking the movement paths of both conspecifics and heterospecifics with environmental data, ecologists can now simultaneously quantify intra- and interspecific variation regarding the Eltonian (biotic interactions) and Grinnellian (environmental conditions) factors underpinning community assemblage and dynamics, yet substantial logistical and analytical challenges must be addressed for these approaches to realize their full potential. 4. Across communities, empirical integration of Eltonian and Grinnellian factors can support conservation applications and reveal metacommunity dynamics via tracking-based dispersal data. As the logistical and analytical challenges associated with multi-species tracking are surmounted, we envision a future where individual movements and their ecological and environmental signatures will bring resolution to many enduring issues in community ecology.

Fast food in the city? Nomadic flying-foxes commute less and hang around for longer in urban areas

Urbanization creates novel ecological spaces where some species thrive. Geographical urbanization promotes human–wildlife conflict; however, we know relatively little about the drivers of biological urbanization, which poses impediments for sound wildlife management and conservation action. Flying-foxes are extremely mobile and move nomadically in response to flowering resources, but are now increasingly found in urban areas, for reasons that are poorly understood. To investigate the mechanisms behind flying-fox urbanization, we examined the movement of 99 satellite tracked grey-headed flying-foxes (Pteropus poliocephalus) over 1 year in urban versus non-urban environments. We found that tracked individuals preferentially visited major-urban roosts, exhibited higher fidelity to major-urban roosts, and foraged over shorter distances when roosting in major-urban areas. In contrast to other colonial species, there were no density-dependent effects of colony size on foraging distance, suggesting that at a landscape scale, flying-foxes distribute themselves across roosts in an ideal-free manner, minimizing competition over urban and non-urban foraging resources. Yet, males consistently foraged over shorter distances than females, suggesting that at a local scale foraging distances reflect competitive inequalities between individuals. Overall, our study supports the hypothesis that flying-fox urbanization is driven by increased spatiotemporal availability of food resources in urban areas; however, unlike in other species, it is likely a consequence of increased urban visitation by nomadic individuals rather than a subset of the population becoming “urban residents” per se. We discuss the implications of the movement behavior we report for the conservation and management of highly mobile species.

Geographies of Flowers and Geographies of Flower Power

The world is changing under the pressure of environmental and health crises, and in this context, location choice and political choice become of even more poignant importance. Following a Culture-Based Development (CBD) stand, our paper highlights the link between political voting and the cultural and ecological valuation of a place. We start from the premise that the individual utility functions of the urban inhabitant and the urban voter coincide, since they both express the citizen’s satisfaction with the life in a place. We suggest that the unified citizen’s utility function is driven by a trade-off between the availability of virtual and physical spaces for interaction. We expect that this trade-off can lead to dissatisfaction with the place and consequent political discontent if the incumbents’ access to green areas and artistic environment in a place is simultaneously hampered for a long time. Our operational hypothesis is that the political sensitivity of citizens is related to the local availability of green areas (geographies of flowers) and cultural capital endowments (geographies of flower power). Using individual-level data from the WVS from the period close before the pandemic—2017–2020, we test empirically this hypothesis. We use as an outcome of interest the individual propensity to active political behaviour. We explain this propensity through the geographies of flowers (i.e., green areas) and geographies of flower power (i.e., cultural and creative industries). We compare the effects for urban and for rural areas. We find strong dependence of politically proactive behaviour on the geographies of flowers and geographies of flower power, with explicit prominence in urban areas. We find a more pronounced effect of these two geographies on the utility function of incumbent than migrant residents. We also crosscheck empirically the relationship of this CBD mechanism on an aggregate level, using data from the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor. The findings confirm the Schelling magnifying effect of micro preferences on a macro level.

Wildlife Affordances of Urban Infrastructure: A Framework to Understand Human-Wildlife Space Use

Landscape affordances, what the environment offers an animal, are inherently species-specific to the extent that each taxon has unique needs and responses to landscape characteristics. Wildlife responses to landscape features range on a continuum from avoidance to attraction and quantifying these habits are the backbone of wildlife movement ecology. In anthropogenically modified landscapes, many taxa do not occupy areas heavily influenced by humans, while some species seem to flourish, such as coyotes (Canis latrans) and pigeons (Columba livia). Sufficient overlap in landscapes designed for human purposes (e.g., freeway underpasses, channelized waterways, and cemeteries) but which are also suitable for wildlife (e.g., by providing sources of food, shelter, and refuge) underlies wildlife persistence in urban areas and is increasingly important in the world's largest metropoles. Studying these overlapping worlds of humans and wildlife in cities provides a rich foundation for broadening human perceptions of cities as ecosystems that exhibit emergent hybridity, whereby certain anthropogenic features of urban landscapes can be used by wildlife even as they maintain their utility for humans. By examining scaling dynamics of the infrastructural signature, the phenomena of urban wildlife movement patterns conforming to the shapes of human infrastructural forms, we hope to expand on prior research in wildlife landscape ecology by stressing the importance of understanding the overlapping worlds of humans and wildlife. Further knowledge of the urban ecological commons is necessary to better design cities where emergent hybridity is leveraged toward the management goals of reducing human wildlife conflict and promoting biodiversity.

