Habitat fragmentation and destruction is one of the primary drivers of extinction and species’ endangerment in today’s ever-evolving world. With impervious surfaces becoming very prevalent as urban areas continue to grow and sprawl, animals are left without safe passageways within urban settings. One solution that has gained traction and support are ecological corridors. Ecological corridors or wildlife corridors are physical green spaces that are protected from surrounding human development that allow for a natural passageway between dangerous environments such as highways, cities, and other development.

One study in France in 2020 wanted to test the efficacy of these corridors through various least-cost paths (LCPs) that both reduce cost of development of a corridor with success-rate of a well-used corridor by wildlife. This study was done primarily using mark-release-recapture (MRR) methods for moths, and using audio playback of calls for passerines to get a broader scope of data for determining future landscape planning decisions for wildlife corridors.

The study area for this research consisted of two medium-sized cities within France (Rennes and Lens). Both sites were comprised of a rough half and half split between “artificialized surfaces” (man-made structures, developments) and urban green spaces (parks, yards, large medians). The study groups of moths and passerines were carefully picked for both their vulnerability to urban development and their previously noted behaviors with movement across urban settings.

After determining the habitat data for each experimental group, the study modeled a few predictions for effective corridors using LCP models in ArcGIS. In these models, they cross-referenced high density habitats with rough resistance values of the animals to travel/move near specific land types. 

The mark-release-recapture for the moth study group was conducted in 2015 in Lens and 2016 in Rennes, with results primarily relying on the amount of individuals recaptured within specific areas across the city. Additionally, each recapture was replicated three times per area for accuracy.

Then the playback recalls for the passerine study group were conducted from April to May in Lens and 2016 in Rennes. These trials were to test response behavior of passerines to specific areas based on development. The variables for this group were testing how far an individual would fly based on the artificial calls and their response time to the call. 

The data was collected into mixed models to contextualize the connectivity in context with the variables tested of moths and birds to the different levels of urban development. The amount of connectivity was categorized into two different sections, highly connecting contexts (HCCs like green spaces and less developed areas) and less connecting contexts (LCCs like buildings, impervious surfaces, and more developed areas). 

For the moth recapture group, among marked individuals, 77% of them were recaptured in HCC areas and and 23% were recaptured in LCC areas.

For the passerine callback group, 66% of birds had a positive response (significant movement speed and distance moved). Overall, in the HCC areas, it was observed that there was significantly higher movement distance (~84m) and speed on average than in LCC areas (~46m). Additionally, there was a longer delay in response from passerines within LCC areas than in HCC areas. 

The larger results show that moths were 4 times more likely to be recaptured in HCC than in LCC areas. However, the study admits that some likely explanations for this could have been due to the presence of light pollution and habitat fragmentation within the cities when compared to natural habitats. This supported the original hypothesis that natural areas do help to facilitate moth movement and dispersal. Similarly, passerines did travel significantly more in HCC than LCC areas. Also, since passerines reacted quicker in HCC areas, it suggests that they do react quicker with territorial behaviors in more natural settings. This shows that urban matrixes could be contributing to an overall slowing down of both movement and responses from local wildlife. 

For future research, the study suggests that shifting to more small mammals studies in a similar habitat connectivity context could be useful for aggregating data and drawing more connections for urban planners. Additionally, this study included many species from both moths and passerines, and still seeing large trends towards more movement and faster responses in natural settings, showing that this effect is not specialized towards specific species. However they also point out that every single city is going to have a slightly different matrix of developed to non-developed areas, hampering the ability for a blanket-approach to be possible. In future studies and urban planning, specialized research and approaches need to be taken in context to the city they are taking place in. Only broader knowledge of impacted behaviors and movements can be applied across multiple areas for baseline understanding to be built upon.

Balbi, M., Croci, S., Petit, E., Butet, A., Georges, R., Madec, L., Caudal, J. & Ernoult, A., (2020, November 24). Least-cost path analysis for urban greenways planning: A test with moths and birds across two habitats and two cities. Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Pages 632-643, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13800 

Background and Overview:

The increase in human population has led to the increase of urban areas, leading many bird species to develop new ways to thrive under these novel conditions. An important fitness technique is how birds respond to fear stimuli. Black-capped chickadees, a common fixture in urban environments due to their non-migratory nature and success in urban parks and woodlands, have developed new behaviors that include altering vocal and nesting behaviors as well as being tolerant of a noisy environment. This makes them a good candidate to study fear response. Anthropogenic impacts like noise, human presence, and novel objects do not appear to have an impact on chickadee fitness. Because of this, researchers hypothesized that fear responses would decrease with the increase in urbanization.

