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Nocturnal ranging behavior of urban hedgehogs, Erinaceus europaeus, in relation to risk and reward
Abstract
Urban areas have both positive and negative influences on wildlife. For terrestrial mammals, one of the principal problems is the risk associated with moving through the environment while foraging. We examined nocturnal patterns of movement of urban-dwelling hedgehogs in relation to (1) the risks posed by predators and motor vehicles and (2) nightly weather patterns. Hedgehogs preferentially utilized the gardens of semidetached and terraced houses. However, females, but not males, avoided the larger back gardens of detached houses, which contain more of the habitat features selected by badgers. This difference in the avoidance of predation risk is probably associated with sex differences in breeding behaviour. Differences in nightly movement patterns were consistent with strategies associated with mating behaviour and the accumulation of fat reserves for hibernation. Hedgehogs also differed in behaviour associated with the risks posed by humans; they avoided actively foraging near roads and road verges, but did not avoid crossing roads per se. They were, however, significantly more active after midnight when there was a marked reduction in vehicle and foot traffic. In particular, responses to increased temperature, which is associated with increased abundance of invertebrate prey, were only observed after midnight. This variation in the timing of bouts of activity would reduce the risks associated with human activities. There were also profound differences in both area ranged and activity between years which warrant further investigation.
... Hubert, Julliard, Biagianti, and Poulle [7] found that factors such as access to anthropogenic food sources and favorable micro-climatic conditions may be key indicators of the high hedgehog presence in urban areas, and garbage and food put out for pets or other animals are often available food sources for hedgehogs [9]. Hedgehogs living in urban environments tend to become active post-midnight and avoid foraging near roads as a response to human-related dangers such as pedestrians and vehicle traffic [24], and they are usually found in greenspaces such as parks, road verges, and gardens [25]. These habitats are well suited for hedgehogs, but the fragmentation between such habitats, caused by roads and fences, can pose a significant challenge to the survival of these populations [26]. ...
... However, gardens may pose a variety of threats to individual hedgehogs as well. Use of garden pesticides such as insecticides, molluscicides, and rodenticides will lead to a decrease in the availability of natural food sources and can also result in secondary poising [24]. Although hedgehogs are capable of swimming, garden ponds can pose a threat to them as they can drown if unable to find a way out onto solid ground [29,30], and uncovered window wells, basement stairs, tennis nets, and nets covering berry bushes can function as traps [14,31]. ...
... We used a simple two-sided t-test to investigate if kernel home range sizes were different between sexes and linear regression to see if kernel home range sizes were affected by initial body size. We included (MCP) as this is used in many other relevant studies and therefore is good for comparison [22,24,33,35,36,38,39,51], but also KUD since there is a debate regarding which home range estimator is least biased [55,56]. ...
Simple Summary
Populations of West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are decreasing all over Europe, and we are urgently in need of more knowledge to understand the challenges they face. In the Nordic countries, the winter nest locations are of crucial importance for hedgehogs to survive the winter hibernation period. Using radio transmitters, we studied 9 adult hedgehogs during the pre-hibernation period from August–November in a typical residential area in the city of Kristiansand, Southern Norway. The hedgehogs had a highly variable home range size and displayed a large variation in distance moved per hour, with no clear difference between sexes. There were also large individual differences in the number of nest sites used and how often they changed nests. Although hedgehogs had nesting places in a variety of gardens and in hedgerows along roads, such places seemed to lack appropriate nesting materials, suggesting that this is not a habitat suitable for winter hibernation. In September, as they prepared for hibernation, hedgehogs rather chose permanent winter nests in natural forest patches within residential areas, often under tree roots. Our research highlights the importance of maintaining and increasing the number of smaller forested patches within urban regions to help conserve hedgehog populations.
Abstract
The West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is in decline, and it is important to identify its challenges. We used VHF-telemetry to monitor pre-hibernation space use, nest use, and hibernation sites in a suburban area in Norway. Based on nine adult hedgehogs tracked between August and November 2002, we found that home range size was not dependent on individual sex or weight and that home ranges overlapped between individuals regardless of sex. The distance moved was not dependent on individual sex, but there was a tendency for increased movement before dawn. The number of nests used per individual (0–10) and the number of nest switches (0–14) varied greatly and did not differ significantly between sexes. Out of 28 nest sites, 16 were linked to buildings and 12 to vegetation, and nesting material was most often grass and leaves. Three hedgehogs monitored until hibernation established winter nests under tree roots in natural forest patches in September, and this suggests that establishing or maintaining forest patches in urban areas is important to ensure suitable hibernation habitat for hedgehogs. Our study was limited by a low sample size, and additional research is required to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges hedgehogs face in urban environments.
... However, recent research on national and local scales has documented a decline or indicated concerns for a decline in their populations in several western European countries [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. The suspected reasons for the decline include the following: habitat loss; habitat fragmentation; inbreeding; intensified agricultural practices; road traffic accidents; a reduction in suitable nest sites in residential gardens, as well as biodiversity, and hence food items; accidents caused by garden tools, netting, and other anthropogenic sources in residential gardens; molluscicide and rodenticide poisoning; and, in some areas, badger predation [12,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. ...
... This is explained by the fact that males tend to have larger home ranges than females [10,33,36] and likely move over larger areas bringing them into contact more frequently with roads and road traffic. Previous research has also demonstrated that male hedgehogs tend to cross roads more often than females [29]. It is notable that the home ranges of males, but not females, increase during the mating season [33], which would exacerbate the male-female difference. ...
... Alternatively, our result could be explained by differences in road crossing behaviour between urban and rural areas. This idea is supported by previous studies, which have shown that hedgehogs tend to cross smaller and less busy roads more frequently, leading to a higher proportion of hedgehogs being killed in traffic on the smaller rural roads [29,88,89,[91][92][93]. Kent, Schwartz and Perkins [82] also found that hedgehog road-kill risk was reduced at high urbanity levels. ...
The European hedgehog is in decline, triggering a need to monitor population dynamics to optimise conservation initiatives directed at this species. By counting periosteal growth lines, we determined the age of 388 dead European hedgehogs collected through citizen science in Denmark. The overall mean age was 1.8 years (1.6 years for females and 2.1 years for males), ranging between 0 and 16 years. We constructed life tables showing life expectancies at 2.1 years for females and 2.6 years for males. We discovered that male hedgehogs were more likely to have died in traffic than females, but traffic-related deaths peaked in July for both sexes. A sex difference was detected for non-traffic deaths, as most males died in July, and most females died in September. We created empirical survivorship curves and hazard curves showing that the risk of death for male hedgehogs remains approximately constant with age. In contrast, the risk of death for females increases with age. Most of the collected road-killed individuals died in rural habitats. The degree of inbreeding did not influence longevity. These new insights are important for preparing conservation strategies for the European hedgehog.
... One way to gain insight into how animals use urban spaces is through habitat selection analyses to assess habitat preferences and / or avoidances within the context of landscape-scale distribution or home range utilisation (Saunders et al. 1997;Dowding et al. 2010a; Thomas et al. 2014;Roberts et al. 2017;Mueller et al. 2018). However, understanding habitat use on a finer scale can yield greater benefits in conservation planning (Gilioli et al. 2018), particularly for species that perceive the environment at small spatial scales (Ritchie and Olff 1999), have limited dispersal ability (Gilioli et al. 2018) and / or which may be associated with specific habitats or microhabitats (Banks and Skilleter 2007). ...
... Residential gardens within urban areas are favoured by a range of fauna (Saunders et al. 1997;Newman et al. 2003;Murgui 2009;Dowding et al. 2010a) and can collectively cover a substantial area. For example, private domestic gardens constitute 35-47% of greenspace in some British cities ) and cover > 430,000 ha in the UK as a whole (Davies et al. 2009). ...
... In addition to sex, season and environmental conditions, hedgehog movement behaviour also varies between urban landscapes (Dowding et al. 2010a;Rasmussen et al. 2019; Schaus Calderón 2021) potentially due to differences in building density (Schaus Calderón 2021), road type (Rondinini and Doncaster 2002) and disturbance levels (Berger et al. 2020a). Irrespective of this, hedgehogs consistently favour back gardens (Baker and Harris 2007;Hof and Bright 2009;Dowding et al. 2010a;Williams et al. 2015Williams et al. , 2018bRasmussen et al. 2019;Gazzard and Baker 2020;Schaus Calderón 2021) and are thought to require access to around 13-14 back gardens per night (Rasmussen et al. 2019;Schaus Calderón 2021). ...
Understanding patterns of habitat selection and factors affecting space use is fundamental in animal conservation. In urban landscapes, such knowledge can be used to advise householders on how best to manage their gardens for wildlife. In this study, we tracked 28 West European hedgehogs ( Erinaceus europaeus ), a species of conservation concern in the UK, in an area of high-density housing using radio and GPS tags to quantify patterns of habitat use and identify factors associated with the proportion of time spent in individual gardens. Both males and females exhibited a preference for residential gardens, but there were subtle differences between the sexes in relation to house type and front versus back gardens. Hedgehogs spent significantly more time in gardens where artificial food was provided, where a compost heap was present, if foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) were infrequent visitors, if it rained overnight and as daylength increased (i.e., shorter nights); garden use was not significantly associated with variables potentially likely to reflect invertebrate prey abundance. These data suggest that the primary positive action that householders can undertake for urban hedgehogs is providing supplementary food. However, householders often feed hedgehogs after they know they are already visiting their garden. Consequently, the presence of artificial food may make it difficult to identify other important influences affecting garden use. Finally, we report that a GPS fix acquisition rate < 60% likely had no major effect on the results of our analyses, but should be a consideration in future studies using this technique on this species and in this habitat.
... Housing type had little impact on hedgehog presence, with only a significant positive relationship with the percentage of terraced housing. Gardens of terraced houses are favoured at the individual level by foraging hedgehogs (Dowding et al. 2010). This contrasts with the expectation that low-density housing types would be more permeable for movement and thus more favourable for hedgehogs. ...
... High human densities are associated with increasing habitat disturbance, which may impact hedgehog populations negatively. Acute human disturbance from park music festivals has been found to impact hedgehog movement and behaviours in Berlin (Rast et al. 2019, Berger et al. 2020, whilst hedgehogs in Bristol become more active after midnight, potentially to avoid exposure to pedestrian and vehicular traffic (Dowding et al. 2010). Therefore, despite being found near to humans, these results suggest a threshold in hedgehog populations' capacity to tolerate high levels of human activity. ...
... Intermediate impervious cover may reflect the patchwork environment found in residential areas, with mixtures of housing and greenspace providing rich and varied habitat. Hedgehogs not only avoid impervious cover (Rondinini & Doncaster 2002, Dowding et al. 2010, Braaker et al. 2014) but also display behavioural capacity to tolerate habitat fragmentation and to traverse impervious surfaces within fragmented habitats (Berger et al. 2020). It has been suggested that, excepting large roads, impervious cover does not pose a strong barrier for hedgehog movement (Rondinini & Doncaster 2002, Braaker et al. 2014). ...
• Urban environments are important for west European hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus. The species has been recorded in 73% of large urban areas throughout its geographic range. However, the environmental relationships determining hedgehog distribution within these landscapes are not well understood.
• Taking a city-wide perspective, this study identifies hedgehogs’ habitat relationships with urban environmental characteristics and predicts habitat suitability in a major urban centre, Greater London, UK.
• We use a collated citizen science dataset of 3012 hedgehog occurrence records from Greater London, and pseudoabsences inferred from other mammal taxa, to construct a multiscale generalised linear model identifying the influence of 10 variables representing urban greenspace, built infrastructure, and the presence of the European badger Meles meles (as a predator or competitor) on hedgehog distribution.
• We find a positive association of hedgehog presence with availability of gardens, parks, allotments, percentage of terraced housing, traffic, and intermediate impervious cover (roads and buildings, peaking at 31%). High impervious cover, woodland, water, human densities (above 2262 people km⁻²), and badger presence were negatively related to hedgehog presence. Predicted habitat suitability was high across much of Greater London but declined towards the centre and in some locations around the outskirts of the study region.
• Our results emphasise the importance of public and private greenspaces for urban hedgehogs, and suggest that loss of garden, park, and allotment habitats and disturbance associated with high human densities may restrict hedgehog distribution. Despite the inherent complexity of urban environments, this study shows that citizen science is useful for developing an understanding of large-scale species–habitat relationships in diverse urban landscapes.
... In rural landscapes, primary threats include habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation [34][35][36] and an increase in the number of badgers (Meles meles) [37], an intraguild predator [38]. As a result, hedgehogs are now increasingly found within or near human settlements [11,[39][40][41], with residential gardens (especially rear gardens) a favoured habitat [41,42]. However, urban-dwelling hedgehogs face a range of challenges including accidental exposure to pesticides [43], human disturbance [44], injury by domestic animals [33], and barriers to movement including roads [45] and garden fences [31]. ...
... In UK towns and cities, houses are frequently arranged in blocks consisting of two rows with rear gardens backing onto one another. To access the rear gardens of these houses, the preferred foraging habitat [42], hedgehogs can move from back garden to back garden and / or access the rear garden from the front via the side of the house where possible. Although there are numerous permutations of how adding even one highway could influence distances travelled, highways between neighbouring houses that are side-by-side could be associated with a reduction in the order of tens of metres, as a hedgehog would no longer need to leave one back garden to enter the other via the front of the second house. ...
... Conversely, a highway between two gardens that are back-to-back could result in a reduction in the order of a hundred metres or more, as the animal might not need to travel around the periphery of the block of houses to enter the second garden. Although these distances are small, Dowding et al. [42] recorded mean distances travelled of just 861m and 514m per night for male and female hedgehogs, respectively, in Bristol, UK, and Schaus Calderón [65] recorded comparable figures of 656m and 404m for hedgehogs in four urban sites across England. In this context, even the minor improvements in connectivity outlined above could be associated with reductions in nightly distances travelled of >10%; whether this would have a significant effect on the survival and / or reproductive output of hedgehogs is, however, unclear. ...
