Behavioral responses by an apex predator to urbanization

E Hance Ellington and Stanley D Gehrt

Behavioral Ecology, 2019, vol. 30, issue 3, 821-829

Abstract: Wildlife can respond to urbanization positively (synanthropic) or negatively (misanthropic), and for some species, this is a nonlinear process, whereby low levels of urbanization elicit a positive response, but this response becomes negative at high levels of urbanization. We applied concepts from foraging theory to predict positive and negative behavioral responses of coyotes (Canis latrans) along an urbanization gradient in the Chicago metropolitan area, USA. We estimated home range size and complexity, and metrics of 3 movement behaviors (encamped, foraging, and traveling) using Hidden Markov movement models. We found coyotes exhibited negative behavioral responses to highly urbanized landscapes: coyotes viewed the landscape as lower quality, riskier, and more fragmented (home range size and complexity, and time spent encamped increased). Conversely, we found evidence of both positive and negative responses to suburban landscapes: coyotes not only viewed the landscape as higher quality than natural fragments and equally risky, but also viewed it as fragmented (home range size decreased, time spent encamped did not change, and home range complexity increased). Although the spatial and behavioral responses of coyotes to urbanization became increasingly negative as urbanization increased, coyotes were still able to occupy highly urbanized landscapes. Our study demonstrates how wildlife behavioral responses can be dependent on the degree of urbanization and represents one of the first descriptions of apex predator space use and movement in a highly urbanized landscape.

Keywords: Chicago; coyote (Canis latrans); foraging; home range; movement behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arz019 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:30:y:2019:i:3:p:821-829.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().