Methods:

24 feeding stations were set up around Kent County, Michigan, which includes suburban and rural areas as well as a mid sized city (Grand Rapids). All 24 stations were at least one kilometer apart and were located in parks owned by the city of Grand Rapids or by the county. Automatic feeders that dispensed seed at peak foraging hours were utilized. As controls, feeders were observed with no additional stimuli and when a familiar object (a branch) was placed at the feeder. The experimental manipulations were: the presence of a cat model, the presence of a novel object, anthropogenic noise, and human approach. Urbanization was quantified by percent of impervious surfaces, distance from the center of Grand Rapids, land cover breakdown, and road length. Each feeder was observed from a hunting blind for seven minutes, then researchers replenished the seed and added either a branch, cat model, or novel object. When testing noise, pink noise was played at steadily increasing increments while observers recorded the number of chickadees present at regular intervals. Human presence was tested by a researching standing increasingly closer to the feeder and recording the number of visits.

Results
Overall, chickadee visits to feeders increased as urbanization increased across the sample sites. Parks that failed to attract chickadees were at the top end of the urbanization gradient. It was found that the branch had no effect on the number of chickadee visits to a feeder, indicating that the presence of an object alone is not enough to deter birds. With nearly all stimuli, chickadee visits to feeders increased with urbanization, except for the introduction of a model cat. When the cat was introduced, chickadee visits did not change with urbanization; rather, they remained about the same across the gradient. Urbanization also led to a decreased fear of noise stimulation. Cats and increased noise are both common effects of urbanization, yet they have opposite impacts on chickadee fear behaviors.

Reflection and Critiques

It seems to me that chickadees are beginning to exhibit less fear response to human-caused effects of urbanization, like noise and the presence of people. I think this is likely because people generally aren’t a threat to chickadees- unlike cats, which are very much a danger. It makes sense to me that heightened fear response towards an increased feline presence would happen in urban areas. I would like to know how realistic the fake cat was, because I’m not sure how much a toy cat really looks like a real cat to birds. This doesn’t seem to have an impact on the study, however. I honestly don’t have a lot to critique; this study was well-planned, very thought out, and did a good job minimizing the impact of any outside variables. My one gripe is that I found the way they graphed the results to be somewhat difficult to follow; it was a very statistical analysis-heavy approach, and I am not exactly a shining example of a statistician. They also only graphed results for two of the experimental variables (cat presence and noise) and I would have liked to see more visualizations of the results. Overall, though, I found this to be an interesting and well-done study.

Van Donselaar, J.L., Atma, J.L., Kruyf, Z.A. et al. Urbanization alters fear behavior in black-capped chickadees. Urban Ecosyst 21, 1043–1051 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0783-5

Overview

Human-Wildlife interactions are becoming increasingly common in urban areas. People are particularly concerned about interactions with carnivores, such as urban foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Urban foxes are often described as “bold” or “fearless,” but this study challenges that idea by breaking down what “boldness” actually means. In this study, the authors focus on two key behaviors: neophobia, which is the fear of new things, and wariness, which is the fear of potential threats. The authors then explored how these traits vary depending on a fox’s social status. They wanted to know whether dominance within a group, rather than city living itself, shapes how foxes behave around unfamiliar or risky situations.

Methods

The study was conducted in northwest Bristol, England, an area with a well-documented history of urban fox research. Six fox social groups were observed across residential neighborhoods, each with its own territory. Within each territory, researchers worked with homeowners who already fed foxes, setting up small experimental arenas in their backyards. This approach increased visitation rates and allowed for consistent observations without drastically altering the foxes’ normal behavior.

Two main experiments were designed to measure different responses. The first was a novelty test, which measureed neophobia. During this test, a shiny reflective garden ornament was placed near a food source to represent an unfamiliar object. The second tested wariness, introducing a line soaked in wolf urine, a scent cue meant to simulate a natural predator. These experiments were conducted during two 20-day periods: one in late November and early December, and another in May, to test for possible seasonal effects. Food was placed in the arena each evening to attract foxes, and all activity was recorded using motion-sensitive cameras positioned to capture multiple angles.

