AUTHORS: Stephen Blake, Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, WildCare Institute, Saint Louis Zoo.
Sharon L. Deem, Institute for Conservation Medicine, Saint Louis Zoo.
Jamie Palmer, Institute for Conservation Medicine, Saint Louis Zoo.
Jeff Meshach, World Bird Sanctuary.
Stanton Braude, Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis.
Amy Witt, Forest Park Forever.
August Wise, Saint Louis University.
Anthony I. Dell, National Great Rivers Research and Education Center.
Stella F. Uiterwaal, Living Earth Collaborative, Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, Institute for Conservation Medicine, Saint Louis Zoo, National Great Rivers Research and Education Center.
ABSTRACT: Catastrophic native ecosystem degradation is usually a consequence of urban expansion. However, urban areas can support some elements of native biodiversity with benefits for conservation and human health. Understanding the ecology of urban biodiversity is increasingly important in a rapidly urbanizing world. Species responses to urbanization vary enormously from rapid local extinction to population expansion, with responses often strongly correlated with life history traits. Among animals, “urban adapters” often have r selected traits, such as small body size, high fecundity, and generalist niches. Long lived, large-bodied organisms with low fecundity tend to experience population declines and high local extinction probability under urbanization. Mobility can govern animals’ ability to exploit high-quality habitats and disperse out of poor-quality habitats. City parks are often mosaics of intense human use and semi-natural areas. They can function as urban biodiversity hotspots, which provides opportunities to understand the movement ecology of animals within urban communities. Over the last three years, we have fitted GPS and radio tracking tags to individuals from 15 species of animals in Forest Park, St. Louis. Additionally, we have acquired human mobility data from anonymous smart phone tracking within the park. We mapped habitat characteristics including vegetation and human footprint metrics across the city. We characterized animal movement strategies and habitat use using net squared displacement and resource selection functions. Forest Park wildlife displays all major movement strategies including residence, dispersal, nomadism and migration. Species’ responses to the human footprint varied dramatically from strongly negative, mostly among low mobility terrestrial omnivores, to strongly positive among highly mobile terrestrial and avian predators. Mortality was high among these species. This first quantitative window into the movement ecology of an urban animal community provokes myriad research and management questions and implications, demanding more extensive applied research to influence urban planning policy.
