How animals can survive in cities
Published: Thursday, Nov 23rd 2023, 12:00
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Animals have different strategies for surviving in cities. In a new study in the journal "Nature Communications", an international research team with Swiss participation investigated these strategies of wild urban animals.
The findings could help to support biodiversity in cities, as the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) announced on Thursday.
For Switzerland, the researchers suggest in the WSL press release that cities should be more densely populated, but that sufficient green spaces should be planned. For example, roofs could be increasingly greened. According to the researchers, connections between different green spaces are also important.
As part of an international research consortium, WSL researchers analyzed data on the physique, reproduction and diet of various animal species from 379 cities on 6 continents. The animal species studied included bees, ground beetles, birds, bats, amphibians and reptiles.
Generalists and specialists
They found four different strategies that enable animals to survive in cities. Firstly, there are the "mobile generalists" such as bats and ground beetles, which are not restricted to a specific food source and can travel long distances.
The researchers had expected to find mainly generalists in the cities, according to the WSL. However, they also found animals that spend their lives in one area and specialize in the food available there. The so-called "site specialists" include amphibians and reptiles. According to the WSL, these are highly endangered in cities due to pollution and the loss of their habitats.
The third group are "site generalists" such as wild bees and birds, which live in one place but are not picky about where they feed. Finally, the researchers suspect the existence of "mobile specialists" that have specialized in a particular food source but travel great distances to find it. However, they did not observe these directly in the study.
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