Researchers identified individual foxes by their distinct markings, scars, and tail shapes, and ranked them as either dominant or subordinate based on observed interactions. Dominant foxes typically controlled territory use and access to food, while subordinates tended to be younger, lower-ranking individuals. The team recorded each fox’s hesitation time, level of alertness, time spent feeding, and frequency of entries into the test area. They then analyzed these behaviors using principal components analysis (PCA) and linear mixed models to look for patterns between social status, season, and social context (foraging alone or with others).

Results

The study found that dominant foxes were more cautious, showing higher levels of both neophobia and wariness. They approached new or threatening objects more slowly and displayed longer periods of vigilance. Subordinate foxes were more exploratory and willing to take risks, likely due to their lower access to food and greater need to forage widely. When foxes were observed with others, both dominants and subordinates were less fearful, suggesting that social presence reduces perceived risk. Season had no significant effect, meaning social structure was the strongest factor shaping behavior.

Discussion

These results suggest that the “bold” foxes people often see near homes or gardens are usually subordinates taking greater risks to survive, not animals evolving to be braver, which is important for wildlife management. Actions like culling, which remove dominant individuals, can break up social groups and lead to an increase in subordinate foxes.

Critical Analysis

I thought the authors of this paper did a good job linking fox behavior to social structure and challenging the idea that urban foxes are simply “getting bolder.” However, I feel like the novelty test could have been more controlled as the ornament used moved in the wind and reflected light, which likely triggered several reactions at once, making it hard to tell what actually caused the foxes’ hesitation. Another limitation is that all testing occurred in feeding backyards, where foxes were already comfortable around people. Including non-feeding sites would make results more representative of typical urban fox behavior.

Reference

Padovani, R., Shi, Z., & Harris, S. (2021). Are British urban foxes (Vulpes vulpes) “bold”? The importance of understanding human–wildlife interactions in urban areas. Ecology and Evolution, 11(2), 835–851. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7087

Intro: This study was conducted to explore the barriers to collaboration in the context of a deer crisis in the Scottish Highlands, where deer numbers in 2008 were higher than at any time in recorded history. The researchers explored the role of recreational hunters in government mandated lethal control. Using both qualitative and quantitative analyses, they determined that hunting traditions, and personal preferences, reinforced by antipathy toward conservations and land stewards were the major barriers to hunters shooting more deer each season.

Methods: MacMillan and Leitch as discussed earlier, used both qualitative and quantitative methods to determine attitudes towards this emotionally heated issue. They started with a mail survey to individual sporting estate owners, and followed that with a series of interviews with selected owners. They selected 172 estates out of 300 options.

Results: MacMillan & Leitch found that estate owners had nuanced perceptions of their role in the ecosystem, and the role of their land on conservation management. They found that most of their surveyed individuals owned the estates for personal as opposed to business reasons, and that they saw themselves as caretakers of the land. They perceived high deer populations as an indicator of healthy ecosystems, and were mainly focused on maximizing trophy stag quality for sport and prestige. (This is foundational literature for what would come to be known as QDM, or quality deer management.) Overall, they found that estate management was shaped by culture, lifestyle, and social identity even more so than ecology or economics, and that conflict persists between private estate culture and public conservation agendas.

Management implications: In order to meet conservation goals, management agencies must increase hunting substantially, and consistently. Estate landowners prefer “soft” incentives like grants and marketing as opposed to taxes and regulation. Owners were also enthusiastic about venison marketing as a way to increase hunting but this is unlikely to succeed in the researchers opinion due to a various economic reasons. Additionally, British sport hunting culture historically has disdain for “hunting for the pot”, meat focused hunting is seen as unsporting or greedy. In order to combat these things, conservationists and agency workers must engage more positively with landowners, and human dimensions will play a large role in the success or failure of those efforts.

Overview:
Chronic wasting disease has become an increasing concern for white-tailed deer in the U.S. Along with this, urban deer densities have risen as more areas are urbanized and deer populations grow. This leads to an aggregation of deer, as they have smaller spaces to occupy around human residential communities and gardens. CWD is transmitted at highest frequencies when there is high traffic of deer over one area. Storm Et. Al. researched the connection between deer density, landscape features, and soil clay content with chronic wasting disease transmission. The study was conducted on young white-tailed deer, less than 2 years old, in Wisconsin.

