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Location of three study sites (park = square, agricultural land = circle and forest = triangle) where red fox and domestic cat scats were recovered during two-years of field work over three main land cover use (agricultural, urban and natural) reclassified from Corine Land Cover 2012

Location of three study sites (park = square, agricultural land = circle and forest = triangle) where red fox and domestic cat scats were recovered during two-years of field work over three main land cover use (agricultural, urban and natural) reclassified from Corine Land Cover 2012

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Among medium-sized carnivores, red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) are the most abundant species in human-dominated landscapes worldwide. Both are known to be generalist predators that exploit a wide range of prey groups (e.g., mammals, birds, and invertebrates). Identifying red fox and domestic cat predation pressu...

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... Fleming et al. (2021) found that human population density was a significant predictor of bird presence in fox diet in Australia, with avian frequency of occurrence being 1.5 times higher in urban areas. In Europe, birds were also more prevalent in the diet of urban red foxes in Switzerland during the summer season (Contesse et al. 2004), and constituted the greatest dietary biomass in urban foxes of France (Castañeda et al. 2020). Given that many high-tide roosts occur in heavily populated coastal estuaries with strong urban encroachment, the documented effect of human proximity on fox feeding behavior makes it more likely that non-breeding, high-tide roosting shorebirds experienced predation pressure from red foxes. ...
Article
Shorebird populations have experienced dramatic population declines worldwide. Reasons for these declines are varied, but one largely understudied threat at migratory shorebird non‐breeding grounds is predation by introduced predators. High‐tide roosting shorebirds may be vulnerable to ground predation, as they roost in a spatially clumped and temporally predictable manner in areas easily accessible to ground predators. We measured predation risk by the introduced red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ) at high‐tide roosts within 2 internationally important shorebird estuaries in New South Wales, Australia, during a time when non‐breeding shorebird numbers were at their annual peak, using a combination of camera trapping and environmental DNA (eDNA). Foxes were present at all study sites and were seen most frequently at sites encompassing the 2 largest high‐tide roosts within the study estuaries, and least frequently nearest the roosts. Metabarcoding identified a broad range of avian taxa in fox scats collected at roosts, including ground‐dwelling birds, native waterbirds, and introduced pigeons and doves, but no shorebird species. Bird prevalence in fox scats reached levels that far exceeded those reported in prior studies. Future studies should examine whether red foxes present a non‐lethal, rather than lethal, predation threat to high‐tide roosting shorebirds when feeding on other co‐occurring food sources, potentially inducing energetically costly predator avoidance.
... Apesar do conhecimento rudimentar (Chace & Walsh 2006), hoje sabemos que a urbanização afeta a biodiversidade. Além disso, alguns dos fatores comuns nas áreas urbanas que afetam a biodiversidade como: 1) o aumento do calor (Brans et al. 2017;Izuddin et al. 2019;Johnson et al. 2019;Moll et al. 2019;Varquez & Kanda 2018;Yang et al. 2017;Yu et al. 2018), 2) o aumento do ruído (carros, aviões, residências etc.) (Alquezar et al. 2020; Barbosa et al. 2020;Castaneda et Welbers et al. 2017;Xue et al. 2020;Zheng et al. 2021), 4) o aumento da poluição (Antonini et al. 2013;Bailly et al. 2017;Bauerová et al. 2017a;Cid et al. 2018;Soares et al. 2003;Yauk et al. 2000), 5) a alteração dos recursos alimentares (Chace & Walsh 2006;De León et al. 2019;Galbraith et al. 2017;Luna et al. 2021;Miyasaki et al. 2017;Murray et al. 2018;Navarro et al. 2021b;Pollock et al. 2017;Saufi et al. 2020;Zietsman et al. 2019), 6) a introdução de novos predadores (Alexandrino et al. 2019;Baker et al. 2005;Blancher 2013;Bonnaud et al. 2012;Bradshaw et al. 1999;Calver et al. 2011;Castañeda et al. 2020;Krauze-Gryz et al. 2017Krauze-Gryz et al. 2012;Luna et al. 2021;Turner & Bateson 2014), 7) o impacto decorrente de colisões (aviões, carros, vidros) (Allan 2006;Allan et al. 2016;Brown et al. 2021;Carter 2001;Elmore et al. 2021;Klem 2021;Loss et al. 2014;Marchini & Crawshaw 2015;Riding et al. 2021;Zakrajsek & Bissonette 2005;Zalakevicius 2000), e 8) o aumento de doenças (Bradley & Altizer 2007;Gibb et al. 2020;Giraudeau et al. 2014a;Sándor et al. 2017;Zuo et al. 2018). Apesar disso, são necessários mais estudos para permitir um entendimento adequado da relação biodiversidadeurbanização. ...
