Evolution in an Urbanizing World
Usually urban bees are pollinating on your garden flowers or have a colony by a local beekeeper. Here we have a door jamb that was broken, then co-opted as a cozy home for a bee. Do you have a photo or video of an urban species doing something unusual? What about a rare plant or... Continue Reading →
Once on the brink of extinction, thanks to conservation efforts the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) has made a comeback. This predator can be found across North America to Northern Mexico and once had an estimated population size of 300,000-500,000. However, the use of DDT disrupted the bird's ability to metabolize calcium and resulted in birds... 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 →
https://twitter.com/brown_birds/status/1276523670530224128?s=20 I was recently browsing through Twitter and came across this fantastic tweet by Rafael Marcondes showing a flock of white-eyed parakeets (Psittacara leucophthalmus) gathering on a building in the Tatuapé neighborhood of São Paulo. Maisa Infante wrote the original post and explains that the parakeets eat the clay off the building's facade. White-eyed Parakeets... Continue Reading →
It's clear that urbanization alters native animal and plant communities around the world. However, while some organisms become locally extinct as anthropogenic forces change the land, other species survive or even thrive in this urban landscape. A recent paper by George Perry reviews several cases of human behavior impacting the genetics of urban organisms. For... Continue Reading →
This summer the International Association for Landscape Ecology - North America (IALE-NA) hosted an annual meeting that was originally scheduled to be in person in Toronto, ON, Canada, but due to Covid-19 it was hosted online. This was my first online conference and I was a chair for a special symposium: Landscape genetics as a... Continue Reading →
Pigeons are pretty common in urban areas. In fact, they are human commensals, so you are most likely to see them in the city, as opposed to other types of birds. You'll usually see them in the park where someone feeds them seeds and bread. Sometimes, you'll see them on the streets eating scraps. It... Continue Reading →
Life in the city is stressful, for humans and wildlife! One of the main physiological traits thought to be impacted by the novel pressures of urban life, such as noise and light pollution, is stress hormone concentration. Nevertheless, no patterns have emerged across species. Allison Injaian and co-authors fill this gap in knowledge with their... Continue Reading →
Back in the quarantine, we could go for walks or gaze out of our windows. This cardinal could be seen on a walk or out the window! The red cardinal is perched on a blooming Magnolia tree. Now that's a great sight! Do you have a photo or video of an urban species doing something... Continue Reading →
I am starting to think that foxes are more common in urban areas than we thought... Today's urban observation is another fox! We have had a few previous observations of foxes, one with a magpie, then one in a garden feeding its babies. There is research being done on red foxes in Berlin, featured here... Continue Reading →
When I began grad school, I set a goal: for my parents to understand the basics of my research. Neither have a background in science or research. [socialpoll id="2647412"] Over the past two years they've heard me yammer on about urbanization, genotypes, and common garden experiments. I can tell that my efforts are not wasted... Continue Reading →
In light of recent events, particularly the murder of George Floyd, harassment of Christian Cooper, and unjust actions against protesters supporting the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we at LITC want to acknowledge the systematic oppression and racism that exists in our field. We wholeheartedly support the Black community and communities of color, and firmly stand against racism.... Continue Reading →
Cat TV is a great way to keep your feline friend entertained. What is cat TV? It is a window that your cat can look out and watch the local flora and fauna. Cats in high rise buildings rarely get to see birds up close, but this one got a special treat. A woodpecker flew... Continue Reading →
Urbanization is rapidly transforming the Earth leading to drastic changes in the local ecological communities and changing the evolutionary dynamics of organisms living within cities. Previous research has shown that urbanization can prohibit, facilitate, or have little effect on gene flow but the scale at which these phenomena occur are highly dependent on the organism,... Continue Reading →
Now that we are still in pandemic mode, more organisms that we might not normally see in urban areas are popping up on our social distanced walks. Here we see a flock of turkey vultures in Erindale Park, hanging out near the recycling bins. You'll want to practice more than the 6 feet of social... Continue Reading →
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