Urban areas are associated with high levels of habitat fragmentation. For some terrestrial species with limited climbing abilities, property boundaries can pose a significant problem by limiting access to residential gardens. The West European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) has declined markedly in the UK but is commonly found in areas of human habitation, including residential gardens. ‘Hedgehog Street’ is a public engagement campaign aimed at recruiting volunteers (‘Hedgehog Champions’) to create access points (‘hedgehog highways’) across garden boundaries to improve habitat connectivity. In this study, we used a series of questionnaire surveys to explore motivations for and obstacles to the creation of highways. Householders were more likely to have created a highway if they were already aware of the Hedgehog Street campaign, if their garden contained a high number of wildlife-friendly features and if they considered watching wildlife to be important. Hedgehog Champions created, on average, 1.69 highways each with 52.0% creating none; this would equate to an estimated >120,000 across all registered Champions. In comparison, 6.1–29.8% of non-Champions stated that they had made a highway. However, most highways had been created in boundaries that could already be traversed via naturally occurring holes: only 11.4% of garden boundaries could be traversed, and 3.2% of gardens accessed, just via a hedgehog highway. In addition, only 5.0% of gardens were considered totally inaccessible to hedgehogs. The most common reasons cited for not having made a highway were that householders’ gardens were already accessible to hedgehogs followed by concerns relating to boundary ownership and / or communicating with neighbours. Future studies need to identify strategies for overcoming these obstacles to maximize citizen engagement, particularly with those householders who are not innately “wildlife-friendly”, and to quantify the degree to which networks of highways affect patterns of individual movement and, ultimately, populations.
... In Zurich (Braaker et al. 2014), radio-tracked hedgehogs avoided impervious areas the most and preferred green spaces with vegetation elements such as flowers, vegetable beds, bushes, trees or heaps of branches. In Bristol (UK - Dowding et al. 2010), these green areas were most often residential gardens in which shelter and food resources were available. Indeed, not only may gardens with structure (e.g., shrub and grass) provide invertebrate prey (Dowding et al. 2010), they also attract animals due to the potential accessibility to pet food (Morris 2006;Hubert et al. 2011). ...
... In Bristol (UK - Dowding et al. 2010), these green areas were most often residential gardens in which shelter and food resources were available. Indeed, not only may gardens with structure (e.g., shrub and grass) provide invertebrate prey (Dowding et al. 2010), they also attract animals due to the potential accessibility to pet food (Morris 2006;Hubert et al. 2011). However, in some cases, hedgehogs can also exhibit avoidance to human and pet exposure, particularly domestic dogs (Hof and Bright 2009;Dowding et al. 2010), which may be one of the reasons they can also be found foraging and resting in less populated areas such as playing fields, parks or woodland (Driezen et al. 2007;Hubert 2008;Dowding et al. 2010). ...
... Indeed, not only may gardens with structure (e.g., shrub and grass) provide invertebrate prey (Dowding et al. 2010), they also attract animals due to the potential accessibility to pet food (Morris 2006;Hubert et al. 2011). However, in some cases, hedgehogs can also exhibit avoidance to human and pet exposure, particularly domestic dogs (Hof and Bright 2009;Dowding et al. 2010), which may be one of the reasons they can also be found foraging and resting in less populated areas such as playing fields, parks or woodland (Driezen et al. 2007;Hubert 2008;Dowding et al. 2010). These habitat preferences were also reported in Southampton City (UK - Rondinini and Doncaster 2002), where roads and road verges came out as the least preferred, in opposition to playing fields and house gardens, which ranked first. ...
As urbanization continues to expand worldwide, more and more urban areas become home to wild animals able to adapt to city life, generating a growing need for information. In the Greater Paris area, the existence of three wild mammals (the stone marten, Martes foina, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes and the hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus) is attested. However, little is known regarding their presence. The research reported in this study aims to shed light upon their co-existence with city dwellers. Specifically, the areas where contacts between these species and the inhabitants are the most likely are studied. Gaining insight on the distribution of such areas allows for those in charge of wildlife-related issues to target where management measures may be needed the most, whether they concern biodiversity promotion initiatives or conflict mitigation actions. In this paper, we investigate the landscape compositions in which these encounters have been the most frequent using presence records. To do so, we analyzed the land use types within buffers set around contact points and applied statistical operations (correspondence analysis and hierarchical clustering) on the obtained results. Results show that while some landscape compositions attract all three species (namely areas where greenery is prevailing), others were only favored by one or two of the species.
... To investigate the behavioural plasticity of hedgehogs in response to transient changes and habitat fragmentation, we analysed the behavioural response at different levels. First, we used GPS data to investigate the daily home range size and movement behaviour of hedgehogs, both closely related to foraging [34,35]. Second, we assessed the circadian behaviour patterns of hedgehogs, known to be usually strictly nocturnal but adjustable as a response to stress [19,35]. ...
... First, we used GPS data to investigate the daily home range size and movement behaviour of hedgehogs, both closely related to foraging [34,35]. Second, we assessed the circadian behaviour patterns of hedgehogs, known to be usually strictly nocturnal but adjustable as a response to stress [19,35]. Third, we monitored nesting behaviour. ...
... (1) In urban areas, or areas with predation risk, hedgehog movements are strongly associated with linear structures [35], fragmentation will increase the area of space that is of no interest to hedgehogs and thus increase the distances they have to cover. Thus, in a highly fragmented park, the home range area would be bigger than in the low-fragmented park. ...
Anthropogenic activities can result in both transient and permanent changes in the environment. We studied spatial and temporal behavioural responses of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) to a transient (open-air music festival) and a permanent (highly fragmented area) disturbance in the city of Berlin, Germany. Activity, foraging and movement patterns were observed in two distinct areas in 2016 and 2017 using a “Before & After“ and “Control & Impact“ study design. Confronted with a music festival, hedgehogs substantially changed their movement behaviour and nesting patterns and decreased the rhythmic synchronization (DFC) of their activity patterns with the environment. These findings suggest that a music festival is a substantial stressor influencing the trade-off between foraging and risk avoidance. Hedgehogs in a highly fragmented area used larger home ranges and moved faster than in low-fragmented and low-disturbed areas. They also showed behaviours and high DFCs similar to individuals in low-fragmented, low disturbed environment, suggesting that fragmentation posed a moderate challenge which they could accommodate. The acute but transient disturbance of a music festival, therefore, had more substantial and severe behavioural effects than the permanent disturbance through fragmentation. Our results are relevant for the welfare and conservation measure of urban wildlife and highlight the importance of allowing wildlife to avoid urban music festivals by facilitating avoidance behaviours.
... Species modify their activity times to minimize exposure to perceived riskstermed risk allocation hypothesis (Lima and Bednekoff, 1999)while maintaining necessary resources (Baker et al., 2007;Dowding et al., 2010;Thomas et al., 2018). Species can deal with risk allocation in two ways ( Figure 1): Reducing total time while increasing activity intensity (Potash et al., 2023;Tobajas et al., 2024) or shifting the temporal niche to times of lower risk (Louvrier et al., 2022). ...
... In contrast, some urban wildlife species, like red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), shift their activity to more nocturnal times to reduce the risk from humans, particularly traffic (Baker et al., 2007;Dowding et al., 2010). Wild boars (Sus scrofa) exhibit habituation to human activity and have shorter flight distances compared to their rural counterparts (Stillfried et al., 2017). ...
In urban areas, wildlife has to adapt to human presence and novel predators such as pet species, including the altered conditions of the environment. In such novel settings, the timing of activity is crucial to minimize the risk of mortality. To do so, species may reduce total activity time by increasing activity peaks at specific moments or shifting activity times. We analyzed camera trap data from a citizen science project over four project phases, including spring and autumn before and during the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown, to understand the effects of human, pet (cat, dog), and predator (marten) presence on the activity patterns of urban red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris; hereafter ‘squirrel’). We examined squirrel activity at seasonal and hourly resolutions in relation to human, garden, urban, and predator factors. We considered human presence as both a direct effect of lockdown and an indirect disturbance measured through urban variables. Results show that direct human presence during lockdown increased squirrel activity intensity in both seasonal and hourly patterns without reducing total activity time. Predator presence affected timing of activity, decreasing total daily activity. Pets, like cats, decreased activity at both resolutions, while martens had a limited effect detected only at the hourly resolution. During lockdown, squirrels may have increased their activity in gardens due to more anthropogenic resources (food or nesting material), but constant threats from pets force them to avoid certain areas despite the benefits. This highlights the delicate balance squirrels must maintain in adapting to human-altered environments while managing predation risks.
... The European hedgehog, occurring in higher densities in urban landscapes (Hubert Fig. 5 Change points with 95% confidence interval for red fox, European hedgehog, stone marten, and European badger along the corresponding land cover class gradient, resulted from the analysis including a road segment length of 1000 m. Light-dark red shades indicate increasing risk , also shows an increase in roadkills at moderate levels of urban cover, possibly linked with its use of roads as dispersing corridors (Patrick Doncaster et al. 2001), although roads seem to be avoided during foraging (Dowding et al. 2010). It is also known that this species may occur at higher density in food-rich landscapes such as rural landscapes (Hubert et al. 2011). ...
... Here, the European hedgehog tends to avoid areas suitable for the European badger, particularly in urbanrelated habitats (Dowding et al., 2010). The European badger is also known to occur in rural areas characterized by woody and shrubby vegetation, river valleys, and close to urban settlements, where it is more susceptible to vehicle collisions as the density of regional and local roads increases (Fabrizio et al. 2019). ...
Linear infrastructures (e.g., roads, railways, pipelines, and powerlines) pose a serious threat to wildlife, due to the risk of wildlife-vehicle collisions (roadkills). The placement of mitigation measures, such as crossing structures, should consider species' life cycles and ecological requirements. Such an assessment would require data collection over large areas, which may be possible by employing citizen science. In this study, we aimed to identify spatio-temporal trends of roadkill occurrence using citizen science data from one of the most urbanized and biodiversity-rich regions of Italy. Temporal trends were analyzed using generalized additive models, while landscape patterns were assessed by identifying significant thresholds over land cover gradients, related to increases in relative roadkill abundance, by employing threshold indicator taxa analysis. Our approach recorded a total of 529 roadkills, including 33 different species, comprising 13 mammal, 10 bird, 6 reptile, and 2 amphibian species. Statistical analysis indicated significant temporal trends for the red fox, the European hedgehog, the stone marten and the European badger, with peaks in roadkill occurrence between the winter and spring months. Relative roadkill abundance increased mostly in landscapes with anthropogenic land cover classes, such as complex cultivations, orchards, or urban surfaces. Our results allowed us to develop a map of potential roadkill risk that could assist in planning the placement of mitigation measures. Citizen science contributions from highly populated areas allowed data collection over a large area and a dense road network, and also directly led to the evaluation of management decisional options.
... As a measure of predation pressure, we estimated relative predator density separately for mammalian and avian predators. We separated predators (Table S1) into mammals and birds, because birds are mostly visual, diurnal predators attacking adders during the day (Martínez-Freiría et al. 2017), whereas most mammalian predators are crepuscular and nocturnal (Dowding et al. 2010;Haswell et al. 2020 We then created a grid covering Eurasia consisting of 100 × 100 km cells (using the 'create grid' function in QGIS) and assigned the grid ID to each bird and mammal observation ( Figure S1). We then counted the (i) total number of observer years (i.e., the number of years that persons observed any bird or mammal, respectively) as the measure of observer effort and (ii) number of predator observations per grid cell. ...
Aim: Colour polymorphism within ectothermic species and populations is shaped by multiple selection pressures that can vary geographically. Here, we tested different hypotheses to better understand this variation in colour polymorphism. The thermal melanism hypothesis predicts that darker colouration is beneficial in colder regions, due to enhanced heat absorption, while the predation pressure hypothesis predicts that melanistic individuals are exposed to a higher predation risk because they are more visible to predators. Additionally, temperature, land cover and predation pressure could interact to influence colour morph frequencies due to trade-offs regarding thermoregulation and predation risk.
Location: Eurasia.
Taxon: European adder (Vipera berus).
Methods: We compiled a dataset of > 7000 citizen observations across the entire distribution of the European adder, scoring adder colouration to test the above-mentioned hypotheses concerning geographic variation in colour polymorphism, using Bayesian generalised nonlinear regression models.
Results: We found support for the thermal melanism hypothesis, with the frequency of melanism increasing in colder regions. Moreover, in colder areas, the proportion of melanistic snakes increased with avian predator density, whereas this pattern was weaker in warmer areas, potentially because melanistic snakes spend less time basking and therefore experience reduced pre-dation rates compared to brown and grey snakes. Finally, we found the proportion of melanistic individuals to decline at higher elevations (> 1000 m), potentially due to increased access to basking opportunities or because higher elevations facilitate easier detection of melanistic snakes by predators.
Main Conclusions: Combined, our results emphasise the large potential of citizen observations to obtain novel insights concerning biogeographic patterns of morphological divergence in colouration. Our findings increase the understanding of the underlying mechanisms affecting colour polymorphism in ectothermic animals, providing valuable information to predict how species might respond to global change.
... Erinaceus concolor, The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), is a nocturnal insectivore known for its solitary nature and hibernation habits, thriving in a variety of habitats (Dowding et al. 2010). The majority of the species detected in our study showed nocturnal activity. ...
