Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN): A multi-city approach to urban wildlife research

Background/Question/Methods - Urbanization is one of the most prominent forces altering landscapes worldwide. Consequently, many wildlife species inhabit urban landscapes and co-exist with human populations. Most research to date that examines urban wildlife is based on data from a single city. This limited scope prevents us from revealing broader – even global – patterns regarding urban wildlife and the impacts of the human altered landscape. In this study, we present a multi-city approach, the Urban Wildlife Information Network, designed to monitor urban wildlife with the objective of overcoming these limitations and revealing first principles regarding urban wildlife ecology and behavior. We positioned motion sensitive cameras along urban to rural transects in seven cities (Denver and Fort Collins CO, Austin TX, Manhattan KS, Iowa City IA, Chicago IL, and Indianapolis IN) in the United States. We followed the same protocolin each city for site selection and the timing and positioning of cameras across the landscape. Sites encompassed a range of urban green spaces, including city parks, golf courses, cemeteries, and nature preserves. We report here patterns associated with the July 2017 deployment of the cameras where a total of 316 cameras collected more than 75,000 images.

Results/Conclusions - Twenty-seven mammalian species were detected across the seven cities, with a median of 14 (SD = 1.51) species/city. Six species (coyote Canis latrans, eastern cottontail Sylvilagus floridanus, fox squirrel Sciurus niger, Virginia opossum Didelphis virginiana, white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus, and raccoon Procyon lotor) were detected in all cities surveyed. Despite this suite of common species, when we calculated Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and applied a k-means partition to classify cities, six distinct assemblages were identified from the seven cities, with Chicago IL and Manhattan KS grouped together and each other city placed in its own group. The proportion of sites that the most common species occupied was a function of both geographic location and human population density. Cities with higher human population density had reduced detection of fox squirrels and raccoons and increased detection of coyotes. Increased latitude had a significant positive effect on detection of raccoons, eastern cottontails, and fox squirrels, and a negative effect on coyote detection. This preliminary analysis points to the value of information gained from a multi-city network with regard to understanding broad scale trends for urban wildlife and ultimately for informing policy decisions that affect human wildlife interactions in urban areas.