Methods:
They conducted this study in areas nearby reported CWD outbreaks. They collected samples from lymph nodes of harvested deer by hunters. Registration, including the location of deer harvested, was mandatory. Most deer were harvested in fall, giving them 1.5 years of potential exposure time. Helicopter counts were used to estimate deer density in research areas. Data from the National Land Cover Database and data from NRCS Survey Spatial and Tabular Data around the CWD core areas were used for landscape and clay soil content connections.

Results:
Their findings actually showed that traditional density models did not have a linear correlation with CWD cases. They did find a positive relationship between deciduous forest landcover and CWD cases.

Discussion:
They stated that the social dynamics of yearling deer are likely too complex for density relationships to predict CWD transmission. Social dynamics are matriarchical at young ages, and circles change throughout a deer’s life, meaning deer are interacting in large webs. However, deciduous forest cover was a reliable predictor, likely due to high use of these spaces by deer.

Critical Analysis:
They looked at a lot of factors that could contribute to CWD transmission, but did not focus in on one. I feel like there were a lot of lurking variables in this study, and there could be some answers missed. Mostly, I think it’s worth looking specifically at deer density by comparing a wildland area with an urban/suburban area. That might produce clearer results on the relationship between deer density and disease prevalence. However, I recognize that the limitation here is the culling of deer for sampling in urban/suburban spaces.

Overview and Background: 

For many pond-breeding species like the Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), they rely on mass migration events once a year to facilitate breeding. This large migration usually spans over a couple of months out of the year, depending on where you are. Many scientists have tried to correlate the timing and magnitude of migratory movements with a series of covariates; however, success has varied. Spotted Salamanders may travel up to a quarter of a mile to pond breeding sites–many of which are accessed via road crossing. Having the ability to predict when these mass migrations will be is critical given that road mortality proves to be one of the largest threats to pond breeding species.  This study assesses the role of citizen science in compliment with a case study evaluating how volunteer intensity, frequency, and distribution influence minimum population size, population growth rate, and years to extinction of the Spotted Salamander. 

Methods: 

To evaluate how volunteer participation in amphibian “road rescue” citizen science programs affects Spotted Salamander conservation, the authors used a stochastic population simulation model. Rescue efforts were all in an effort to help amphibians safely cross the road during their annual breeding migration. For example, volunteers might patrol certain segments of the road near breeding ponds, picking up salamanders and carrying them across the road. They modeled a single Spotted Salamander population in the northeastern U.S over 50 years, incorporating demographic structure, breeding probabilities, road mortality probabilities, and forest and pond survival rates.  In addition, they created over 360 unique volunteer strategies, including parameters such as intensity, frequency, and distribution.  The figure below illustrates the Spotted Salamander annual migration cycle between forest habitat and breeding ponds with a yellow line representing a road. The different buckets represent when volunteers can intervene (1) adult in-migration to ponds in early spring, (2) adult out-migration after breeding, and (3) metamorph out-migration from ponds to forest in midsummer. 

Results: 

Almost all volunteer strategies improved conservation outcomes compared to the baseline of doing nothing. Populations with rescue events had larger minimum population sizes, higher growth rates, and longer times to extinction while focusing on juvenile migrations yielded the greatest improvement. They determined that the optimal strategy entailed 10 volunteers per night during all migratory nights. That being said, lower volunteer numbers still achieved higher results than doing nothing. 

Reflections and Critiques:

 Understanding how to navigate pond-breeding species that rely on a couple months out of the year to survive and reproduce is complicated, especially in urban areas where developments are encroaching upon these ponds. Overall, metamorphs (juveniles) have the largest payoff for long-term conservation given these are such long-lived species and timing matters. You can have as many volunteers as possible out at once, but if you do not understand when the conditions are right, you may not be benefiting many of these amphibian species. After reading this paper, I find it obvious that steps need to be taken to understand the environmental variables that correlate with these migratory events to perfect the timing of efforts being made. I know papers have been written doing so, but it is extremely difficult given that these events vary year to year. Depending on the amount of rainfall, the consistency of the rainfall, and the temperatures, migratory events might be delayed or even come early. These events take months of organization and planning to ensure volunteers are available and understand what they are doing. It is difficult to plan around something that is highly variable. That being said, some help is better than no help, but it is far more complicated than training a group of people to scoop up some salamanders in the rain. 