Türkiye, due to its position as a bridge between Asia and Europe, encompassing three distinct biogeographic regions and its diverse climatic conditions and geographical features, exhibits the characteristics of a small continent in terms of biodiversity, hosting a very high number of mammalian species. However, information on these mammals' activity patterns and co‐occurrence, specifically in Türkiye, is limited. Our study aimed to reveal the daily activity patterns and temporal overlaps of mammalian species detected using camera traps in Sülüklü Lake Nature Park. The white‐breasted hedgehog was strictly nocturnal, while the European badger, gray wolf, European hare, wild boar, and beech marten tended to be nocturnal. The Caucasian squirrel was strictly diurnal, and the roe deer tended to be diurnal. The highest temporal overlap was found between the white‐breasted hedgehog and the beech marten (∆4 = 0.84, 95% CI), followed by the red fox and roe deer (∆1 = 0.77, 95% CI). The lowest temporal overlap (∆1 = 0.081, 95% CI) was found between the white‐breasted hedgehog and the Caucasian squirrel. The second lowest overlap (∆1 = 0.136, 95% CI) occurred between the Caucasian squirrel and the European badger. Our findings have provided new and detailed insights into the diversity of mammalian species within the nature park located in Northwestern Anatolia. These data will support and facilitate future research aimed at understanding the mechanisms of species coexistence in this ecosystem. The results obtained will enable a deeper examination of ecosystem dynamics and contribute to developing strategies for biodiversity conservation.
... Several European studies have demonstrated significant declines in hedgehog populations in the UK (Wembridge et al. 2022), Switzerland (Taucher et al. 2020), and The Netherlands (van de Poel et al. 2015). Factors contributing to these declines include habitat loss and fragmentation, reduction of available resources (Hof and Bright 2010;Williams et al. 2018), urbanization (Dowding et al. 2010a;Braaker et al. 2017), road traffic accidents (Moore et al. 2020), intoxication (D'Havé et al. 2005(D'Havé et al. , 2007Dowding et al. 2010b), predation (Young et al. 2006;Trewby et al. 2014;Hof et al. 2019), and infectious diseases (Rautio et al. 2016;Zacharopoulou et al. 2022). Some of these threats are especially prominent in urban areas, where hedgehog population density is often higher than in rural areas Bright 2009, 2012;Hubert et al. 2011;Pettett et al. 2017). ...
The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), common in rural and suburban environments, is perceived as declining within its native range, prompting conservation concerns. This study of hedgehogs admitted to a French rehabilitation center aimed to identify causes of death, detect potential emerging diseases, and systematically screen dead hedgehogs for toxicants and hemopathogens. Using clinical information, necropsy examination, and ancillary testing in 159 dead hedgehogs, we identified the primary cause of death of 92% of them. The leading causes of death were impaired general condition (30%); bacterial infections (26%), frequently caused by Salmonella Enteritidis; and trauma (20%). Additional factors contributing to death were identified in 78%, including a high proportion with significant parasite infestations. Toxicologic screening revealed that 42% of hedgehogs had been exposed to anticoagulant rodenticides, including 6.4% hedgehogs with levels compatible with acute intoxication. These hedgehogs were also exposed to trace metals, especially lead, but no pesticides residues were detected. Hemopathogen screening revealed a low diversity and prevalence of blood pathogens with 3.6, 2.9, and 2.9% individuals infected with Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Mycoplasma turicensis, and Mycoplasma wenyonii, respectively. The variety of diagnoses suggests that there is no unique prominent or emerging disease responsible for the mortality of these hedgehogs. This study also highlighted the high exposure of hedgehogs to various toxicants. To further investigate the extent and causes of population declines, health information issued from several centers should be combined with demographic data as well as ecologic assessments on the availability and quality of natural resources.
... Common extrinsic factors affecting movement patterns include resource availability (Abrahms et al., 2021;Doherty et al., 2019), weather and climate (Neumann et al., 2023;Wittemyer et al., 2007), habitat type (Fahrig, 2007;McCabe et al., 2021) and inter-and intraspecies interactions (Giuggioli & Kenkre, 2014). With an expanding human population encroaching on natural landscapes, the use of urban spaces by wildlife is increasing (Lowry et al., 2013;Rodewald & Gehrt, 2014), presenting numerous additional extrinsic factors that can affect individuals' movement patterns (Anad on et al., 2012;Dowding et al., 2010;Fahrig, 2007;Wat et al., 2020). Moreover, while extrinsic factors may interact with intrinsic factors to shape individual behaviour (e.g. ...
... to habitat-specific challenges, also termed 'urban stressors'. Urban stressors include air, chemical and noise pollution, artificial light at night, infectious diseases, vehicle traffic and human disturbance (Fernández-Juricic 2002;Dowding et al. 2010;Isaksson 2015;Berger et al. 2020;Chatelain et al. 2021). Additionally, dietary quality of natural food sources in urban areas can be altered and urban populations of many taxa consume anthropogenic food sources, which can have both positive and negative health outcomes (Oro et al. 2013;Isaksson 2015;Plaza and Lambertucci 2017;Coogan et al. 2018;Alberti et al. 2020). ...
Urban wildlife faces unique physiological and behavioral challenges compared to conspecifics which live in less altered natural habitats. Animals in urban habitats are also exposed to urban stressors and commonly make use of inappropriate food sources from trash bins and dumpsters, which may affect their heath status. The goals of this study were to evaluate overall health of an urban population of eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) and to assess seasonal changes in several health parameters. Squirrels (N = 45) were trapped in Durham, North Carolina, USA and briefly anesthetized with inhalant anesthetic for physical examination, body mass collection, and venipuncture via the femoral vein. Collected blood was analyzed for several health parameters via hematology and biochemistry analyses including assessment of lipids and kidney and liver values. Physical examinations were clinically unremarkable and similar across seasons. Females had higher cholesterol values and lower creatinine values compared to males. Seasonal differences occurred in few parameters and were detected only between summer and either fall or spring. Potassium and monocytes were higher in summer compared to spring, and creatinine, BUN and monocytes were higher in summer compared to fall. Overall, health parameters of urban eastern gray squirrels fell within published reference ranges for the species. Together, these results suggest that urban squirrels in this study population can maintain good health in an anthropogenic habitat.
... This might trigger aggression between competing hedgehogs and increase the potential risks of injury and disease transmission from close, as well as aggressive, intraspecific encounters, or contact with other competing or predatory species that are attracted to the food [38]. However, ingestion of natural prey items may also cause risks to the hedgehogs, as Williams et al. demonstrated that molluscs, commonly eaten by hedgehogs, are potential vectors of rodenticide poisons [39], providing a potential explanation for the high prevalence of rodenticides that have been detected in hedgehogs in previous studies [29,40]. ...
Hedgehogs (Order Eulipotyphla, Family Erinaceidae, Subfamily Erinaceinae) are familiar and popular spiny mammals, but they face many challenges in modern human-dominated environments [...]
... Furthermore, substantial evidence, based on monitoring data from a range of European countries, indicates that hedgehog populations are declining [16,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The suspected causes for the decline include habitat loss; habitat fragmentation; inbreeding; intensified agricultural practices; road traffic accidents; a reduction in biodiversity and, hence, food items; lack of suitable nest sites in residential gardens; accidents caused by garden tools; netting and other anthropogenic sources in residential gardens; badger predation; and infections with pathogens and endoparasites [15,17,32,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. ...
Monitoring data from several European countries indicate that European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) populations are declining, and research exploring the causes of the decline, including exposure to potentially harmful xenobiotics and metals, may inform conservation initiatives to protect this species in the wild. Hedgehogs are ground-dwelling mammals, feeding on a range of insects, slugs, snails, and earthworms, as well as eggs, live vertebrates, and carrion, including carcasses of apex predator species representing higher levels of the food chain. Consequently, hedgehogs come into close contact with contaminants present in their habitats and prey. This review investigated the studies available on the subject of the occurrence of metals and organic xenobiotics in hedgehogs. This study found that a vast range of different pesticides; persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including organochlorine compounds and brominated flame retardants (BFRs); as well as toxic heavy metals could be detected. Some compounds occurred in lethal concentrations, and some were associated with a potential adverse effect on hedgehog health and survival. Due to their ecology, combined with the opportunity to apply non-invasive sampling techniques using spines as sampling material, we suggest that the European hedgehog is a relevant bioindicator species for monitoring the exposure of terrestrial wildlife to potential toxicants in urban and rural environments.
... However, due to their small body size, their hidden, nocturnal way of life and their danger-avoiding behaviour, it is rather coincidental that injured hedgehogs are found and the number of unknown cases of injured animals that are not found must be considered high. Hedgehogs try to behave as inconspicuously as possible when injured or try to find shelter in bushes in order to avoid attracting the attention of potential predators such as crows or foxes [49]. This behaviour also explains the high number of hedgehogs that were only found days or weeks after the injury. ...
Simple Summary
The European hedgehog is a protected species, but its populations are declining across Europe. This decline has various causes, such as lack of food, habitat loss and fragmentation or life-threatening injuries caused by human activities. Hedgehog rescue centres increasingly report hedgehogs found with severe cuts, presumably caused by garden tools. Responsibility for hedgehog injuries caused by robotic lawnmowers and possible technical or political solutions to prevent such injuries are currently being discussed between wildlife conservationists, mower manufacturers and politicians. This discussion has so far lacked basic data on the extent of cutting injuries in hedgehogs. In this study, data on hedgehogs with cut injuries were collected throughout Germany in order to gain an impression of where, when and how frequently these injuries occur. The number of reporting hedgehog care centres and thus the number of hedgehogs reported per federal state varied highly. Out of the total of 370 injured hedgehogs reported, at least 60% were found over 12 h after the accident and at least 47% did not survive as a result of the injury. Overall, this study shows that cutting injuries caused by garden maintenance equipment pose an additional lethal danger to this declining, protected wildlife species.
Abstract
The number of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) is in long-term decline across Europe. Recently, an additional threat to hedgehogs’ lives has been cutting injuries caused by garden care equipment, but to date, there have been no reliable data on their spatial and temporal occurrence as well as characteristics such as mortality rate. Usually, found injured hedgehogs are admitted to care centres. In this study, data on hedgehogs with cutting injuries were collected from care centres throughout Germany. Over a period of 16 months, data on a total of 370 hedgehogs with cut injuries were reported by 71 care centres. At least 60% of these hedgehogs were found more than 12 h after the accident and at least 47% did not survive as a result of the injury. The comparatively high mortality rate coupled with a possible high number of unreported cases of hedgehogs with laceration injuries show that these accidents pose an additional, serious danger to hedgehogs, both impacting the welfare of individual animals and having a broader effect on the conservation potential of this species. Moreover, the data collected objectify the current discussion on the need for possible technical or political solutions to prevent such injuries.
... Despite the species' ability to adapt to many different settings [3], recent research has either documented or suggested declines in the populations of European hedgehogs in several Western European countries [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. For the time being, the investigated factors contributing to this decline include habitat loss; habitat fragmentation; inbreeding; intensified agricultural practices; road traffic accidents; a reduction in biodiversity and, hence, food items; lack of suitable nest sites in residential gardens; accidents caused by garden tools; netting and other anthropogenic sources in residential gardens; infections with pathogens and endoparasites; molluscicide and rodenticide poisoning; and, in some areas, badger predation [3,5,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. With the potential to reach 16 years of age [32], it is of concern that the majority of research into the lifespan of European hedgehogs has found a mean age of only two years (see Rasmussen, Berg, Martens and Jones [32], Table 1 for an overview). ...
The populations of European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) are in decline, and it is essential that research identifies and mitigates the factors causing this. Hedgehogs are increasingly sharing habitats with humans, being exposed to a range of dangers in our backyards. Previous research has documented that some models of robotic lawn mowers can cause harm to hedgehogs. This study explored the personality and behaviour of 50 live hedgehogs when facing an approaching, disarmed robotic lawn mower. By combining a novel arena and novel object test, we found that 27 hedgehogs could be categorised as “shy” and 23 as “bold”, independently of sex and age. The encounter tests with a robotic lawn mower showed that the hedgehogs positioned themselves in seven different ways. Personality did not affect their reactions. Adult hedgehogs tended to react in a shyer manner, and the hedgehogs, generally, acted less boldly during their second encounter with the robotic lawn mower. Additionally, our results show that bold individuals reacted in a more unpredictable way, being more behaviourally unstable compared to the shy individuals. This knowledge will be applied in the design of a standardised hedgehog safety test, eventually serving to produce and approve hedgehog-friendly robotic lawn mowers.
... Parkes considered individuals weighing under 400 g to be juveniles, and Gorton treated those weighing < 500 g as juveniles but acknowledged that it was difficult to distinguish between adult and juveniles when weights were between 400 and 600 g. In the UK, the mean weight of males was 846 g and of females 792 g (Dowding et al. 2010). The low weights of many of the hedgehogs in our study indicates the presence of juveniles, which may have been dispersing out of their natal territories. ...
European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in New Zealand are considered a pest species due to their impacts on native species and are targeted in trapping programmes. A robust estimate of hedgehog population density using spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) is lacking and can provide the parameters σ (the spatial decay parameter for a half-normal home-range kernel to model the decline in encounter probability with distance between the home-range centre and trap) and ɡ 0 (the nightly probability of capture by a trap placed at the animal's home-range centre) needed to model optimal trapping or detection arrays. We estimated the density of hedgehogs in pasture habitat on the Otago Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand, using SECR during late February/early March as 0.46 ha −1 (95% confidence interval 0.26-0.82 ha −1 ; ɡ 0 = 0.02; σ = 85.7). The mean body mass of captured hedgehogs (482 g, range: 180-890g, n = 32) indicated a mix of adults and juveniles. Future research should evaluate prey availability as well as hedgehog density to develop a better understanding of the relationship between hedgehog abundance, prey availability, habitat and climate.
... Many people who use Hampstead Heath walk dogs, usually off-lead. Because there is evidence that dogs, like humans, can have a negative impact on wildlife activity (Fernández-Juricic and Tellería, 2000;Dowding et al. 2010;Banks and Bryant 2007;Reilly et al. 2017), our study considers the combined effect of humans and their dogs on the presence and temporal activity of bird and mammal species which use the Heath's woodlands. ...
