Evolution in an Urbanizing World
What is the most intelligent animal you can think of? Species that likely come to mind are perhaps apes, cetaceans, or elephants. However, in spite of their intelligence, most of the species from these groups are not as abundant as they used to be. Humans have changed the world through climate change, pollution, and changing... Continue Reading →
Cities are becoming more and more grey, with less and less living biomass. The consequence is that there is not enough natural nesting material available for the urban birds. These birds adapt to use alternative anthropogenic nesting materials. Examples include synthetic twine, string, and rope or artificial plants made of plastic (Hiemstra et al. 2021).... Continue Reading →
What wakes you up in the morning? Is it your alarm clock? Is it the clattering of your housemate in the kitchen? Is it the smell of coffee? While these experiences happen like clockwork, for many organisms it is not sound or smell that wakes them up but the sun. Those first dawn beams of... Continue Reading →
When thinking about a city at night, chances are that you include some twinkling streetlights in your mental image. Billboards, streetlamps, and neon signs are no novel presence to city dwellers. These light sources are in technical terms called artificial lights at night, or ALAN for short. While thinking about a city at night can... Continue Reading →
In the heart of the city, dominated by human-made material, animals face more than cars and concrete—they face humans. And to survive, some of them have developed a surprising skill: reading human behaviour and recognizing people. They learn who feeds them, who ignores them, and most importantly, who poses a threat to them. They need... Continue Reading →
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 →
Did you know that it has been estimated that the anthropogenic mass, representing all human-made objects, would exceed the living biomass in 2020 ± 6 years? Each year, humans accumulate 30 Gigatons of anthropogenic mass, based on the averages of the last 5 years. The article that made these estimations even mentions that “this corresponds... Continue Reading →
The weather on the northern hemisphere is getting warmer which means beach days are approaching. Every beach dweller can confirm that seagulls (Larus sp.) can be very cunning and cheeky in order to steal food. Is this their ancestral behaviour or has this evolved with the rising of urban areas? Pavlova and Wronski (2020) studied... Continue Reading →
Knotted willows characterise many Dutch landscapes, where they are often seen in a row along creeks that have existed for decades. These willows are pruned every few years, which causes the characteristic wide “knot” at the treetop to form over time. Complex shapes can form due to this pruning, and it is quite common to... Continue Reading →
Domestic Cats (Felis silvestris catus; Felis catus) are a human commensal, said to have started their relationship with us during the era of the first settled farmers (approx. 12.000 years ago) within the Fertile Crescent region of the middle east.1 We took them into our homes and slowly transformed them into the royalty that a lot... Continue Reading →
At the heart of the Amazon rainforest, near the confluence of the Rio Negro and Amazone, lies the metropole Manaus. Nicknamed the Paris of the Tropics, Manaus is home to over two million people and functions as the economical hub of the northern part of Brazil. Incidentally, it is also the last refuge of the... Continue Reading →
As urbanization continues to reshape landscapes, its effects on wildlife have become a subject of growing concern. In the unique context of Cuba, a recent study focused on an endemic lizard species, Anolis homolechis, found in both natural and suburban environments. This in-depth study relied on adapted tracking methods deployed over several years and explored... Continue Reading →
In response to human impact on the environment—from increased light, sound, air, and water pollution, to higher levels of interaction with humans—organisms must adapt to novel conditions in order to survive. One area in which organisms adapt is behavior. von Merton et. al. (2022) explores how the behavior and personality of two shrew species (Crocidura... Continue Reading →
Sadly, plastics and litter have become part of the urban and often rural environment. It can be found almost everywhere and in any form – ranging from plastic bags to broken traffic cones. We consider it trash, however, for some birds, it is a jackpot. Often, litter is creatively included during nest building by these... Continue Reading →
Urban colonies are less aggressive but forage more than their forest counterparts in the ant Temnothorax nylanderi L Jacquier, M Molet, C Doums Abstract Urbanization imposes new constraints on organisms, leading to changes in various traits including behaviour. In particular, foraging and aggressive behaviours are often affected by urbanization. In eusocial species, behaviour can be defined at the... Continue Reading →
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