Reference: Sterrett, S. C., Katz, R. A., Fields, W. R., & Grant, E. H. C. (2019). The contribution of road-based citizen science to the conservation of pond-breeding amphibians. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56(4), 988–995. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13330

Background and Overview:

As the amount of urban area increases, habitat fragmentation becomes a bigger and bigger issue for many species. Crayfish are important members of aquatic ecosystems; they serve as a source of food for many other species, they are efficient detritivores, and their tunneling behavior can heavily influence the banks and beds of the streams they live in. They are also suffering from a worldwide decline in population, due primarily to a combination of habitat fragmentation and the introduction of invasive species of crayfish. This study primarily focuses on how culverts in rivers and streams affect two native populations of crayfish in Michigan, Orconectes virilis and Orconectes propinquus and their invasive counterpart, Orconectes rusticus. If O. rusticus is better able to traverse culverts than native crayfish, these barriers would allow O. rusticus to outcompete native species, further contributing to their possible extinction.

Methods:

The area of study for this project was the Carp Lake and Maple River watersheds located in Northern Michigan. Water velocity of 26 culverts at 11 different road crossings was measured and compared to water velocity ~50 meters upstream from the crossing. Velocity was measured 5mm above the stream/culvert bed to accurately reflect conditions that crayfish experience. The only species out of the three that was commonly found near the test culverts was O. propinquus, and its behavior in culverts was measured at three different flow velocities (2, 31, and 42 cm/s). A single crayfish per trial was placed at the starting location and observed for ten minutes or until it moved a meter away. Its location was marked every 30 seconds as well as the number of times the crayfish slipped as it traveled down the culvert. A “slip” refers to an involuntary movement downstream. Each crayfish was only tested once. To compare all three species to one another, a culvert in the Carp River was chosen, and the same process with O. propinquus was repeated with O. virilis, O. rusticus, and O. propinquus. Conditions were altered in the culvert with the creation of a debris dam upstream. To determine the impedance velocity, or the velocity of water at which the crayfish can no longer travel upstream, a flume was constructed in a lab using a propellor and a rubber mat to mimic conditions in a culvert.

Results:

Flow velocity in culverts was significantly higher than flow velocity in the rivers before the culvert. O. propinquus was found to alter its movements at different flow speeds. No crayfish slipped when the flow velocity was 2 cm/s, and more slipped at 42 cm/s than 31 cm/s. Smaller crayfish took longer to complete the trial at higher velocities than larger crayfish did. In order to test the theory that O. rusticus was better able to cross culverts than its native counterparts, all three crayfish species were tested in a culvert to gauge how successful they were at moving 1 meter in 10 minutes. O. rusticus and O. propinquus had fairly similar success rates and trial times, but O. virilis had a significantly harder time traversing the culverts. However, O. rusticus had an average impedance velocity that was several cm/s higher than that of the other two species. In general, larger crayfish had higher impedance velocities than smaller crayfish did.

Reflection and Critiques:

Overall, it seems like culverts will impede certain crayfish more than others, which is true of all types of aquatic animals. While it doesn’t seem like culverts will lead to the extinction of all native crayfish species, it is concerning that there are varieties of crayfish that fair significantly worse in culverts than others. Since crayfish are fairly limited in the ways they can move (by flipping their tail and crawling) they do have a harder time adapting to conditions in culverts than fish might. Most literature focuses around how freshwater fish can move through culverts, so I think that more research into how benthic organisms are affected is important. It is also difficult to say how crayfish from different parts of the US and different water conditions will be affected. I think that future research into crayfish found in different types of streams might be helpful; crayfish found in fast-flowing water might have a better chance at navigating culverts than those in wider, slower streams. One question that I have pertains to the matter of how crayfish are getting into the culverts. The study mentioned that some culverts were elevated above the river, which seems like it would pose an additional obstacle for crayfish. The study also does not account for dry culverts. Ultimately, I think it’s a good study, there are just a few gaps I think need closing.