Humans can derive enormous benefit from the natural environment and the wildlife they see there, but increasing human use of natural environments may negatively impact wildlife, particularly in urban green spaces. Few studies have focused on the trade-offs between intensive human use and wildlife use of shared green spaces in urban areas. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of humans and their dogs on wildlife within an urban green space using camera trap data from Hampstead Heath, London. Spatial and temporal activity of common woodland bird and mammal species were compared between sites with low and high frequency of visits by humans and dogs. There was no significant difference in the spatial or temporal activity of wildlife species between sites with lower and higher visitation rates of humans and dogs, except with European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) which showed extended activity in the mornings and early evenings in sites with lower visitation rates. This may have implications for the survival and reproductive success of European hedgehogs. Our results suggest that adaptation to human and dog activity deserves greater study in urban green spaces, as would a broader approach to measuring possible anthropogenic effects.
... Igel meiden Gebiete mit hoher Dachspräsenz, und die Siedlungsgebiete zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass sie generell weiter von Dachsbauten entfernt liegen (Hubert et al. 2011). Große Hintergärten, wie sie in England typisch sind und dort bevorzugte Lebensräume der urbanen Dachse sind, wurden von weiblichen Igeln gemieden (Dowding et al. 2010b). Untersuchungen aus der Schweiz haben gezeigt, dass Dachse selbst in städtischen Gebieten auf dem Vormarsch sind (Geiger et al. 2018). ...
Zusammenfassung
Igel gehören zu den beliebtesten und bekanntesten Wildtieren in Europa, allerdings existiert auch sehr viel Unwissen in der breiten Bevölkerung, nicht nur bezüglich der Lebensweise von Igeln, sondern auch bezüglich der lokalen Bestände. So sind die seit Jahrzehnten europaweit stattfindenden und gerade in ländlichen Gebieten ernst zu nehmenden Rückgänge der Igelbestände der breiten Öffentlichkeit zumeist verborgen geblieben. Ebenso wenig ist bekannt, dass ein Stoppen dieser Bestandsrückgänge – und damit der Erhalt dieser Tierart – nur durch nachhaltige Schutzmaßnahmen möglich sein wird.
Generell sind die Hauptziele eines nachhaltigen Artenschutzes die Sicherung 1) der Nahrungsgrundlage und 2) der Schutzstrukturen für ihre Nester sowie 3) die Vernetzung der Lebensräume dieser Art. Nachhaltige Schutzmaßnahmen für Igelpopulationen werden entsprechend diesen drei Hauptzielen und getrennt für den ländlichen und städtischen Lebensraum aufgeführt und in einer tabellarischen Übersicht zusammengefasst (Tab. 5.1).
Die effektivsten Schutzmaßnahmen in landwirtschaftlich geprägten Gegenden bestehen dabei in der Umgestaltung der industriellen zu einer ökologischen und strukturierten Agrarwirtschaft; im städtischen Bereich werden Igel am nachhaltigsten geschützt, indem Grünflächen qualitativ und quantitativ erhalten und aufgewertet werden.
Einleitend werden wichtige Fakten zur Biologie des Igels gegeben, um grundlegende Einsichten in die speziellen Ansprüche dieses Tieres zu vermitteln, was wiederum für das Verständnis und die Umsetzung von Schutz- und Fördermaßnahmen wichtig ist. Abschließend werden Methoden beschrieben, mit denen ein Monitoring von Igelpopulationen erfolgen kann, zum Beispiel für eine Wirkungskontrolle nach der Umsetzung von Schutz- und Fördermaßnahmen.
Summary
Hedgehogs are one of the most popular wild animals in Europe, but there is a lack of knowledge among the general public about the hedgehog's way of life as well as their numbers in the wild. For example, the declines in hedgehog populations that have been taking place throughout Europe for decades, and which are particularly serious in rural areas, have mostly remained hidden from the general public. Moreover it is nearly unknown that only sustainable conservation measures can stop these population declines, and thus preserve this species.
In general, the main objectives of sustainable species conservation are to secure 1) their nutrition base, 2) structures and material for nests and predation avoidance, and 3) the connectivity of the habitats of this species. Here, sustainable conservation measures for hedgehog populations are listed according to these three main objectives and separately for rural and urban habitats, and summarized in a tabular overview (Tab. 5.1).
The most effective conservation measures in agricultural areas are the conversion of industrial agriculture to ecological and structured agriculture; in urban areas hedgehogs are most sustainably protected by maintaining and enhancing the quality and quantity of green spaces.
Introductory, important facts about hedgehog biology are given to provide basic insights into the special requirements of this animal, which in turn is important for understanding and implementing conservation measures. Finally, monitoring methods for hedgehog populations are described e.g. in order to evaluate the impact of conservation measures.
... Evidence from a range of different monitoring programs suggests that populations may have declined by up to 40% in some habitats in the last few decades [40,[42][43][44], with declines to varying degrees also present throughout Europe [39,[45][46][47]. Factors likely to be associated with this decline include: habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation; the application of chemical biocides; an increase in the size of road networks and associated traffic volume; the increased abundance of an intra-guild predator, the Eurasian badger (Meles meles); and climate change [26,46,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Most recently, the British hedgehog population was estimated to number approximately 0.88 million individuals [44,56], down from 1.56m in the mid-1990s [57]; although the veracity of both estimates is equivocal, these, in combination with the trends outlined above [40,[42][43][44], triggered the species' status to be upgraded to Vulnerable in these countries [56]. ...
The conservation benefits of wildlife rehabilitation are equivocal, but could be substantial for formerly common species that are declining rapidly but are still commonly admitted to wildlife centres. We used a questionnaire survey to estimate the number of practitioners rehabilitating West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) in Britain and the numbers entering hospitals/centres in one benchmark year (2016); practitioners were identified using an internet search and snowball sampling. Overall, 304 rehabilitators were identified: 148 supplied data on their structure, and 174 outlined the number of hedgehogs admitted in 2016. The former comprised 62.6% small (≤50 hedgehogs admitted year−1), 16.7% medium-sized (51–250 yr−1), and 20.7% large (>250 yr−1) hospitals; however, these accounted for 4.8%, 12.4%, and 82.8% of hedgehog admissions, respectively. Small hospitals were less likely to be registered as a charity, have paid staff, have a social media account, to record admissions electronically, or to conduct post-release monitoring. However, they were more likely to operate from their home address and to have been established for ≤5 years. Extrapolations indicate that this rehabilitation community admitted >40,000 hedgehogs in 2016, of which approximately 50% could have been released. These figures suggest that wildlife rehabilitation has potentially been an important factor in the dynamics of hedgehog populations in Britain in the last two decades.
... A small number of urban studies have revealed some habitat associations: brushtail possums, mice and rats tend to be found in forest fragments mostly, but also in more modified habitats such as private gardens and parks. Hedgehogs are abundant in a range of habitats [31,[64][65][66] that have a variety of structures such as bushes, trees, heaps of branches and stones, which provide secure resting, breeding and hibernating sites [13,67,68]; they often prefer garden habitat [13,69]. Most studies to date have focused on one or two species in a specific habitat type or city. ...
A barrier to successful ecological restoration of urban green spaces in many cities is invasive mammalian predators. We determined the fine- and landscape-scale habitat characteristics associated with the presence of five urban predators (black and brown rats, European hedgehogs, house mice, and brushtail possums) in three New Zealand cities, in spring and autumn, in three green space types: forest fragments, amenity parks, and residential gardens. Season contributed to variations in detections for all five taxa. Rodents were detected least in residential gardens; mice were detected more often in amenity parks. Hedgehogs were detected least in forest fragments. Possums were detected most often in forest fragments and least often in residential gardens. Some of this variation was explained by our models. Proximity of amenity parks to forest patches was strongly associated with presence of possums (positively), hedgehogs (positively), and rats (negatively). Conversely, proximity of residential gardens to forest patches was positively associated with rat presence. Rats were associated with shrub and lower canopy cover and mice with herb layer cover. In residential gardens, rat detection was associated with compost heaps. Successful restoration of biodiversity in these cities needs extensive, coordinated predator control programmes that engage urban residents.
... To persist in human-modified environments, the resident wildlife must find ways to maintain fitness while minimising mortality risks. For example, wildlife may adjust their spatiotemporal activity patterns to minimise collision with vehicles and/or direct contact with humans (Dowding et al. 2010;Oriol-Cotterill et al. 2015). Behavioural adjustments mainly depend on the species' ecological plasticity as well as the environmental context, including the levels and types of habitat modification and human activities that pose increased mortality risks. ...
Forest-agricultural mosaics are now considered critical for biodiversity. Within these landscapes, the type of land use surrounding remnant forests influences the ability of arboreal non-flying wildlife to travel, disperse and ultimately survive, making arboreal species disproportionally impacted from habitat change. To inform land management strategies we must first understand how wildlife, including arboreal taxa, respond to heterogeneous landscapes.
Here, we examine the occurrence patterns of four arboreal and three semi-terrestrial primate species in response to agroforest landscape characteristics in southern Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.
We combine results from arboreal and terrestrial camera traps across Cantanhez National Park (1067 km2). We fit occupancy models using anthropogenic and environmental covariates generated via remote sensing and in-situ vegetation surveys.
Arboreal camera traps (N = 38 locations, 1922 camera trap days) detected all seven primate species, terrestrial camera traps (N = 62 locations, 3113 camera trap days) detected five. Arboreal red colobus (Piliocolobus badius) and semi-terrestrial Guinea baboon (Papio papio) were the only species not detected at all outside forest blocks. Occupancy of semi-terrestrial chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) increased nearer villages, whereas that of arboreal king colobus (Colobus polykomos) and Demidoff's galago (Galagoides demidoff) decreased. Our models also suggest that semi-arboreal Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli) increase arboreality nearer villages.
We demonstrate heterogeneous spatial responses amongst primates across the agroforest landscape. The lack of distinct patterns between groups (arboreal vs. semi-terrestrial primates) is likely due to species-specific human-induced anti-predator strategies and hunting preferences. Our results highlight the contribution of arboreal camera traps to community-based landscape-scale studies in anthropogenic environments.
... Therefore, behavioural plasticity may allow species to adjust to rapid anthropogenic changes and may explain why some species are able to survive under HIREC conditions, while other species do not [5,6]. For example, some species have shifted their foraging behaviours to avoid humans and vehicles [7], while others avoid breeding in areas of heavy human use [8]. Often as a result of relatively high behavioural plasticity, © 2022 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. ...
Human activities may impact animal habitat and resource use, potentially influencing contemporary evolution in animals. In the United Kingdom, COVID-19 lockdown restrictions resulted in sudden, drastic alterations to human activity. We hypothesized that short-term daily and long-term seasonal changes in human mobility might result in changes in bird habitat use, depending on the mobility type (home, parks and grocery) and extent of change. Using Google human mobility data and 872 850 bird observations, we determined that during lockdown, human mobility changes resulted in altered habitat use in 80% (20/25) of our focal bird species. When humans spent more time at home, over half of affected species had lower counts, perhaps resulting from the disturbance of birds in garden habitats. Bird counts of some species (e.g. rooks and gulls) increased over the short term as humans spent more time at parks, possibly due to human-sourced food resources (e.g. picnic refuse), while counts of other species (e.g. tits and sparrows) decreased. All affected species increased counts when humans spent less time at grocery services. Avian species rapidly adjusted to the novel environmental conditions and demonstrated behavioural plasticity, but with diverse responses, reflecting the different interactions and pressures caused by human activity.
... Typically, urban habitats present urban wildlife with a variety of challenges, or 'stressors', that are specific to urban environments (Birnie-Gauvin et al. 2016, Isaksson 2015. Urban stressors include human disturbance (Fernández-Juricic 2002), vehicle traffic (Dowding et al. 2010), altered dietary quality (Isaksson 2015), and exposure to pollution (Chatelaina et al. 2021, Isaksson 2015. These ecological differences between urban and undeveloped habitats can lead to phenotypic differences between populations across the urban-natural gradient. ...
Wild animals face novel environmental challenges as natural habitats give way to urban areas, with numerous biotic and abiotic differences between the two. Urban ‘stressors’ may elicit a constant release of glucocorticoids via the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, and chronically elevated glucocorticoid levels can be associated with negative effects on health and reproduction. Reduced glucocorticoid secretion is proposed to facilitate adaptation to urban habitats by avoiding the negative health and reproductive effects of chronically elevated levels of circulating glucocorticoids. Here, we investigated this mechanism of adaptation to urban stress in a common species that occurs across the urban-rural gradient, and over a wide geographic range, Sciurus carolinensis (Eastern Gray Squirrel). We measured hair cortisol concentration (HCC), a long-term indicator of circulating glucocorticoids, of 192 squirrels from urbanized habitats and natural forest habitats in two study areas ~850 km apart, in the USA (N = 96 samples) and Canada (N = 96 samples). We examined the relationship between HCC and two correlated indices of urbanization, one reflecting vegetation (NDVI) and one reflecting human-made urban cover (NDBI). In the Canadian dataset, HCC showed quadratic relationships with NDVI and NDBI, indicating that squirrels have lower HCC in the most urbanized habitats (two university campuses). Males and females had similar HCC in the Canadian dataset. In the USA dataset, there was no relationship between HCC and either index, and males had higher HCC than females. These results suggest that urban habitats may be relatively benign for urban Eastern Gray Squirrels. Reduced glucocorticoid levels may represent a form of (phenotypic) plasticity that facilitates adaptation to and persistence in urban environments.
... For many species, changes in behavioural traits are the rst response to anthropogenic caused conditions (Wong & Candolin, 2015). These changes include changing foraging patterns to avoid vehicles and humans (Dowding et al., 2010;Legagneux & Ducatez, 2013) or increasing vocal signals to overcome noise pollution (Parks et al., 2011;Slabbekoorn & Peet, 2003). ...
Invasion of a new environment brings novel challenges that favour species with adaptive traits. Western European blackbird (Turdus merula merula) and song thrush (Turdus philomelos) have been introduced into new habitats worldwide. We examined neophobia and neophilia responses toward a novel object in different anthropogenic New Zealand environments, including urban and rural habitats. Urban inhabitants approached a novel object closer and at a higher rate compared to rural dwelling individuals. Blackbirds showed a higher level of individual approach compared to song thrushes, but approach distance among those song thrushes that approached was closer than blackbirds. Birds living in urban habitats may reduce neophobic responses where there is increasing anthropogenic stressors through increased interactions, competition over space, food and mate would be higher than rural habitats.