Urban rat exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides and zoonotic infection risk

Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) deployed to control rodent pest populations can increase the risk of pathogen infection for some wildlife. However, it is unknown whether ARs also increase infection risk for target rodents, which are common hosts for zoonotic (animal-to-human transmitted) pathogens. In this study, we tested whether rats exposed to ARs were more likely to be infected with zoonotic pathogens, specifically Leptospira spp. or Escherichia coli, after controlling for known predictors of infection (i.e. sex, age, body condition). We collected biological samples from 99 rats trapped in Chicago alleys and tested these for Leptospira infection, E. coli shedding and AR exposure. We found that rats that had been exposed to ARs and survived until the time of trapping, as well as older rats, were significantly more likely to be infected with Leptospira spp. than other rats. We found no significant association between E. coli shedding and any predictors. Our results show that human actions to manage rats can affect rat disease ecology and public health risks in unintended ways, and more broadly, contribute to a growing awareness of bidirectional relationships between humans and natural systems in cities.

A Review of Chlamydial Infections in Wild Birds

The Chlamydia are a globally distributed genus of bacteria that can infect and cause disease in a range of hosts. Birds are the primary host for multiple chlamydial species. The most well-known of these is Chlamydia psittaci, a zoonotic bacterium that has been identified in a range of wild and domesticated birds. Wild birds are often proposed as a reservoir of Chlamydia psittaci and potentially other chlamydial species. The aim of this review is to present the current knowledge of chlamydial infections in wild avian populations. We focus on C. psittaci but also consider other Chlamydiaceae and Chlamydia-related bacteria that have been identified in wild birds. We summarise the diversity, host range, and clinical signs of infection in wild birds and consider the potential implications of these infections for zoonotic transmission and avian conservation. Chlamydial bacteria have been found in more than 70 species of wild birds, with the greatest chlamydial diversity identified in Europe. The Corvidae and Accipitridae families are emerging as significant chlamydial hosts, in addition to established wild hosts such as the Columbidae. Clarifying the effects of these bacteria on avian host fitness and the zoonotic potential of emerging Chlamydiales will help us to understand the implications of these infections for avian and human health.

Urban mammal fauna under conditions of a large city (on the example of Ulyanovsk, Middle Volga Region)

In this work, the topographic features of the spatial pattern of biodiversity of the urban fauna in general in the city are revealed: the number of urban fauna species has a maximum in the southern part of the city and a minimum in the western part. The mammal fauna as a component of urban fauna in general exhibits greater plasticity and adaptability in relation to humans compared to other groups of biota, for example, the insect fauna and avifauna. The urban mammal fauna in Ulyanovsk has historically formed due to the penetration of representatives of various faunal complexes that inhabit the region into the city area and its vicinities: (1) floodplain species associated with the river Sviyaga and its tributaries, 36.17%; (2) forest species living in pine-deciduous, deciduous-pine, and taiga forests, 46.81%; (3) upland-steppe species associated with Cretaceous landscapes of the right bank, 6.38%; (4) steppe species, including mammals of the left bank, common for the native feather grass–fescue steppes, 6.38%. Some animal species have remained in the city and in the region due to their spread by humans—introduced species and species kept in fur farms (10.64%). Synanthropic species are associated with human settlements (4.26%). The occurrence of species in different zones of the city (right bank and left bank) and habitats with an increase in the level of urbanization and a decrease in species diversity (1–5) are as follows: (1) green zones—parks and squares with woody vegetation, 31 species; (2) floodplain of the river Sviyaga within the city, 24 species; (3) summer cottages within the city, 15 species; (4) private sector with one-storey buildings, 5 species; (5) multi-storey buildings, 4 species. In general, in an urban environment, mammal species that coexist with humans make up 66.19 % of the total number of mammal species in the region. At the same time, the number of rare mammal species listed in the regional Red Book is 12.68%. Thus, when conservation measures for the protection of animal habitats within the urban environment are observed, most species are able to maintain stable populations.