Foster, H. R., & Keller, T. A. (2011). Flow in culverts as a potential mechanism of stream fragmentation for native and nonindigenous crayfish species. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 30(4), 1129–1137. https://doi.org/10.1899/10-096.1 

The article I have selected is called “A Review of Urban Wildlife Management from the Animal Personality Perspective: The Case of Urban Deer.” This article focuses on reviewing human-urban wildlife conflicts in Japan and North America, as well as approaches to take animals’ personalities into account to help improve urban-wildlife conflicts. In North America, the most common issues with wildlife in urbanized areas are zoonosis and wildlife-vehicle collisions. Deer are the most problem-causing. The article focuses on understanding the behavior of species and what could be a possible cause of wildlife entering urban areas and causing human-wildlife conflict. Boldness was found to be heritable, which means their ability to not be so shy is a bit genetic. According to studies cited in the article, bolder deer are more likely to enter urban areas, where they can exploit food sources and interact more frequently with humans, increasing the risk of conflict. In Japan, data showed that deer in high-conflict areas were consistently bolder than those in rural regions, suggesting a behavioral link to urban presence. The author suggests considering the genetic components of boldness when searching for control measures. In Japan, bolder deer were found to inhabit urban areas and heavily rely on humans for food, which has led to human-wildlife conflicts. Although there are benefits to continuing to build urban areas while allowing deer to coexist with humans, the idea of selecting for bolder deer, in my opinion, sounds potentially dangerous, as bolder deer could lead to serious problems. By incorporating the concept of animal personality, it opens the door to more targeted, possibly more humane strategies for managing urban wildlife.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969718324112

Overview

The article I chose to review is “Black-tailed deer resource selection reveals some mechanisms behind the ‘luxury effect’ in urban wildlife” by Fisher et al. (2024). The study focuses on how urban deer choose where they live and feed, particularly in relation to wealthier neighborhoods. The “luxury effect” is the idea that richer areas often have more biodiversity, and this study aimed to see how that effect applies to black-tailed deer in Oak Bay, British Columbia. The authors explored whether features like big yards, green lawns, parks, and golf courses were influencing where deer spend their time.

The main goal of this study was to better understand how urban environments are providing food and shelter for deer and how that affects their movements and populations. This is important because as cities grow, interactions between people and deer are becoming more common, sometimes leading to conflicts. By figuring out what attracts deer, city planners and wildlife managers can make better decisions to balance human needs with healthy wildlife populations.

Methods

This research was conducted in Oak Bay, a wealthy neighborhood on Vancouver Island. The study area included residential neighborhoods, parks, golf courses, and the surrounding urban matrix.

Between 2018 and 2019, researchers captured 20 female black-tailed deer and fitted them with GPS collars. These collars collected location data every 13 hours, which allowed the researchers to map where the deer went throughout the year.

They then analyzed which features were most common in the locations the deer chose compared to random points across the landscape. The features they focused on were:

• Lot size (small, medium, or large yards)
• Vegetation greenness (NDVI, which measures how productive and healthy plants are)
• Tree cover
• Proximity to parks and golf courses
• Road density

They also calculated each deer’s home range size using kernel density estimation, which gave a sense of how much space each deer used over time.

Results

The results showed strong evidence for the luxury effect. Large residential lots were the most important factor as deer were over twice as likely to be found in areas with bigger yards. These large lots also tended to have more irrigated gardens and lawns, which gave deer a steady food source.

Deer also preferred areas with greener vegetation, as well as locations near parks and golf courses. These spaces offered both food and cover. Roads, on the other hand, were avoided, which suggests that traffic is still a major deterrent.

Tree cover wasn’t a big factor in whether deer used an area. Because food and water were so easy to find in Oak Bay, the deer had very small home ranges, about a quarter of the size of deer living in wild areas, meaning that the same deer were staying in the same neighborhoods for long periods of time, which could explain why residents report seeing deer frequently.

Critique and Reflection of this Article

I found this article very interesting because it shows that urban design, particularly in wealthier areas, can actually create perfect deer habitat. The authors did a great job using GPS tracking and statistical models to clearly show how lot size and vegetation greenness are influencing deer behavior.

One limitation of the study is that it only focused on female deer, so we don’t know if males are using the landscape in the same way. It also didn’t look at how deer behavior might change across seasons, which could be important for things like fawning or mating.

References

Fisher, J. T., Fuller, H. W., Hering, A., Frey, S., & Fisher, A. C. (2024). Black-tailed deer resource selection reveals some mechanisms behind the ‘luxury effect’ in urban wildlife. Urban Ecosystems, 27, 63–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-023-01428-7