... The network of roads, mainly motorways, that are present in the studied area could also represent artificial barriers to the mobility of hedgehogs because only a few individuals are able to cross wide roads (Huijser and Bergers 2000;Rondinini and Doncaster 2002;Braaker et al. 2017). However, the admixture levels detected in Central Catalonia, which is an area crossed and surrounded by motorways (Fig. 1), are more concordant with the idea that hedgehogs crossroads regularly at night when human activity levels decrease (Dowding et al. 2010) and that hedgehogs use road verges as movement corridors (Doncaster et al. 2001). In this sense, Rasmussen et al. (2020) also failed to associate road density with hedgehog habitat fragmentation. ...
Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation and roadkill mortality are considered important threats to European hedgehogs. Habitat fragmentation isolates hedgehog populations and, as a consequence, reduces their genetic diversity and leads the populations to vulnerable situations. The hedgehog populations in the Iberian Peninsula represent the southern limit of the species. We used microsatellite markers to estimate the genetic diversity and population structure of Erinaceus europaeus on the Iberian Peninsula. The obtained results indicated the presence of two differentiated groups, north-western and north-eastern, which coincided with the distribution of the two phylogeographic mitochondrial lineages described in the Peninsula. Moreover, in the north-eastern group, three genetically different clusters (Girona, Central Catalonia and Zoo) were identified. The highest genetic diversity ( Hs = 0.696) was detected in the north-western region. Significant genetic differentiation ( F ST range = 0.072–0.224) was found among the clusters, indicating that these groups are well differentiated and present low gene flow. We concluded that the north-western group is genetically stable, whereas in the north-eastern region, despite some contact among groups, some populations are isolated and vulnerable.
... This affects individuals differently depending on their phenotype (e.g. sex and age: [31][32][33]), with consequences for group-level patterns of behaviour. For example, changes in resources and risks can prevent individuals from foraging together at specific locations [27,34,35], exaggerating differences in motivation or hunger among individuals and creating conflicts of interest [7,36]. ...
Collective behaviour has a critical influence on group social structure and organization, individual fitness and social evolution, but we know little about whether and how it changes in anthropogenic environments. Here, we show multiple and varying effects of urban space-use upon group-level processes in a primate generalist-the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus)-within a managed wild population living at the urban edge in the City of Cape Town, South Africa. In natural space, we observe baboon-typical patterns of collective behaviour. By contrast, in urban space (where there are increased risks, but increased potential for high-quality food rewards), baboons show extreme flexibility in collective behaviour, with changes in spatial cohesion and association networks, travel speeds and group coordination. However, leader-follower roles remain robust across natural and urban space, with adult males having a disproportionate influence on the movement of group members. Their important role in the group's collective behaviour complements existing research and supports the management tactic employed by field rangers of curbing the movements of adult males, which indirectly deters the majority of the group from urban space. Our findings highlight both flexibility and robustness in collective behaviour when groups are presented with novel resources and heightened risks.
... Species-level adaptations to urban landscapes include flexible behaviors Lowry et al., 2013;Sih et al., 2011), tolerance to a wide variety of habitats (Bonier et al., 2007;Ducatez et al., 2015), and generalist diets (McKinney, 2002). At an individual level, urban space use can vary according to phenotype (Lowry et al., 2013), for example, age and sex (Baker et al., 2007;Dowding et al., 2010;Maibeche et al., 2015;Marty et al., 2019;Merkle et al., 2013). Adult male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), living in Gouraya National Park that borders the city of Bejaia in Algeria, eat more human foods than females or juveniles (Maibeche et al., 2015), and male American black bears (Ursinus americanus) in Missoula, Montana, use urban spaces more frequently than females and are 1.6 times more likely to be located next to a house (Merkle et al., 2013). ...
The presence of wildlife adjacent to and within urban spaces is a growing phenomenon globally. When wildlife’s presence in urban spaces has negative impacts for people and wildlife, nonlethal and lethal interventions on animals invariably result. Recent evidence suggests that individuals in wild animal populations vary in both their propensity to use urban space and their response to nonlethal management methods. Understanding such interindividual differences and the drivers of urban space use could help inform management strategies. We use direct observation and high-resolution GPS (1 Hz) to track the space use of 13 adult individuals in a group of chacma baboons ( Papio ursinus ) living at the urban edge in Cape Town, South Africa. The group is managed by a dedicated team of field rangers, who use aversive conditioning to reduce the time spent by the group in urban spaces. Adult males are larger, more assertive, and more inclined to enter houses, and as such are disproportionately subject to “last resort” lethal management. Field rangers therefore focus efforts on curbing the movements of adult males, which, together with high-ranking females and their offspring, comprise the bulk of the group. However, our results reveal that this focus allows low-ranking, socially peripheral female baboons greater access to urban spaces. We suggest that movement of these females into urban spaces, alone or in small groups, is an adaptive response to management interventions, especially given that they have no natural predators. These results highlight the importance of conducting behavioral studies in conjunction with wildlife management, to ensure effective mitigation techniques.
... Hedgehogs often live in the vicinity of towns and villages as these provide greater protection against predators including badgers and foxes that tend, in contrast, to avoid these places [2]. Hedgehogs also like to use gardens and parks in towns and villages to search for their food [3], which is comprised mainly of invertebrates. The public is often aware a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 of the fact that hedgehogs occur in their vicinity and that they can support the presence of hedgehogs in their gardens by feeding them, by making gardens accessible, or by playing a part in their protection in other ways. ...
This study aimed to assess the numbers of juvenile European hedgehogs admitted to rescue centers in the Czech Republic from the viewpoint of their weight on admission, the reason for their admission, and the success rate of their release back into the wild. The results of our study show varying levels of success in the rearing of hedgehogs admitted at different ages (weights) and a varying period required for their rehabilitation. The greatest chance of release was seen in hedgehogs with a weight on the admission of 500–599 g (64.22% released) and 400–499 g (63.31% released). In contrast, the smallest number of young hedgehogs successfully rehabilitated and released was seen in hoglets weighing 200–299 g (35.24% released) on admission, which corresponds to the weight of hedgehogs at the time of weaning. Time spent at a rescue center may pose an undesirable threat to the lives of animals in some categories. Hedgehogs weighing up to 99 g on admission spent the longest period time at rescue centers (a median of 48 days), while hedgehogs weighing 500–599 g on admission spent the shortest time (a median of 7 days). The majority of hedgehogs in the lowest weight categories were admitted due to their inability to survive on their own. A large percentage of hedgehogs of greater weight, in contrast, were juvenile hedgehogs brought to rescue centers needlessly. The percentage of released animals did not exceed 65%, however, even for entirely independent categories of older juveniles. From this perspective, the fact that hedgehogs are often brought to rescue centers in the belief that they are not self-sufficient young, though they are actually juvenile or even adult individuals that do not require human care, can be considered a significant finding.
... Other studies indicate that hedgehogs may prefer urban areas, as they offer more suitable nest sites and ensure a lower risk of predation from European badgers (Meles meles) [18]. Although hedgehogs residing in urban areas primarily become active after midnight and avoid foraging near roads, which is likely to reduce the dangers and disturbances caused by human activities such as vehicle and foot traffic and the disturbances from dogs, their contact with humans and pets is reported more frequently every year [19,20]. The major microbial infections associated with hedgehogs have bacterial aetiology, i.e. ...
The European hedgehog ( Erinaceus europaeus Linnaeus) frequently colonises areas located close to human life in cities, as these are more suitable nest sites offering an abundance of food and allowing avoidance of predators. However, urbanisation has a significant impact on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, including dermatophytoses, the primary source of which are wild animals. In this study, we determined the spectrum of dermatophytes isolated from the European hedgehog and assessed their susceptibility profile to antifungal drugs. Symptomatic and asymptomatic dermatophyte infections were observed in 7.7% and 8% of the 182 examined free-living hedgehogs, respectively. In the pool of the isolated dermatophyte strains, Trichophyton erinacei was dominant (29.9%), followed by Trichophyton mentagrophytes (17.9%), Trichophyton benhamiae (13.4%), Nannizzia gypsea (11.9%), Microsporum canis (10.4%), Nannizzia nana (7.5%), Paraphyton cookei (6.0%), and Nannizzia fulva (3.0%). Susceptibility tests revealed the highest activity of luliconazole and the lowest of activity fluconazole among the azole drugs applied. Although terbinafine generally exhibited high efficacy, two Trichophyton mentagrophytes isolates showed resistance to this drug (MIC = 2 µg/ml) resulting from missense mutations in the SQLE gene corresponding to the amino acid substitution Leu393Phe. Summarising, our study has also revealed that such wildlife animals as hedgehogs can be a reservoir of pathogenic human dermatophytes, including harmful strains resistant to commonly used antifungal drugs.
Graphical Abstract
... 63%) have shifted their range to the north (Parmesan et al., 1999). Hedgehogs also changed their habitat-use by shifting their feeding and ranging behaviour to avoid human presence (Dowding et al., 2010). More recently, Tucker et al (2018) demonstrated that non-volant terrestrial mammals show a reduced movement of 30-50% in response to human footprint. ...
... It is widely distributed and can survive across a wide range of habitat types [1,2]. However, investigations on both national and local scales have documented declines, or expressed concerns about decline, of the hedgehog populations in several western European countries [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The suspected reasons for the decline include habitat loss and fragmentation, intensified agricultural practices, inbreeding, road traffic accidents, lack of biodiversity and suitable nest sites in residential gardens, molluscicide and rodenticide poisoning, and badger predation [4,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. In Denmark, where this study occurred, hedgehogs become active after hibernation in mid-April to mid-May [22,24,25]. ...
Background
The European population of hedgehogs ( Erinaceus europaeus ) is declining. It is therefore essential to optimise conservation initiatives such as the rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs. Wild animals placed in captivity may be prone to chronic stress, potentially causing negative health effects. Therefore, the effects of these rehabilitation efforts should consequently be evaluated. Furthermore, hand-raising orphaned hedgehogs is a laborious and costly task, and it is therefore relevant to document whether they have equal post release survival rates compared to their wild conspecifics.
The objectives of this research were therefore to conduct an exploratory study of glucocorticoid levels in hedgehogs from different backgrounds and compare the post release survival of translocated, rehabilitated and wild, juvenile hedgehogs as well as the possible effect on survival of differences in shy or bold behaviour (personality) exhibited by individuals.
Results
We measured glucocorticoid levels in 43 wild-caught (n = 18) and rehabilitated (n = 25) hedgehogs and compared the post release survival and spatial behaviour of 18 translocated juvenile hedgehogs (eight hand-raised and ten wild) until hibernation. The possible effect on survival of differences in shy or bold behaviour (personality) exhibited by 17 juvenile individuals (seven hand-raised and ten wild) was also examined.
Rehabilitated individuals and females had higher levels of faecal corticosterone metabolites compared to wild individuals and males, respectively. Rehabilitated individuals showed higher levels of saliva corticosterone than wild. The personality tests labelled 13 individuals as shy and 11 as bold. Post release survival was 57% for rehabilitated and 50% for wild individuals. Neither background nor personality affected post release survival. Home range measures were 3.54 and 4.85 ha. Mean dispersal length from the release sites was 217 ± 100 m.
Conclusion
The higher levels of corticosterone observed in rehabilitated compared to wild hedgehogs calls for consideration of the duration of admission to wildlife rehabilitation centres to reduce stress levels in the patients.
Hand-raised juveniles appear to have the same prospects as wild, and personality does not seem to affect post release survival in hedgehogs, indicating that hand-raising of orphaned juvenile hedgehogs is a relevant contribution to the conservation of this species.
... As research indicates that European hedgehogs are increasingly associated with human habitation [7,8,[15][16][17] and are often seen foraging on grassy turf in the gardens and green spaces of urban areas [18][19][20][21][22], it seems likely that numerous individuals will encounter several robotic lawn mowers during their lifetimes. To our knowledge, there has thus far been no systematic scientific research evaluating whether this risk of physical damage is mere hearsay or a real and present threat to be added to the already vulnerable species. ...
We tested the effects of 18 models of robotic lawn mowers in collision with dead European hedgehogs and quantified the results into six damage categories. All models were tested on four weight classes of hedgehogs, each placed in three different positions. None of the robotic lawn mowers tested was able to detect the presence of dependent juvenile hedgehogs (<200 g) and all models had to touch the hedgehogs to detect them. Some models caused extensive damage to the hedgehog cadavers, but there were noteworthy differences in the degree of harm inflicted, with some consistently causing no damage. Our results showed that the following technical features significantly increased the safety index of the robotic lawn mowers: pivoting blades, skid plates, and front wheel drive. Based on these findings, we encourage future collaboration with the manufacturers of robotic lawn mowers to improve the safety for hedgehogs and other garden wildlife species.
... Prey may employ similar strategies to mitigate risks from humans as they do to mitigate risks from natural predators (Parsons et al., 2016). As such, fear effects in urban environments can result in prey modifying temporal activity or habitat selection to reduce predation risks (Chambers and Dickman, 2002;Dowding et al., 2010). Discernment between immediate and distal threats requires delegating time to vigilance in order to assess and respond to risks across the landscape. ...
Rapid urbanization coupled with increased human activity induces pressures that affect predator-prey relations through a suite of behavioral mechanisms, including alteration of avoidance and coexistence dynamics. Synergisms of natural and anthropogenic threats existing within urban environments exacerbate the necessity for species to differentially modify behavior to each risk. Here, we explore the behavioral response of a key prey species, cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus), to pressures from humans, domestic dogs, and a natural predator, coyotes (Canis latrans) in a human-dominated landscape. We conducted the first camera survey in urban parks throughout Detroit, Michigan in 2017–2020 to assess vigilance response corresponding to a heterogeneous landscape created from variation in the occupancy of threats. We predicted a scaled response where cottontail rabbits would be most vigilant in areas with high coyote activity, moderately vigilant in areas with high domestic dog activity, and the least vigilant in areas of high human activity. From 8,165 independent cottontail rabbit detections in Detroit across 11,616 trap nights, one-third were classified as vigilant. We found vigilance behavior increased with coyote occupancy and in locations with significantly high domestic dog activity, but found no significant impact of human occupancy or their spatial hotspots. We also found little spatial overlap between rabbits and threats, suggesting rabbits invest more in spatial avoidance; thus, less effort is required for vigilance. Our results elucidate strategies of a prey species coping with various risks to advance our understanding of the adaptability of wildlife in urban environments. In order to promote coexistence between people and wildlife in urban greenspaces, we must understand and anticipate the ecological implications of human-induced behavioral modifications.