Discovering and Applying the Urban Rules of Life to Design Sustainable and Healthy Cities

The city and its urban biome provides an extreme laboratory for studying fundamental biological questions and developing best practices for sustaining biodiverse and well-functioning ecological communities within anthropogenic built environments. We propose by studying urban organisms, urban biotic communities, the urban biome, and the interactions between the urban biome and peri-urban built and natural environments, we can (1) discover new 'rules of life' for the structure, function, interaction, and evolution of organisms;(2) use these discoveries to understand how novel emerging biotic communities affect and are affected by anthropogenic environmental changes in climate and other environmental factors; and (3) apply what we have learned to engage residents of the urban biome, and design cities that are more biologically diverse, are provided with more and better ecosystem services, and are more equitable and healthier places to live. The built environment of the urban biome is a place that reflects history, economics, technology, governance, culture, and values of the human residents; research on and applications of the rules of life in the urban biome can be used by all residents in making choices about the design of the cities where they live. Because inhabitants are directly invested in the environmental quality of their neighborhoods, research conducted in and about the urban environment provides a great opportunity to engage wide and diverse communities of people. Given the opportunity to engage a broad constituency - from basic researchers to teachers, civil engineers, landscape planners, and concerned citizens - studying the translation of the rules of life onto the urban environment will result in an integrative and cross-cutting set of questions and hypotheses, and will foster a dialogue among citizens about the focus of urban biome research and its application toward making more equitable, healthy, livable, sustainable, and biodiverse cities.

Urban evolution comes into its own: Emerging themes and future directions of a burgeoning field

Urbanization has recently emerged as an exciting new direction for evolutionary research founded on our growing understanding of rapid evolution paired with the expansion of novel urban habitats. Urbanization can influence adaptive and nonadaptive evolution in urban-dwelling species, but generalized patterns and the predictability of urban evolutionary responses within populations remain unclear. This editorial introduces the special feature "Evolution in Urban Environments" and addresses four major emerging themes, which include: (a) adaptive evolution and phenotypic plasticity via physiological responses to urban climate, (b) adaptive evolution via phenotype-environment relationships in urban habitats, (c) population connectivity and genetic drift in urban landscapes, and (d) human-wildlife interactions in urban spaces. Here, we present the 16 articles (12 empirical, 3 review, 1 capstone) within this issue and how they represent each of these four emerging themes in urban evolutionary biology. Finally, we discuss how these articles address previous questions and have now raised new ones, highlighting important new directions for the field.

Linking Human Perceptions and Spotted Hyena Behavior in Urban Areas of Ethiopia

Humans have shaped carnivore behavior since at least the Middle Paleolithic period, about 42,000 years ago. In more recent times, spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) in Ethiopia have adapted to living in urban areas, while humans have adapted to living with hyenas. Yet, relationships between coexisting humans and carnivores are rarely addressed beyond mitigating conflicts. We provided a case study for how to broadly think about coexistence and how to study it when measuring if humans and carnivores affect one another. We collected data in four Ethiopian cities: Mekelle, Harar, Addis Ababa, and Arba Minch. We held focus groups and key informant interviews that incorporated feedback from 163 people, representing a wide array of religious, economic, and educational backgrounds. We also determined how many hyenas resided in these cities, hyena behavioral responses to humans using a flight initiation test, and problem-solving abilities via puzzle box trials. We found that in three of the cities, hyenas and humans coexist at high densities and frequently encounter each other. While all participants recognized the importance of hyenas as scavengers to maintain a clean environment, there was pronounced variation in cultural perspectives across cities. For example, while the people of Harar revere hyenas in spiritual terms, in Arba Minch hyenas were regarded as nuisance animals. Hyenas were universally respected as a formidable predator across cities but reports of attacks on livestock and humans were few. Flight initiation tests revealed hyenas fled at significantly closer distances in Harar and Addis Ababa than in Mekelle. Hyenas succeeded at solving a puzzle box in Harar but not in Mekelle. These variable behavior in hyenas correlated to different human perceptions. Our case study results suggest that the hyena-human dynamic is highly variable across these locations. We conclude by exploring the implications of these findings for how humans and hyenas can shape one another's behavior. Developing studies to link human perceptions and animal behavior could advance wildlife conservation, especially in urban areas.

Variation in reversal learning by three generalist mesocarnivores

Urbanization imposes novel challenges for wildlife, but also provides new opportunities for exploitation. Generalist species are commonly found in urban habitats, but the cognitive mechanisms facilitating their successful behavioral adaptations and exploitations are largely under-investigated. Cognitive flexibility is thought to enable generalists to be more plastic in their behavior, thereby increasing their adaptability to a variety of environments, including urban habitats. Yet direct measures of cognitive flexibility across urban wildlife are lacking. We used a classic reversal-learning paradigm to investigate the cognitive flexibility of three generalist mesocarnivores commonly found in urban habitats: striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and coyotes (Canis latrans). We developed an automated device and testing protocol that allowed us to administer tests of reversal learning in captivity without extensive training or experimenter involvement. Although most subjects were able to rapidly form and reverse learned associations, we found moderate variation in performance and behavior during trials. Most notably, we observed heightened neophobia and a lack of habituation expressed by coyotes. We discuss the implications of such differences among generalists with regard to urban adaptation and we identify goals for future research. This study is an important step in investigating the relationships between cognition, generalism, and urban adaptation.