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Paisagens urbanas são cada vez mais dominantes ao redor do mundo criando uma nova interface para a fauna silvestre. Apesar de ter sido ignorado por muito tempo pelos ecólogos, o entendimento dos processos em áreas urbanas recebe crescente atenção para a construção de um arcabouço atual de desenvolvimento sustentável e conservação da biodiversidade. Assim, é preciso explorar de forma detalhada como as diferentes características de áreas urbanas filtram espécies e selecionam características da fauna silvestre. Neste sentido, esta tese se propôs, utilizando espécies de aves silvestres no Distrito Federal (DF) como um modelo, a estudar a relação da expansão e intensificação urbana. O objetivo geral foi investigar as assembleias de aves urbanas e sua relação com o processo de urbanização. Pretendo entender como a urbanização afeta os indivíduos que nela persistem, avaliando sua morfologia, saúde e o uso dos recursos alimentares. Também discorro sobre adaptações metodológicas realizadas em decorrência das dificuldades da amostragem de aves nos ambientes urbanos. A tese está estruturada em oito capítulos interligados pelo tipo de ambiente explorado durante o estudo: ambientes urbanos. Esses capítulos utilizam diferentes abordagens e tem distintos objetivos. Apesar disso, todo o direcionamento do trabalho está focado nos impactos que a urbanização provoca na fauna em seus diferentes aspectos (em nível de comunidade ou de população) e os determinantes ambientais relevantes para os animais que nela vivem. Além disso, em alguns capítulos abordo questões metodológicas, tendo em vista as dificuldades de amostragem de aves nos ambientes urbanos. Por último, apresento um capítulo compilando o conhecimento atual sobre os ambientes urbanos em forma de um texto de divulgação científica para a população, que incorpora meus achados nos ambientes urbanos de Brasília. Meus resultados mostram que as áreas urbanas impactam de forma direta as aves, tanto em nível de comunidade como em nível das populações. Em nível de comunidades, observei clara redução da diversidade (taxonômica, filogenética e funcional) e mudança da estrutura da comunidade em área com maior intensidade urbana. Em nível d populações, observei um aumento da proliferação de doenças (lesões nas patas), aumento do estresse crônico (razão H/L), e mudanças morfológicas e alimentares. Esses achados confirmam minha hipótese inicial de que as áreas urbanas promovem pressões significativas sobre as espécies, afetando os animais que nela persistem. Meus achados são relevantes pois o entendimento de como as espécies lidam com as pressões ambientais causadas pelas modificações urbanas podem ajudar gestores a tornar as cidades mais amigáveis à fauna, principalmente quando pensamos nos desafios globais de manutenção das populações nativas que estão em declínio.
... In urban parks in central Tokyo (Japan), earthworms were detected in 49% of fecal samples produced by raccoon dogs in the winter season (Enomoto et al. 2018). A recent study even showed that earthworms constitute a major dietary component for most of the year for domestic cats in Parisian suburbs (Castañeda et al. 2020). ...