... Boxplots show the median and the upper and lower quartiles, with the whiskers representing data within the 1.5× interquartile range. Points represent outliers Baseline levels: rural habitat, silence sound and 21 h playback Individual identity was used as a random intercept, and sound was used as a random slope Different variances were allowed for each habitat lower human activity, a behavior already described for other mammals (Dowding et al. 2010;Gaynor et al. 2018). Crocidurines are predominantly nocturnal, but still show some bouts of activity during the day (Baxter et al. 1979;Genoud and Vogel 1981;Oliveira et al. 2016). ...
The development of urban areas imposes challenges that wildlife must adapt to in order to persist in these new habitats. One of the greatest changes brought by urbanization has been an increase in anthropogenic noise, with negative consequences for the natural behavior of animals. Small mammals are particularly vulnerable to urbanization and noise, despite some species having successfully occupied urban environments. To understand some of the traits that have enabled small mammals to deal with the consequences of urbanization, we compared the behavioral responses of urban and rural greater white-toothed shrews, Crocidura russula, to different sound stimuli. A total of 32 shrews, 16 from each habitat, were exposed in captivity to four sound treatments: silence, tawny owl calls, traffic noise, and white noise. Urban and rural shrews showed different behaviors, with urban animals being more active, feeding more frequently, and using less torpor than rural individuals. However, responses to sound treatments were similar in both populations: urban and rural shrews exhibited a slight decrease in activity and feeding behavior, as well as more fleeing responses, when exposed to traffic noise or white noise, but not to owl calls. These results suggest urbanization induces long-term changes in the general activity of C. russula, but the short-term behavioral response to sound disturbance remains similar in rural and urban populations.
... Dogs in the low flux zones encounter very less number of humans, and as a result, lack of socialization might have resulted into their minimal responses of approach towards the human experimenter. Thus, dogs' responses to the unfamiliar human experimenter in the low flux zones are reminiscent of the inherent tendency of any free-ranging animal to avoid humans (Dowding et al., 2010;Gaynor et al., 2018) The demeanours of the dogs in high and intermediate flux zones were similar despite their varying degrees of sociability. However, fearful and anxious behavioural states were shown by dogs in the low flux zones which again might be indicative of least human socialization and an increased level of stranger aversion. ...
Co-habiting with humans in an urban ecological space requires adequate variation in a
species’ behavioural repertoire. The eco-ethology of many urban species have been shown to be modified due to human activities leading to urban adaptations. Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are the first species to have been domesticated and have a long evolutionary history of co-habitation with humans. In the last two decades, scientists have investigated various questions on dogs pertaining to its domestication. In fact, no other species belonging to the family Canidae has received such attention in the scientific world. Unfortunately, majority of the work was confined to pet dogs in the western countries. Pet dogs are the result of artificial breeding based on desirable traits and their activities are typically determined by their owners. Free-ranging dogs found in most of the developing countries, on the other hand, represent a naturally breeding population without direct human supervision. Studying free-ranging dogs can thus provide us with crucial insights on the ecology and evolution of dogs in greater detail.
Close to 80% of the world’s dog population is free-ranging, yet scientific studies on them
are almost non-existent. Scientists have realised the importance and need of studying these dogs very recently to address various facets of the much debated domestication event. Free-ranging dogs are a highly successful urban-adapted species living in all possible human habitats in the developing countries. The dog-human relationship is highly complex and possess multiple trajectories. For example, these dogs depend on human subsidized food, choose dens near human households, yet receive a range of negative stimuli from humans; mortality of these dogs is mostly influenced by humans. In this thesis, we tried to answer questions relating to the dog-human relationship on Indian streets. My thesis involved an interdisciplinary approach where behavioural, cognitive, and ecological
aspects are discussed to shed light on the evolution of the dog-human relationship.
We began the work by looking at the natural history of free-ranging dogs in India. We
collected data on the abundance of dogs and the distribution of their potential food
resources, across India. Moreover, we recorded the sex ratio, group size, and behaviours
of dogs at different study locations. We characterized study areas with regard to human
activity levels by estimating human flux or movement and categorised them into low,
intermediate and high flux zones. Our findings clearly suggested varying distribution of
dogs and their food resources across different microhabitats in India. While a direct effect
of food resource was not found, human flux significantly predicted the distribution of
dogs. Moreover, we found a strong impact of changing human flux on the abundance and
behavioural activity of free-ranging dogs.
In the next section, we investigated the intra-group dynamics of dogs from the perspective of long-debated dominance-rank relationships. We looked at the steepness and linearity of agonistic and formal dominance hierarchies of groups of dogs from intermediate and high human flux zones. Our study did not reveal any clear dominance hierarchy among the free-ranging dogs, either in the intermediate or high human flux zones. The overall frequencies of interactions between the group members were found to be quite low, with many unknown interactions between for several dyads. We also proposed the use of subtle behavioural cues to maintain hierarchy rather than showing frequent behavioural exchanges in dogs. Findings from the study further led us to test free-ranging dogs’ interactions with humans. We found that these dogs interact with humans more compared to their conspecifics. Interestingly, we noticed that dogs rarely initiated behaviours towards humans, while humans played the predominant role in initiating both positive and negative behaviours towards dogs. We concluded that humans are a predominant part of the interaction network of the Indian free-ranging dogs. This opened up a window of testing dogs’ physical and social cognitive abilities.
We found that free-ranging dogs lack the ability to persist on physical cognitive tasks and
are poor performers like pet dogs. A higher dependence on humans is thought to be a key
factor restricting dogs from persisting on an unfamiliar task. Interestingly, free-ranging
dogs, as scavengers, showed competence while solving a familiar task, though task
difficulty remained a factor that could not be disentangled. A partial dependence on
humans was assumed to be the outcome of their long-history of co-evolution which resulted in a reduced problem-solving capacity in dogs. Surprisingly, a role of social facilitation was observed which predicted improved performances in both familiar and unfamiliar tasks.
Free-ranging dogs like any other urban species are typically found to be aversive towards
making direct physical contact with unfamiliar humans. The sociability of dogs was
found to correlate with human flux, suggesting a role of life experience in shaping the
personalities of these dogs. Dogs were shown to understand different human social cues
and respond accordingly. The dogs in groups were bolder while responding to threatening
cues from humans than in the solitary condition. Using two studies, we showed their
ability to understand human pointing gestures, both simple and complex. The behavioural
states of the dogs were heavily found to influence their responses towards humans.
Dogs were found to be anxious or fearful while encountering an unfamiliar human.
Interestingly, we found a crucial role of positive socialization in the form of petting in modifying
such behavioural states of dogs and further building a strong dog-human relationship.
In summary, this thesis provides unprecedented inputs into the current understanding
of the evolution of dog-human relationship. The findings are not only restricted to
the scientific advancement but may also be helpful in mitigating the growing doghuman
conflict on the streets in India, by enhancing an understanding of the dynamics
of the relationship between the two species, that might enable better management strategies.
... Although hedgehogs are widely distributed across Europe [18], we used this species as a model species because of its limited dispersal capacity and its relatively small home range [19,20]. The size of the latter may range from 0.8 ha (England; [21]), over 10 to 40 ha (England; [22]) up to 98 ha (Finland; [23]). Whereas female hedgehogs mostly stay within their habitat patches, male hedgehogs occasionally cover distances of up to 7 km per night [24]. ...
We use the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), a mammal with limited mobility, as a model species to study whether the structural matrix of the urban environment has an influence on population genetic structure of such species in the city of Berlin (Germany). Using ten established microsatellite loci we genotyped 143 hedgehogs from numerous sites throughout Berlin. Inclusion of all individuals in the cluster analysis yielded three genetic clusters, likely reflecting spatial associations of kin (larger family groups, known as gamodemes). To examine the potential bias in the cluster analysis caused by closely related individuals, we determined all pairwise relationships and excluded close relatives before repeating the cluster analysis. For this data subset (N = 65) both clustering algorithms applied (Structure, Baps) indicated the presence of a single genetic cluster. These results suggest that the high proportion of green patches in the city of Berlin provides numerous steppingstone habitats potentially linking local subpopulations. Alternatively, translocation of individuals across the city by hedgehog rescue facilities may also explain the existence of only a single cluster. We therefore propose that information about management activities such as releases by animal rescue centres should include location data (as exactly as possible) regarding both the collection and the release site, which can then be used in population genetic studies.
Bu olgu sunumunun materyalini Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi Hayvan hastanesine getirilen 3 yaşında, erkek Batı Avrupa Kirpisi (Erinaceus europaeus) oluşturdu. Trafik kazası sonucu getirilen hastanın tanı amacıyla radyografik görüntüleri alınıp symphisis mandibulada kırık olduğu belirlendi. Yapılan muayeneler sonucunda symphisis mandibula kırığının redüksiyonu için operasyon kararı alındı. Hastanın genel durumu izlenip 12 saat aç bırakıldıktan sonra operasyon salonun alındı. Hastanın indüksiyon anestezisi kas içi 0.003 mg/kg medetomidin ile yapıldı. İdame için ise 4 mg/kg ketamin uygulandı. Symphisis mandibulanın ventral kısmı tıraş edilip asepsi ve antisepsi sağlandı. Symphisis mandibulanın ventraline 11 numara bisturi ile küçük bir ensizyon uygulanıp 18 g hipodermik bir iğne sokuldu. İğne, canin dişin kaudalini takip ederek ağız boşluğuna çıkarıldı. 0,3 mm’ lik serklaj teli iğneden geçirilip iğne çıkarıldı. Mandibulanın karşısından geçirilen iğneden kavis verilen serklaj teli ilk ensizyon yerinden çıkartılıp redüksiyon sağlandı. Serklaj teli sıkıştırılıp kesildi. Postoperatif dönemde ilk olarak röntgenle redüksiyonun durumu tespit edildi.
European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) inhabit most of Denmark, except for a few smaller islands. Research from other European countries has shown that the hedgehog populations are in decline. The exposure to chemicals might contribute to this development, although their role is currently unknown. Our research studied the occurrence of 19 selected pesticides in the Danish hedgehog population as well as factors potentially explaining the levels of chemicals detected. We analysed 115 liver samples obtained from dead hedgehogs in 2016 for seven rodenticides, four insecticides and eight herbicides commonly used in Denmark at the time of sampling, applying a high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method. Detection frequencies varied between 0.9% for fluroxypyr and trans-permethrin and 79% for bromadiolone. Rodenticides, insecticides and herbicides were detected in 84, 43, and 50% of the samples, respectively. The compounds most frequently detected included the insecticide imidacloprid (35%), the herbicide metamitron (29%) and the rodenticide bromadiolone (79%). Individual concentrations varied between non-detected to >2 μg/g. A total of 79% of the 115 hedgehogs contained more than one detectable pesticide, with up to nine of the 19 compounds detected in one individual. The detection frequencies were found to differ significantly between the Eastern and Western part of Denmark for difenacoum, difethialone and imidacloprid. However, no associations were found with sex, age, habitat type or the prevalence of mecC-MRSA and endoparasites in the hedgehogs tested. Whether or not the pesticide levels detected carry a health risk for the hedgehogs remains unknown as no adverse effect levels have yet been established for European hedgehogs for single compounds or pesticide mixtures.
In the context of rapid urbanization, protecting landscape connectivity has become an effective measure to mitigate habitat fragmentation and curb biodiversity decline. However, in the current research on simulating optimization processes, the ecological constraints often set are dispersed, isolated, and fixed. They fail to form a comprehensive protective spatial framework and struggle to align with the multifaceted objectives of future development. This study, taking the main urban area of Hangzhou, China as a case study and employing small mammals as indicator species, utilizes the PLUS model to predict the potential threats to landscape connectivity of biological habitats posed by artificial surface expansion from 2020 to 2035. It constructs a coupled mechanism that integrates multi‐level ecological security patterns (ESPs) and multi‐scenario simulation for landscape connectivity, successfully demonstrating the effectiveness of this mechanism in future landscape connectivity preservation. The results indicate that under the scenarios of business‐as‐usual (BAU), priority given to urban development (PUD), and priority given to ecological protection (PEP), the overall level of landscape connectivity in the main urban area of Hangzhou is projected to decrease by 18.42%, 7.02%, and 4.39% respectively from 2020 to 2035. The reduction in core area is estimated to be 9.08%, 7.85%, and 6.34%, respectively, while highly important patches are expected to decrease by 12.91%, 7.51%, and 5.86%, respectively. Both PEP and PUD scenarios effectively mitigate the degree of landscape connectivity disruption. This study provides valuable insights for the future optimization of landscape connectivity and contributes to biodiversity conservation efforts.
Arid land environment exerts tremendous pressure on wild animals living within it. The dry and hot conditions, in addition to limited and restricted resources, make the survival of the terrestrial animals very challenging. Furthermore, human impact and the expansion of urban activities negatively impact the survival and distribution of native fauna in the State of Kuwait. The dry areas in the Arabian Peninsula had witnessed the extinction of several faunal species in the last century due to the previously mentioned reasons. Many large ungulates and predators were lost or their current distribution is restricted. In attempts to restore loss of wildlife species, many countries in the region developed conservation and reintroduction programs to protect the wildlife of the region. The situation in Kuwait is similar but more focus and efforts should be directed to the reintroduction and rehabilitation programs, especially that Kuwait had joined many international treaties and conventions to protect the natural resources including wildlife. Kuwait should maintain its active role in these conventions to network with international scientific communities for mutual benefits and to further the objectives of the conventions to accomplish the set goals.
