Evolution in an Urbanizing World
Coastal cities in Europe are swarmed with gulls, to the annoyance of many of those cities’ inhabitants. Gulls (Larus spp.) are naturally cliff-nesting species, but are able to thrive in urban areas because of the high food availability, the suitable climate, the similarity of nest substrate, lesser risk of predation and the presence of conspecifics... Continue Reading →
Urban trees support diverse wildlife, as Jamaican biologist and naturalist Damany Calder pointed out in Instagram this week with his observation of the Yellow-Billed Parrot (Amazona collaria), endemic to Jamaica and vulnerable to extinction, in a Black Olive tree (Terminalia buceras) in the middle of a busy parking lot of a shopping center in Kingston!... Continue Reading →
Urban Roosts: Use of Buildings by Florida Bonneted Bats Elysia N. Webb, Holly K. Ober, Elizabeth C. Braun de Torrez, Jeffery A. Gore, and Ricardo Zambrano Abstract Florida Bonneted Bats, Eumops floridanus, were first documented in Miami, Florida, USA, in the 1930s. We summarized reports of these bats in the greater Miami area throughout the past... Continue Reading →
I'm partial to the creepy, crawly, scaly, slithering critters. I spend most of my time thinking about urban lizards, but recently started wondering about urban snakes. To my great disappointment, I wasn't able to find many recent publications on urban snakes, and most of what I did find looked at urban ecology and biodiversity, rather... Continue Reading →
The field of urban evolution is relatively young, but researchers have been fascinated by animal movement through cities for quite some time. Recently, I was perusing the archives of the Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society and came across a note by Sidney Hessel detailing the movements of monarch butterflies through Manhattan. He observed 82 monarchs... Continue Reading →
Above: (c) Erin Walsh for Journal of Conservation Physiology on the evolution of heat tolerance in Daphnia “No they do not itch”, “Yes, they are super cute”, and “Yes, they live in water”. “Also in this pond?”. Behold the standard answers given during an ‘interrogatory’ conversation with a passer-by on a sunny sampling day, somewhere in... Continue Reading →
One thing I always wonder when I see birds flying around cities is "where are they nesting???" Fortunately, the Audubon Society has an answer for that question - many birds nest in and on buildings and other anthropogenic structures. For example: Chimney swifts nest inside of chimneys Cliff swallows build mud nests on the sides... Continue Reading →
As the field of urban ecology and evolution advances, one major issue consistently jumps out at me: the lack of information on basic ecology and natural history of many species in urban environments. Such information provides a background for hypothesis driven research, a context for interpreting results, and a comparative baseline. Evolutionary studies, particularly those framed... Continue Reading →
Sophie Breitbart, PhD student at University of Toronto Mississauga, tells us about her experience in the field working on milkweed. I'm sitting in the railway station Got a ticket to my destination... -Simon and Garfunkel, “Homeward Bound” Who would’ve thought that a young Paul Simon could have so much in common with a perennial herb... Continue Reading →
In cities the number and types of predators drastically differ from nearby rural and "natural" areas. This often means that the biggest threat prey species have to face in cities are domestic predators (dogs and cats) or generalist "mesopredators" like raccoons, coyotes, or foxes. That is, unless you consider the threat from humans, and in... Continue Reading →
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