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... Mid-sized hawks such as Northern goshawk Accipiter gentilis, midsized owls such as Ural owl Strix uralensis, red foxes Vulpes vulpes, and European pine martens Martes martes are the main predators of red squirrels in natural areas . Although feral cats can be a predator in urban areas, the impact is assumed to be low (Castañeda et al., 2020;Piontek et al., 2021). However, these squirrel predators are either absent (no feral cats and red foxes occur in the Finnish study site) or are often rare in our other study sites. ...
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As urbanisation increases, wildlife is more likely to be exposed to humans. Although human disturbance is the main cause of biodiversity loss, some wildlife thrives in anthropogenic environments. Such species show increased behavioural tolerance to humans, which plays an important role in human-wildlife coexistence. However, whether wildlife modulates tolerance differently between regions and cities is inadequately understood. Understanding how animals behaviourally modulate their tolerance to humans at the larger geographical scale can provide useful information to predict behavioural adaptations to urbanisation and adequate management actions for conservation. We examined alert distance (AD), flight initiation distance (FID), and vertical escape distance (VED) in Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in four countries (Finland, Germany, Japan, and the UK). Linear mixed models with Tukey's multicomparisons showed that all tolerance measures varied between countries. We subsequently analysed the relationship between site-scale environmental variables (vegetation conditions, presence of artificial feeding, and human population density) and tolerance behaviours separately by country. We found that squirrels were more tolerant in sites with taller trees and more underbrush cover in the UK, and more tolerant in sites with artificial feeding in Japan, while environmental variables were not associated with squirrels' tolerance in Finland and Germany. Our results indicated that regional forms of environmental factors and human-squirrel interactions play a key role in tolerance modification at the larger spatial scale. Our study suggests the importance of considering regional-dependent relationships between tolerance behaviours and environmental characteristics for urban wildlife conservation and management.
... p = 4.10-8). The two foxes at Vitȃneşti-Mȃgurice have higher δ 13 C values compared to dogs (− 19.1‰ each) and rather low δ 15 N values (8.5‰ and 8.7‰), reflecting the significant contribution of fruits to their diet (Castañeda et al., 2020;Cavallini and Volpi, 1996). At Vitȃneşti-Mȃgurice, the three wolves have δ 15 N values of 9.6‰-11.6‰, ...
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Dogs have cohabited with humans since the Upper Paleolithic and their lifestyle and diet during late prehistory probably already depended on the role they played in past societies. Here, we used a combination of stable isotope analyses and three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to test for differences in, and associations between, diet and mandibular morphology based on 150 dogs of three sites of the Chalcolithic Gumelniţa culture in Romania (4550–3900 cal. BCE) characterized by different socio-economic systems. At Hârşova-tell and Borduşani-Popină, where the subsistence economy is mainly based on herding, dogs have a variable diet that is rich in domestic animals (sheep, cattle, pig) and may contain fish. In contrast, at Vităneşti-Măgurice, where hunting predominates, the diet of dogs is more specialized towards large game (red deer, aurochs, wild horse), reflecting the composition of human food refuse. Moreover, dogs have more robust (but not larger) mandibles at this site with shapes suggesting a greater importance of the temporal muscle important for the capture of large prey and the breaking of large bones. The strong covariation between mandible shape and stable isotope signatures suggests functional adaptations to diet. Overall, our results support the idea that prehistoric dogs adapted to human lifestyles.
... The Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the terrestrial mammal with the broadest distribution range in the Northern Hemisphere (Walton et al., 2017), and has been proposed as a possible sentinel for environmental contamination in urban, suburban, and agricultural areas due to its ecological plasticity and feeding habits (Garcês and Pires, 2021). The Red fox is indeed an omnivorous mesopredator whose diet composition varies considerably due to latitude, human presence and activities, and climate (Bassi et al., 2012;Castañeda et al., 2020;Soe et al., 2017). Previous studies indicated that the Red fox could be used as an indicator of environmental exposure to trace elements (i.e., Dainowski et al., 2015;Naccari et al., 2013) and legacy organic pollutants, including organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl esters (Corsolini et al., 2014;Mateo et al., 2012;Voorspoels et al., 2006). ...
