Urban mammals

Urban areas are predicted to grow significantly in future with increased human population growth resulting in increased urbanisation. However our understanding of how urbanisation affects wildlife, such as mammals, is currently limited in the UK. Urbanisation can be beneficial to some species that can adapt to it, but be detrimental to others that cannot tolerate habitat change. Those that benefit from urban habitats can increase in numbers, compete for resources and cause damage and disturbance that can lead to human-wildlife conflict in urban areas.

For humans and urban mammals to coexist in urban areas we need a better understanding of urban mammal ecology and how people can coexist with mammals in urban habitats. Our goal is to provide a better scientific understanding of urban mammal ecology and to engage urban stakeholders in monitoring and understanding urban mammals for the benefit of all.

Project aims

There are multiple aspects to the study:

  • To investigate the impact of urban landscape structure and human activities, such as feeding, deterrents, encouragements, pets, garden features and garden management on urban fox, badger and hedgehog presence, activity and density.
  • To understand what drivers affect public attitudes, with the purpose of developing information, or informing mitigation approaches to help reduce human-wildlife conflict and promote human wildlife coexistence.
  • To determine the national distribution of urban mammals and what factors affect presence, abundance and density in different cities at different spatial scales.
  • To determine space use by wildlife and domestic mammals in urban areas to determine to what degree the species interact and what factors predict such interactions.
  • To determine to impact of urban mammals (foxes and hedgehogs) rehabilitation on the behaviour and survival of urban mammals.

Project findings and impact

  • Multi-species data at different spatial scales allow us to determine what landscape features affect the presence, abundance and distribution of urban mammals. This information for example can inform who best to manage urban landscapes for the benefit of species of conservation concern or manage areas to reduce human-wildlife conflict.
  • Spatial data is informing us of how different species utilise the urban landscapes and what features in the landscape influence their behaviour.
  • Our data on attitude shows how negative incidents can affect attitude. We also have information of the occurrence of different types of conflict so can identify major issues and come up with solutions to reduce incidents and conflict overall.
  • National distribution data allows us to determine the current status of the geographical distribution of urban mammals and how that has changed over time. Our data has shown that more cities have foxes than compared to 30 years ago.
  • A comparison of the behaviour of released rehabilitated foxes compared to wild foxes will help us to understand the welfare implications of rehabilitation when release back into their social group.
  • Hedgehog overwinter survival will inform guidelines of when to over-wintering hedgehogs in captivity and the best course of action to maximise over-winter survival.

Research team

Dr Dawn Scott

Dr Bryony Tolhurst

Dr Maureen Berg

Dr Niall Burnside

PhD/MRes students:

  • Kate Davies
  • Christina Kimbrough
  • Naomi Charman
  • Heather Hughes
  • Heidi Karlsson
  • Rashad New
  • Nicholas Abery
  • Rowenna Baker
  • Louise Mandry.

Outputs

PLOS ONE 9(6):e99059 doi:20/1371/journal.pone.0099059

Federico Ossi, Stefano Focardi, Gianpietro Picco, Amy Murphy, Davide Molteni, Bryony Tolhurst, Noemi Giannini, Jean-Michel Gaillard and Francesca Cagnacci (2016) Understanding and geo-referencing animal contacts: proximity sensor networks integrated with GPS-based telemetry. Animal Biotelemetry 4:21 DOI 10.1186/s40317-016-0111-x

Bryony Tolhurst, Heather Hughes, Adam Grogan and Dawn Scott (2016) Effects of temporary captivity on ranging behaviour in urban red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 181, 182-190. DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2016.05.004

Partners

Dr Philip Baker (University of Reading)

Dr Richard Yarnell (Nottingham Trent University)

Dr Aileen Mills (University of Newcastle

Dr Graham Smith (AHVLA)

Dr Alienor Chauvet (AHVLA)

Earthwatch Institute

Windfall Films

BBC

Channel 4

RSPCA