Previous research has established that some models of robotic lawn mowers are potentially harmful to hedgehogs. As the market for robotic lawn mowers is expanding rapidly and the populations of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are in decline, it is important to investigate this risk further to understand the potential threat which some robotic lawn mowers may pose to hedgehogs. We tested 19 models of robotic lawn mowers in collision with hedgehog cadavers to measure their effect on hedgehogs. Our results showed that some models of robotic lawn mowers may injure hedgehogs, whereas others are not harmful to them. Apart from one single incidence, all robotic lawn mowers had to physically touch the hedgehog carcasses to detect them. Larger hedgehog cadavers were less likely to be “injured”, with height being the most influential measure of size. The firmness of the tested hedgehog cadavers (frozen or thawed) did not influence the outcome of the collision tests. Neither the position of the hedgehog cadavers nor the selected technical features of the lawn mowers affected the probability of injury. Based on the results, we designed a standardised safety test to measure the effect of a specific model of robotic lawn mower on hedgehogs.
Urban environments provide opportunities for some species but are inhospitable for others. However, those which thrive can be found at higher densities in human‐dominated landscapes than in more rural habitats. This highlights the importance of understanding species responses to human environments. It is not only important for the conservation of urban wildlife but also may provide fundamental insights into human‐wildlife coexistence globally.
Here, we use citizen science data to predict the habitat suitability of Greater London for the West European hedgehog ( Erinaceus europaeus ), the red fox ( Vulpes vulpes ), the European badger ( Meles meles ) and the Eastern grey squirrel ( Sciurus carolinensis ).
Results indicate that the four target species prefer different urban habitats, indicating different levels of urbanisation potential. Foxes and grey squirrels are able to thrive in inner urban areas, with the highest values of habitat suitability for these species found in central London, whereas for hedgehogs and badgers, the highest habitat suitability occurs in suburban and more rural habitats in outer London, respectively.
These results highlight a gradient in urban tolerance, from squirrels and foxes to hedgehogs and badgers. This work also shows the importance of urban green spaces as habitats for wildlife.
The increase in the world population is projected to reach 9.3 billion by the year 2050 and will no doubt require a significant and continued increase in food production to meet the food needs. The adoption of intensive agriculture began in the second half of the twentieth century and is dependent on diverse agrochemicals. Agricultural intensification practices involve the enlargement of small farms into large ventures, the concentration on the culture of single species of exotic cash crops, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers. The results from these practices have been very encouraging in terms of the amount of food produces but not without a price on biodiversity and environmental integrity. For instance, it has constituted a source of threat to wildlife habitats, niche functionality, and ecosystem processes and services all over the world with the outcome depending on the type and amount of agrochemical commonly used in the locale. This chapter attempts to collate evidence from previous studies on the extent of information on the detrimental effects of agricultural intensification through agrochemical use on the various environments and flora and fauna diversity around the world. The harmful effects of these modern agricultural practices are taking a negative toll on diverse important aspects of biodiversity and indirectly affecting human sustenance on Earth. To address this problematic trend, policies such as the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices are crucial. An example of such is organic agriculture which has less hazardous effects on biodiversity. These practices must be put in place by authorities and stakeholders in the agriculture industry so that food can be secured and conservation of biodiversity will be of major interest.KeywordsAgricultural intensificationAgrochemicalsBiodiversityEcosystemWildlife habitatsHabitat loss
Artificial refuges provided by householders and/or conservation practitioners potentially represent one mechanism for mitigating declines in the availability of natural nest sites used for resting, breeding and hibernating in urban areas. The effectiveness of such refuges for different species is, however, not always known. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of UK householders to identify factors associated with the use of ground-level nest boxes for West European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus), a species of conservation concern. Overall, the percentage of boxes used at least once varied with season and type of use: summer day nesting (35.5–81.3%), breeding (7.2–28.2%), winter day nesting (20.1–66.5%) and hibernation (21.7–58.6%). The length of time the box had been deployed, the availability of artificial food and front garden to back garden access significantly increased the likelihood that a nest box had been used for all four nesting types, whereas other factors related to placement within the garden ( e.g. , in a sheltered location, on hardstanding such as paving, distance from the house) and resource provisioning (bedding) affected only some nesting behaviours. The factors most strongly associated with nest box use were the provisioning of food and bedding. These data suggest, therefore, that householders can adopt simple practices to increase the likelihood of their nest box being used. However, one significant limitation evident within these data is that, for welfare reasons, householders do not routinely monitor whether their box has been used. Consequently, future studies need to adopt strategies which enable householders to monitor their boxes continuously. Ultimately, such studies should compare the survival rates and reproductive success of hedgehogs within artificial refuges versus more natural nest sites, and whether these are affected by, for example, the impact of nest box design and placement on predation risk and internal microclimate.
Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have revealed that adaptive microevolution (i.e., allele frequency changes through time) and behavioral changes occur rapidly enough to affect contemporary ecological dynamics, and we can consider rapid adaptation for better conservation and management of wild populations. However, previous studies tended to focus on adaptation that increases population densities (e.g., evolutionary rescue), and did not pay attention to adaptation that decreases population densities (e.g., evolutionary suicide). Here, we demonstrate that controlling trait adaptation may be potentially important for decreasing population densities. One possibility is introducing “selfish” genotypes to populations. If the genotypes increase their reproductive success at the expense of population growth (e.g., cheaters in subsocial ants or coercive males in damselflies), we can decrease population densities (intraspecific adaptation load). The other possible option is diverting trait values of animals from the value that maximizes population growth (ecological trap). For example, we may be able to change behavior of a deer population by hunting so that they will not approach the best habitat with ample resources (landscape of fear). Then, we can consider the optimal allocation of our effort to directly decrease their population densities and control their trait values. However, we should carefully conduct controlling trait adaptation because it may result in unintended outcomes through modified genetic compositions and behaviors, such as increasing genetic variation of the focal population that enhances adaptation to changing environments by introducing selfish genotypes or a transient increase of population densities by modified behaviors.
Humans can derive enormous benefit from the natural environment and the wildlife they see there, but increasing human use may negatively impact wildlife, particularly in urban green spaces. Few studies have focused on the trade-offs between intensive human use and wildlife use of shared green spaces in urban areas. In this paper we investigate the impacts of humans and their dogs on wildlife within an urban green space using camera trap data from Hampstead Heath, London. Spatial and temporal activity of common woodland wildlife species were compared between sites with low and high frequency of visits by humans and dogs. Blackbirds ( Turdus merula ) were found to be significantly more active at sites with lower visitation rates, while red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) were observed more in areas with higher visitation rates. Birds and grey squirrels ( Sciurus carolinensis) showed evidence of temporal displacement away from peak periods of human and dog visits in areas where visitation rates were high. Responses observed to human and dog visits could have implications for wildlife species persistence and community composition in urban woodlands.
The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is a species found in abundance throughout Europe. Nevertheless, it has seen a decline in some regions. This study aimed to analyze trends in intake and outcomes for hedgehogs admitted into rescue centers in the Czech Republic. In the period from 2010 to 2019, 16,967 European hedgehogs were admitted in 34 rescue centers in the Czech Republic. Most hedgehogs were admitted in September (25.30%) and October (22.14%), the fewest in March (0.96%). Most admitted hedgehogs were hoglets (59.49%). The treatment was successful in 44.39% of admitted hedgehogs; those were subsequently released into the wild. On average, they stayed in rescue centers for 48.77 days (median of 30 days). Death or euthanasia was an outcome for 25.27% and 3.15% of admitted hedgehogs, respectively. Only 0.59% of the hedgehogs remained in captivity with a permanent handicap. The highest release rate was achieved in hedgehogs admitted after falls into pits and other openings (83.19%), whereas the least success was achieved in poisoned hedgehogs (13.21%). An increasing trend (rSp = 0.9273, p < 0.01) was found in the number of hedgehogs admitted to rescue centers during the monitored period. Furthermore, not all of them required human care. Given the fact that less than a half of the admitted hedgehogs could be released, raising public awareness of this issue could help to avoid unnecessary interventions (especially in hoglets).
The world's population is concentrated in urban areas. This change in demography has brought landscape transformations that have a number of documented effects on stream ecosystems. The most consistent and pervasive effect is an increase in impervious surface cover within urban catchments, which alters the hydrology and geomorphology of streams. This results in predictable changes in stream habitat. In addition to imperviousness, runoff from urbanized surfaces as well as municipal and industrial discharges result in increased loading of nutrients, metals, pesticides, and other contaminants to streams. These changes result in consistent declines in the richness of algal, invertebrate, and fish communities in urban streams. Although understudied in urban streams, ecosystem processes are also affected by urbanization. Urban streams represent opportunities for ecologists interested in studying disturbance and contributing to more effective landscape management.
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the principal vector of rabies in Western Europe, and the high density of foxes in many British cities is therefore of particular concern. Contingency plans for the control of rabies in urban areas in Britain are focused on the use of poison baits to control the fox population, but field trials have so far achieved bait uptake rates which fall far short of those required. It is possible that greater uptake rates and hence improved efficiency of control could be achieved by targeting the baits more effectively towards preferred fox habitats. To help move towards this goal, we quantified the habitat preferences of urban foxes living in Bristol, England using compositional analysis. Time spent and distance travelled by individuals within different habitats, as revealed by radio tracking, were used as indicators of habitat preference during bouts of activity, and the frequency of lying-up sites was used as an indicator of habitat preference during periods of day time inactivity. Five habitat groupings were considered in the analysis: (1) back gardens, (2) front gardens and common gardens, (3) playing fields, parklands, churchyards and cemeteries, (4) roads, verges, shops and commercial centres, and (5) woodlands, rough ground and allotment gardens. Back gardens, woodland, rough ground and allotment gardens were the most heavily used habitats in terms of both time spent and distance moved by foxes. These habitats were also most favoured for day-time lyingup sites. The results are discussed with reference to their potential implications for bait uptake and rabies control.
Although interspecific killing among carnivores can drive populations toward extinction, it is generally unknown how these intraguild interactions vary among populations, and whether the threat for vulnerable species can be mitigated. We studied imperiled populations of swift foxes (Vulpes velox) in Canada and kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis) in Mexico to determine potential differences in survival or predator-avoidance strategies. Survival rates were significantly lower in Canada than in Mexico because of mortality caused by coyotes (Canis latrans) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaëtos), and the potential for population recovery is likely higher for the Mexican fox population. Differences in body size between coyotes and foxes, diet, group sizes, intraspecific home-range overlap, home-range sizes of coyotes, and movements of coyotes relative to foxes were similar among study areas. However, Canadian foxes had home ranges that were approximately 3 times larger than those in Mexico, and Canadian foxes were most frequently killed on their home-range peripheries. Home ranges of kit foxes decreased in size as the availability of black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) colonies increased and associated refuge holes, which foxes could use to escape predation, were significantly more abundant in Mexico than in Canada. Small home ranges of foxes probably reduced encounters with coyotes in Mexico, and a high availability of refuges likely allowed foxes to elude predators when such encounters did occur. Differences in survival of foxes relative to mortality caused by coyotes demonstrate that interactions between carnivores can vary greatly between populations and that, in some situations, vulnerable species may be able to coexist with dominant carnivores despite a lack of large-scale habitat partitioning.
Badgers Meles meles are intraguild predators of hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus and have been shown to have a major effect on their abundance and behaviour at a localized scale. Previous studies have predicted the exclusion of hedgehogs from rural habitats in areas where badgers are abundant. The two species coexist at the landscape scale, however, as hedgehogs use suburban habitats, which are thought to provide a refuge from the effects of badger predation. We carried out surveys of hedgehog abundance and studied the use of spatial refugia by hedgehogs in relation to badger density and distribution in 10 study sites in the Midlands and south-west regions of England. Surveys confirmed that hedgehogs were almost absent from pasture fields in rural habitats, with their distribution concentrated in amenity grassland fields in suburban areas. However, although suburban habitats are less frequently used by badgers than rural areas, and therefore represented spatial refugia for hedgehogs, the probability of occurrence and abundance of hedgehogs varied in relation to the density of badger setts in the surrounding area. As sett density increased, both the probability of occurrence of hedgehogs and their abundance decreased. A generalized linear model predicted that the probability of hedgehog occurrence in suburban habitats declined towards zero in areas of high badger density. The most probable explanation is the negative effect of high badger abundance on the ability of hedgehogs to move between patches of suburban habitat. The present study concords with results from previous surveys and experimental studies, which found a strong negative spatial relationship between hedgehogs and badgers. It also provides correlative evidence that intraguild predation can exclude intraguild prey from productive habitats.
The world’s population is concentrated in urban areas. This change in demography has brought landscape transformations that
have a number of documented effects on stream ecosystems. The most consistent and pervasive effect is an increase in impervious
surface cover within urban catchments, which alters the hydrology and geomorphology of streams. This results in predictable
changes in stream habitat. In addition to imperviousness, runoff from urbanized surfaces as well as municipal and industrial
discharges result in increased loading of nutrients, metals, pesticides, and other contaminants to streams. These changes
result in consistent declines in the richness of algal, invertebrate, and fish communities in urban streams. Although understudied
in urban streams, ecosystem processes are also affected by urbanization. Urban streams represent opportunities for ecologists
interested in studying disturbance and contributing to more effective landscape management.
An account is given of the winter nests of the hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus L.), and their importance in the life of this species.
Nests were constructed for protection during hibernation, in sites chosen for the degree of support gained from surrounding objects. They were usually made mainly of dry leaves, specially selected and carefully built into a robust weatherproof structure, by a method appropriate both to the hedgehog and the materials used. Construction of winter nests was closely correlated with environmental temperature.
The life history of hibernacula is reviewed and it is shown that nests may persist for well over a year, though the leaves of which they are made normally decay completely in a much shorter time. Nests built in brambles, with plenty of support last longer than those in less preferred sites.