... According to the generalist feeding habit of the Red fox (Castañeda et al., 2020;Soe et al., 2017), the expected exposure pathways to NEOs are then the ingestion of contaminated water, fruits and vegetables, the predation of mammals and birds that feed on contaminated seeds and fruits (i.e. rodents, pheasants), or prey items which were contaminated by surface waters receiving NEOs from agricultural land (i.e. ...
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Neonicotinoids (NEOs) and active pharmaceuticals ingredients (API) are contaminants widely diffused worldwide, causing increasing concern for potential adverse effects on wildlife. However, research on these contaminants have focused on target and non-target invertebrates, while information on potential effects in terrestrial mammals is lacking. We performed preliminary non-invasive monitoring of NEOs and API in a suburban and agricultural area using hair of the Red fox. The Red fox is a widely diffused mesopredator in Europe, and its plasticity in feeding habits makes it an excellent indicator for assessing exposure to environmental contamination. We observed the presence of NEOs in many Red fox hair samples (n = 11), including imidacloprid (IMI), acetamiprid (ACE), and clothianidin (CLO). The highest quantified concentrations were 6.4 ng g-1 dry weight (dw), 6.7 ng g-1 dw, and 0.9 ng g-1 dw for IMI, ACE, and CLO, respectively. The targeted APIs included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and antidepressants. APIs were less frequently detected than NEOs, and the compounds with the highest prevalence were the NSAID ketoprofen (36%), the antidepressant sertraline (36%), and its active metabolite norsertraline (27%). The presence of human pharmaceuticals such as the NSAID ibuprofen and the antidepressants sertraline, fluoxetine, and their active metabolites norsertraline and norfluoxetine suggest environmental contamination due to untreated and partially treated wastewater discharged in surface waters and soils of the study area. The detection and quantification of ketoprofen and flunixin also suggest the possible use of contaminated manure on farmland. Findings indicate that hair may be used for monitoring environmental exposure to NEOs and provide evidence that hair is a good marker of exposure for antidepressants and certain NSAIDs, including ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and flunixin.
... At the same time, the high occurrence of these parasites in foxes in both natural and anthropic environments could be related to the feeding habits of this canid species. Unlike the wolf, which is a selective generalist predator at the top of the food chain [29,30], the fox shows much more opportunistic feeding behavior, based on small mammals, birds, invertebrates, and fruits [31]. The fox's feeding behavior and predation of small animals potentially acting as paratenic hosts [21] may expose this canid to a high risk of hookworm infections in both natural and anthropic environments. ...
Article
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Gastrointestinal nematodes and protozoa and other parasite occurrences were evaluated in free-ranging wolf (Canis lupus italicus) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) populations from natural and anthropized areas of Central Italy. Analyzed fecal samples were collected from 60 foxes and 40 wolves in the anthropized areas, and 41 foxes and 39 wolves in the natural areas. In foxes, hookworm infections (p < 0.0001) were more frequently recorded in the anthropized environment, while coccidia (p < 0.05) and Cryptosporidium spp. (p < 0.0001) were more frequent in the natural area. In wolves, a higher frequency of hookworms (p < 0.0001) was observed in natural areas, while coccidia were more common in the anthropized area (p < 0.05). Moreover, in the natural environment, trichuroid nematodes (p < 0.0001) were significantly more frequent in wolves than in foxes, while Cryptosporidium (p < 0.001) and Giardia duodenalis (p < 0.001) were more common in foxes. In the anthropic area, the occurrence of hookworms was found to be significantly higher in foxes (p < 0.0001), while trichuroid nematodes were more common in wolves (p < 0.0001). The obtained data are indicative of a different diffusion of specific parasite taxa in wolves and foxes living in the natural and/or anthropized environments examined herein.
