Evolution in an Urbanizing World
Usually, when you hear about a bear wandering through a neighborhood, it is in some rural area in Alaska. This week, we bring you a bear walking through a neighborhood near Los Angeles, CA! The more we urbanize our land, the more unexpected wildlife we will see in our neighborhoods. https://twitter.com/CBSLA/status/1230866141863563264?s=20 Do you have a... Continue Reading →
As winter is finally ending and warmer weather is on the way, we bring you one more winter observation. Many birds fly south for the winter, but some stick around and brave the cold. This owl is one of those birds that stayed in the city during the winter months. https://twitter.com/ABBestphotos/status/1226710932547502080?s=20 Do you have a... Continue Reading →
Urbanization can significantly alter environments in ways that impact abundance and behavior of urban animals. Fewer natural predators and greater food availability - as well as increased contact with humans - may lead to altered stress responses, increased boldness, and decreased vigilance compared to non-urban populations. The eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) has been very... Continue Reading →
Typically, researchers have found that many different species of bee populations decline in urban areas. But not all bees do poorly in the city. Here is a swarm that piled onto a car while someone was shopping at their local pharmacy! Do you have a photo or video of an urban species doing something unusual?... Continue Reading →
Heavy metal pollution is a widespread threat to urban ecosystems. Although many types of heavy metals are required by organisms at trace levels, the environmental availability of heavy metals is increasing to potentially toxic levels due to human activities such as mining, industrial combustion, and automobile use. A key goal for ecotoxicologists, evolutionary biologists, and... Continue Reading →
When we see wildlife in our neighborhoods, it seems like we hit the lotto. They are rare gems to spot and even get a picture. Most of the time, we are happy to see them. However, when people let their cats roam freely, the cat can encounter wildlife that may be less than friendly. Recently,... Continue Reading →
Like many of you, I've been working from home due to the Coronavirus pandemic. My University suspended face-to-face classes two weeks ago and closed the campus to all nonessential personnel on Sunday night. Knowing this was coming, I packed up my desktop, hard drives, and essential books, and brought them home with me and got... Continue Reading →
During the winter, snow covers the ground and lakes freeze. The trees have lost their leaves, the birds flew south, and the bears hibernate. But where do the bugs go? Some also go south for the winter, like the Monarch Butterfly. But others actually stay in the north and are aquatic, living under the ice.... Continue Reading →
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that urbanization has an impact on the ecology and evolution of species. However, we know much about how urbanization affects species interactions. For example, plant-pollinator interactions may be particularly sensitive to urbanization because both plants and their insect pollinators have been shown to respond to urbanization positively... Continue Reading →
Bird feeders are a great way to attract birds to your backyard, but what happens when your bird feeder also attracts unwanted pests? The Helsinki Urban Rat Project recently tweeted out a video showing a rat feasting on the spilled grain from a bird feeder. Check out our other posts on urban rats here and... Continue Reading →
The YouTube channel TierZoo makes a ton of cool videos about animals, specifically viewed through the lens of gaming, where they rank different animal species according to how successful they are at living in different habitats. Past videos have included lists of dinosaurs, sharks, and cats. However, I was recently thrilled to find they had... Continue Reading →
Do you enjoy spotting urban birds but need some help with identifying what you find? This is something I constantly encounter (often with family members sending me photos and videos for identification). Luckily, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a fantastic guide to help you. A few weeks ago my brother sent me this video... Continue Reading →
In ecological studies, ants are commonly used as bio-indicators because they are able to respond to rapid changes in their environments. This also makes them a great system to use in urban studies given the rapid changes that urbanization poses on ecosystems. However, there studies that look at the evolutionary patterns of ants in response... Continue Reading →
It is getting wild in Scotland cities! Last week we brought you canal otters of Edinburgh and this week we bring you a fox and a magpie in Glasgow. A bit of shrubbery between a car park seems to attract several urban wildlife creatures. Do you have a photo or video of an urban species... Continue Reading →
The Common European Toad, Bufo bufo, is a pond-breeding amphibian found throughout Europe, including in urban environments. Ecological changes (e.g., predator communities) in anthropogenic habitats present novel challenges to the common toad, but abiotic changes (e.g., pollution) may also influence phenotypes in these landscapes. Nevertheless, we know relatively little about how these urban-dwellers (and specifically their toxins)... Continue Reading →
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