The construction of winter nests was strictly seasonal, but their decay was gradual, with rapid deterioration at the end of the winter. About 30% of nests persisted till the following winter, though were not re-occupied.
Over half of the nests built were occupied for one month or less, though some were in continuous use for up to six months. New nests were built even in midwinter, but the likelihood of their being occupied immediately was affected by the weather. Hedgehogs rarely shared a nest, though empty nests were sometimes taken over by small mammals or Hymenoptera.
Most hedgehogs that died in their nests during winter were juveniles perhaps too inexperienced to construct an adequately protective nest.
The importance of the nest in a hedgehog's life, particularly during hibernation may be a significant feature in determining both its distribution and its habitat choice.
Analysis of habitat use based on radio-tagged animals presents difficulties inadequately addressed by current methods. Areas of concern are sampling level, data pooling across individuals, non-independence of habitat proportions, differential habitat use by groups of animals, and arbitrary definition of habitat availability. We advocate proportional habitat use by individual animals as a basis for analysis. Hypothesis testing of such nonstandard multivariate data is done by compositional analysis, which encompasses all MANOVA/MANCOVA-type linear models. The applications to habitat use range from testing for age class, effects or seasonal differences, to examining relationships with food abundance or home range size. We take as an example the comparison of habitat use and availability. The concepts are explained and demonstrated on two data sets, illustrating different methods of treating missing values. We compare utilized with available habitats in two stages, examining home range selection within the overall study area first, then habitat use within the home range. At each stage, assuming that use differs from random, habitats can be ranked according to relative use, and significant between-rank differences located. Compositional analysis is also suited to the analysis of time budgets or diets.
When measured by extent and intensity, urbanization is one of the most homogenizing of all major human activities. Cities homogenize the physical environment because they are built to meet the relatively narrow needs of just one species, our own. Also, cities are maintained for centuries in a disequilibrium state from the local natural environment by the importation of vast resources of energy and materials. Consequently, as cities expand across the planet, biological homogenization increases because the same “urban-adaptable” species become increasingly widespread and locally abundant in cities across the planet. As urbanization often produces a local gradient of disturbance, one can also observe a gradient of homogenization. Synanthropic species adapted to intensely modified built habitats at the urban core are “global homogenizers”, found in cities worldwide. However, many suburban and urban fringe habitats are occupied by native species that become regionally widespread. These suburban adapters typically consist of early successional plants and “edge” animal species such as mesopredator mammals, and ground-foraging, omnivorous and frugivorous birds that can utilize gardens, forest fragments and many other habitats available in the suburbs. A basic conservation challenge is that urban biota is often quite diverse and very abundant. The intentional and unintentional importation of species adapted to urban habitats, combined with many food resources imported for human use, often produces local species diversity and abundance that is often equal to or greater than the surrounding landscape. With the important exception of low-income areas, urban human populations often inhabit richly cultivated suburban habitats with a relatively high local floral and faunal diversity and/or abundance without awareness of the global impoverishment caused by urbanization. Equally challenging is that, because so many urban species are immigrants adapting to city habitats, urbanites of all income levels become increasingly disconnected from local indigenous species and their natural ecosystems. Urban conservation should therefore focus on promoting preservation and restoration of local indigenous species.
The human population is increasingly disconnected from nature due to urbanisation. To counteract this phenomenon, the UK government has been actively promoting wildlife gardening. However, the extent to which such activities are conducted and the level of resource provision for biodiversity (e.g., food and nesting sites) within domestic gardens remains poorly documented. Here we generate estimates for a selection of key resources provided within gardens at a national scale, using 12 survey datasets gathered across the UK. We estimate that 22.7 million households (87% of homes) have access to a garden. Average garden size is 190 m2, extrapolating to a total area of 432,924 ha. Although substantial, this coverage is still an order of magnitude less than that of statutory protected areas. Approximately 12.6 million (48%) households provide supplementary food for birds, 7.4 million of which specifically use bird feeders. Similarly, there are a minimum of 4.7 million nest boxes within gardens. These figures equate to one bird feeder for every nine potentially feeder-using birds in the UK, and at least one nest box for every six breeding pairs of cavity nesting birds. Gardens also contain 2.5–3.5 million ponds and 28.7 million trees, which is just under a quarter of all trees occurring outside woodlands. Ongoing urbanisation, characterised by increased housing densities, is inevitable throughout the UK and elsewhere. The important contribution domestic gardens make to the green space infrastructure in residential areas must be acknowledged, as their reduction will impact biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and the well-being of the human population.
Traffic collisions can be a major source of mortality in wild populations, and animals may be expected to exhibit behavioral mechanisms that reduce the risk associated with crossing roads. Animals living in urban areas in particular have to negotiate very dense road networks, often with high levels of traffic flow. We examined traffic-related mortality of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the city of Bristol, UK, and the extent to which roads affected fox activity by comparing real and randomly generated patterns of movement. There were significant seasonal differences in the number of traffic-related fox deaths for different age and sex classes; peaks were associated with periods when individuals were likely to be moving through unfamiliar terrain and would have had to cross major roads. Mortality rates per unit road length increased with road magnitude. The number of roads crossed by foxes and the rate at which roads were crossed per hour of activity increased after midnight when traffic flow was lower. Adults and juveniles crossed 17% and 30% fewer roads, respectively, than expected from randomly generated movement. This highly mobile species appeared to reduce the mortality risk of minor category roads by changing its activity patterns, but it remained vulnerable to the effects of larger roads with higher traffic flows during periods associated with extraterritorial movements. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.
Wild bird feeding is one of the most common forms of human-wildlife interactions in the Western world. Originally a practice providing nutritional assistance to over-wintering birds, especially in more northern latitudes, birds throughout the cities of the world are now provided with considerable amounts and a variety of foods year-round. Despite the global nature of the practice, remarkably little is known about the outcomes and implications of what may be seen as a supplementary feeding experiment on a massive scale. Although many claims are made about the benefits of feeding, there are growing concerns about the spread of disease, poor nutrition, risk of dependency and many other important issues. Constructive debate among increasingly vigorous proponents and opponents is currently constrained by a lack of reliable information. Here we argue that bird feeding provides an important, if challenging, opportunity for fundamental research in urban ecology.
The social and spatial organization of urban fox groups prior to and during an outbreak of sarcoptic mange was compared with predictions derived from the resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH). We investigated the availability of three key resources. Neither daytime rest sites nor breeding sites appeared to be limited in availability. The availability of food deliberately supplied by local householders was examined by questionnaire surveys. The daily and weekly amount of food supplied was greatly in excess of the minimum requirements of a pair of foxes, but was consistent between territories. The availability of this food source increased markedly as a result of more people feeding the foxes. In agreement with the RDH, group size prior to the outbreak of mange increased from 2.25 animals (N=4) to 6.57 animals (N=7). Before the outbreak of mange, two territories were divided. Increased scavenge availability on smaller territories may have promoted these changes. Excluding these spatial changes, territories were very stable between years. After the outbreak of mange, group size declined as a direct result of mange-induced mortality. Surviving animals increased their ranges only after neighbouring groups had died out. Ranges did not increase in size in response to a decline in food availability. Nor were the increases in range size associated with the relinquishment of parts of the existing territory. These postmange changes are contrary to the RDH. Three factors may have promoted these changes: the elimination of interstitial space, the forced dispersal of young or future division of the territory. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Supplementary food given to birds can have contemporary effects by reducing the risk of starvation, increasing survival and altering movements and reproductive performance. There is, however, a widely held perception that birds benefit from extra food over winter, but that it is better that they 'look after themselves' during breeding. Here we describe a landscape-scale experiment showing for the first time that the effects of increasing food availability only during the winter can be carried over to the subsequent breeding season. Even though food supplementation stopped six weeks prior to breeding, birds living on sites provisioned over winter had advanced laying dates and increased fledging success compared with birds living on unprovisioned sites. Thus, supplemental feeding of wild birds during winter, in a manner mimicking householders provisioning in gardens and backyards, has the potential to alter bird population dynamics by altering future reproductive performance. With levels of bird feeding by the public continuing to increase, the impacts of this additional food supply on wild bird populations may be considerable.
Urban areas are hot spots that drive environmental change at multiple scales. Material demands of production and human consumption alter land use and cover, biodiversity, and hydrosystems locally to regionally, and urban waste discharge affects local to global biogeochemical cycles and climate. For urbanites, however, global environmental changes are swamped by dramatic changes in the local environment. Urban ecology integrates natural and social sciences to study these radically altered local environments and their regional and global effects. Cities themselves present both the problems and solutions to sustainability challenges of an increasingly urbanized world.
De récentes recherches suggèrent que le nécessaire compromis entre le besoin de maximiser l’ingestion de nourriture et celui de minimiser au mieux le risque de prédation entraîne, chez beaucoup d’espèces, des comportements indiquant qu’elles perçoivent le risque de prédation, ce qui les amène à «fourrager » à couvert ou en groupe. Les hérissons sauvages que nous avons suivis par radio-pistage dans le Comté d’Oxford n’ont pas présenté de tels comportements, bien qu’ils soient souvent victimes de blaireaux. L’analyse des déplacements de ces hérissons permet de clarifier la nature du conflit entre ces deux membres d’une même guilde d’insectivores-omnivores, et d’apprécier l’efficacité des différentes réponses comportementales des hérissons.
1. Observations on the behaviour and movements of 11 foxes from seven neighbouring groups in an urban area of Bristol were combined with post-mortem data on levels of bite wounding throughout the entire Bristol fox population to quantify the importance of encounters in the maintenance of group cohesion and territory, and to address the social subordination hypothesis (Christian 1970) regarding dispersal behaviour. 2. Inter-group encounters were uncommon and almost always aggressive, and occurred significantly more often in the winter months, when resident males trespassed into neighbouring ranges. Each fox had on average 0.77 inter-group encounters each day in winter, compared with 0.05 0.23 in spring, summer and autumn. 3. Foxes from neighbouring groups practised avoidance at close quarters, which suggests that direct encounters are a relatively unimportant means of territory defence. 4. Intra-group encounters were predominantly non-aggressive and constant in frequency throughout the year. A daily average of 2.08 intra-group encounters was recorded for each individual. Radio-collared adults rarely lay up together during the day. 5. Foxes from mated pairs came within 50 m of each other with a significantly greater frequency than was predicted from a simulation model based on statistical distributions formed by real movement parameters. This suggests that direct encounters are important in intra-group communication. 6. The highest incidence of fresh bite wounds on adult males occurred in winter and spring, coincident with the dispersal and mating periods. Total fighting injuries on animals in their first year also increased in the dispersal period from a low level in the summer. These observations are consistent with the predictions of the social subordination hypothesis.
Spatial relations between coyotes (Canis latrans) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) on a area in North Dakota were studied during 1977-78. Coyote families occupied large (x̄ = 61.2 km2), relatively exclusive territories that encompassed about one-half of the study area. Fox families occupied much smaller (x̄ = 11.9 km2), relatively exclusive, territories that overlapped perimeters of coyote territories and/or encompassed area unoccupied by coyotes. No fox family lived totally within a coyote territory, but 3 fox families lived within the home range of an unattached yearling male coyote. Both coyotes and foxes, from families with overlapping territories, tended to use their overlap areas less than was expected by amount of overlap. Encounters between radio-equipped coyotes and foxes from families with overlapping territories occurred less often than was expected by chance. Foxes living near coyotes exhibited considerable tenacity to their territories, and no monitored fox was killed by coyotes during 2,518 fox-days of radio surveillance. A hypothesis for coyote-induced fox population declines, based largely on fox avoidance mechanisms, is presented.
We compared condition of endangered San Joaquin kit foxes (Vulpes macrotis mutica) between an urban population in Bakersfield, California (BAK), and a nearby exurban population at the Naval Petroleum Reserves in California (NPRC). Our objective was to determine whether differences between urban and exurban environments, particularly food availability and disease vectors, were reflected in kit fox condition. Body mass, blood chemistry, and prevalence of viral antibodies were assessed at both sites in 1988 and 1989. Body mass was higher for BAK kit foxes, particularly juveniles, and varied between years for NPRC kit foxes. Higher red blood cell count (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) among NPRC kit foxes were indicative of hemoconcentration, probably resulting from dehydration associated with low food or water intake. Kit foxes from NPRC exhibited higher blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and lower cholesterol (CHOL) levels compared to BAK kit foxes. These results may have reflected dietary differences, but they possibly indicated tissue catabolism by NPRC kit foxes due to nutritional deprivation. Other serological data also suggested nutritional stress among NPRC kit foxes. Prevalence of antibodies to canine parvovirus (CPV), canine distemper (CD), and infectious canine hepatitus (ICH) was similar between populations. Food availability for kit foxes at NPRC was relatively low during 1988-89 due to drought conditions, but food probably was not a limiting factor at BAK due to abundant water and the presence of anthropogenic foods. Urban environments may provide certain advantages for San Joaquin kit foxes and could contribute to conservation and recovery efforts.
Every year, millions of households provide huge quantities of supplementary food to wild birds. While alteration of the natural dynamics of food supply represents a major intervention in avian ecology, we have a remarkably limited understanding of the impacts of this widespread pastime. Here, we examine the many and varied responses of birds to supplementary feeding at backyard feeders - in large-scale management projects and in focused academic studies - and evaluate population responses to the bird-feeding phenomenon. Our review encompasses a wide range of species, from songbirds to raptors, and compares provisioning with a variety of foods, at different times of year and in different locations. We consider positive impacts, such as aiding species conservation programs, and negative ones, such as increased risk of disease transmission. It seems highly likely that natural selection is being artificially perturbed, as feeding influences almost every aspect of bird ecology, including reproduction, behavior, demography, and distribution. As the effects of bird feeding cascade through ecosystems and interact with processes of environmental change, we suggest areas for future research and highlight the need for large-scale experiments, with a particular focus on the backyards of an increasingly urban and generous, but sometimes fickle, human population.