... Cats are generalist predators introduced by humans globally, and their potential impact on wildlife is the subject of growing international interest and concern (Crowley et al., 2020a;Loss & Marra, 2017). They hunt many types of prey, including invertebrates and vertebrates, mainly mammals, birds, and reptiles (e.g., Barratt, 1997;Castañeda et al., 2019Castañeda et al., , 2020. The ecological impacts of cats have been shown to be particularly severe on island ecosystems, where island vertebrates have never coexisted with such introduced mammalian carnivores, and cats are a major driver of extinctions of insular endemic birds, mammals, and reptiles (Bonnaud et al., 2012;Doherty et al., 2016;Medina et al., 2011;Palmas et al., 2017). ...
... To this end, we surveyed a large sample of cat owners living in France and estimated the personality traits of their cats using the Feline Five personality model of Litchfield et al. (2017) as well as the frequency of birds and mammals returned home by the cats as reported by their owners. We expected that cats with "low neuroticism (boldness, leading to travelling, exploring) or high extraversion (curiosity, leading to boredom), would potentially be more interested in hunting wild prey" , To control for potential confounding factors, we also included questions about variables previously shown to influence pet cat predation: type of environment around the home, time spent outdoors, individual characteristics, and breed (Castañeda et al., 2019(Castañeda et al., , 2020Cordonnier et al., 2022;Kauhala et al., 2015;Lepczyk et al., 2004;Robertson, 1998;Salonen et al., 2019). ...
... As expected, we also found that cats who spent a greater amount of time outdoors had higher reported frequencies of prey brought home (though cats without outdoor access were excluded from this analysis). Because pet cats usually remain close to their home (~100 m radius in average; Kays et al., 2020) and are opportunistic hunters, their predation should reflect the fauna found in immediate proximity to their home (Barratt, 1997;Castañeda et al., 2019Castañeda et al., , 2020. Several studies on free-ranging pet cats found significant differences between rural and urban areas in terms of the amount and composition of prey brought home, probably reflecting differences in local prey availability induced by differences in land use (Kauhala et al., 2015;Krauze-Gryz et al., 2017;Piontek et al., 2021). ...
Article
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The domestic cat, Felis catus, is one of the most popular and widespread domestic animals. Because domestic cats can reach high population densities and retain at least some tendency to hunt, their overall impact on wildlife can be severe. Domestic cats have highly variable predation rates depending on the availability of prey in their environment, their owners' practices, and individual cat characteristics. Among these characteristics, cat personality has recently been hypothesized to be an important factor contributing to variations in the hunting activity of cats. In this study, we surveyed 2508 cat owners living in France about their cats' personalities, using the Feline Five personality framework, and the frequency with which cats bring home prey. Personality traits were analyzed using factor analysis and related to predation frequency using cumulative logit models. For both birds and small mammals, cats with high levels of extraversion or low levels of neuroticism had significantly higher frequencies of prey return. Owners whose cats had low levels of agreeableness or high levels of dominance reported a significantly lower frequency of bird return. Personality differences therefore seem to contribute to the high variability in predation rates among domestic cats. We also found that the owner-reported prey return frequencies were significantly higher for cats spending more time outdoors, for non-pedigree cats, and for owners living in rural or suburban areas as opposed to urban areas. By contrast, we did not detect an effect of cat sex or age on their reported prey return rates.
... Following Cecchetti et al. (2021a), we expected that cats with "low neuroticism (boldness, leading to travelling, exploring) or high extraversion (curiosity, leading to boredom), would potentially be more interested in hunting wild prey." To control for potential confounding factors, we also included questions about variables previously shown to influence pet cat predation: type of environment around the home, time spent outdoors, individual characteristics, and breed (Robertson, 1998;Lepczyk et al., 2004;Kauhala et al., 2015;Salonen et al., 2019;Castañeda et al., 2019Castañeda et al., , 2020Cordonnier et al., 2022). ...
... As expected, we also found that cats who spent a greater amount of time outdoors had higher reported frequencies of prey brought home (though cats without outdoor access were excluded from this analysis). Because pet cats usually remain close to their home (~100 m radius in average; Kays et al., 2020) and are opportunistic hunters, their predation should reflect the fauna found in immediate proximity to their home (Barratt, 1997;Castañeda et al., 2019Castañeda et al., , 2020. Several studies on free-ranging pet cats found significant differences between rural and urban areas in terms of the amount and composition of prey brought home, probably reflecting differences in local prey availability induced by differences in land use (Kauhala et al., 2015;Krauze-Gryz et al., 2017;Piontek et al., 2021). ...
Preprint
The domestic cat, Felis catus, is one of the most popular and widespread domestic animals. Because domestic cats can reach high population densities and retain at least some tendency to hunt, their overall impact on wildlife can be severe. Domestic cats have highly variable predation rates depending on the availability of prey in their environment, their owners’ practices, and individual cat characteristics. Among these characteristics, cat personality has recently been hypothesized to be an important factor contributing to variations in the hunting activity of cats. In this study, we used surveys of 2,508 cat owners living in France to collect information about cat personalities using the Feline Five personality model and about the frequency with which the cats bring home prey. For both birds and rodents, cats with high levels of extraversion or low levels of neuroticism had significantly higher frequencies of prey return. Owners whose cats had low levels of agreeableness or high levels dominance reported a significantly lower frequency of bird return. Personality differences therefore seem to contribute to the high variability in predation rates between domestic cats. We also found that the owner-reported prey return frequencies were significantly higher for cats spending more time outdoors, for non-pedigree cats, and for owners living in rural or suburban areas as opposed to urban areas. By contrast, we did not detect an effect of cat sex or age on their reported prey return rates.
... The complete models have therefore been used to investigate the effects of the different 21 variables. The main results are summarized in Table 2, the complete results for the three models and 21 variables are available in Supplementary material 2, Table S3 The frequencies of captures reported by the owners did not depend on any intrinsic characteristics of the cats (age, sex, body condition, coat color or pattern, presence of The impact of predation has been widely studied in urban areas (e.g., Baker et al. 2005;Sims et al. 2008;) and sometimes in rural areas (e.g., Krauze-Gryz et al. 2012) but has been less often compared in several different environments (but see Lepczyk et al. 2004;Kauhala et al. 2015;Castañeda et al. 2019Castañeda et al. , 2020. However, the present study suggests that urbanization is probably one of the main drivers of predation load by pet cats (Fig. 2). ...
... Because pet cats remain close to home (~ 100 m radius; Kays et al. 2020), their prey is likely to reflect the local fauna around their house (Liberg 1984;Thomas et al. 2012). As a result, habitat composition in the cat's feeding territory probably influences diet (Castañeda et al. 2019(Castañeda et al. , 2020, leading the diets of urban and rural cats likely to differ. Cats living in urban areas may prey more on birds compared to those living in the countryside (e.g., Woods et al. 2003;Baker et al. 2005;Kauhala et al. 2015), because predation depends on the distance from potential prey source areas (Barratt 1998), with most of the mammal species potentially found in rural/grassland habitats. ...
Article
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The domestic cat (Felis catus) is one of the most abundant predators and a serious threat to many wildlife species. While a large body of literature explores the number and diversity of individuals depredated by pet cats, the drivers of predation have been investigated much less. Although the environment of the cat, the owner behavior, and the intrinsic characteristics of the cat itself could impact the predatory behavior and should therefore not be considered separately, very few studies simultaneously take these three components into account. In this study, we explored 21 concomitant drivers of predation by pet cats linked to these three components at different scales, to explain the owners-reported frequencies of captured birds, mammals, and herpetofauna. Among the 1,400 sociological surveys received from cat owners, 740 reliable answers were analyzed. Results suggest that the owners-reported prey capture frequencies were strongly influenced by the environment, especially by factors relating to urbanization. Rural owners were around two times more likely to report more frequent predation events than owners living in urban areas, whatever the group of prey studied. As a result, the urban habitat variable had the highest impact on predation in this study. An experimental approach would be beneficial to identify the factors influencing the reported predation rates, which are causally related to the number of wild animals killed.