Fardell, L.L.; Pavey, C.R.; Dickman, C.R. Backyard Biomes: Is Anyone There? Improving Public Awareness of Urban Wildlife Activity. Diversity 2022, 14, 263. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14040263

With urbanization increasing, wildlife are increasingly being found in peoples yards and are relying on resources found in these yards. This also exposes wildlife to the effects of yard management, human activities, and impacts from peoples pets. Many people do not realize that their yards act as refuges for many species. This research aimed to provide a background knowledge to citizens about the importance of biodiversity within their lawns and educate them about the species found in their local area.

This study was conducted in two medium-low density urban areas located in Australia. Both of these areas were located near the 534 ha Glenrock State Conservation Area and many green spaces were dispersed throughout the area. Many small native mammal species occupy this area. It was also noted that two introduced mesocanivore species could be found within the study site: the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the domestic cat (Felis catus).

They conducted Household Activity Surveys within the study site to get a better understanding of the yard structures and activites that took place at peoples homes. Yard structure questions focused on the types of plants and grasses that could be found within the yard. The survey also asked questions on whether the yard had fences, flower beds, pavement, etc. They also conducted Backyard Animal Activity Surveys between the months of May-June of 2019 to observe the amount of wildlife present in peoples backyards. To do this they attached camera traps to trees and fences in peoples backyards. Homes with pets that were allowed in the backyard were told to keep letting their pets out as usual.

Out of 50 homes that completed the survey, 41 of these had observed wildlife within their backyards. 24 of the respondents stated that they also had a pet. Every property had a fence, but they type of fence varied from metal to wooden. More than half of them homes used fertilizers or pesticides in the yards.

This graph shows the correlation between wildlife found in peoples backyards and the different variables associated with the data that homeowners selected they have in their yards.

The results from the Backyard Animal Activity Survey showed that most animals were present in peoples backyards at night rather than during the day. The most common species found during night were the common brushtail possum. northern brown bandicoot, and the red fox. Native birds and the domestic cat were frequently observed during the day in more vegetative habitats in comparison to open areas. Wildlife were found more frequently in backyards where the yard was more easily accessible, there was reduced pesticide use, increased levels of antrhopogenic noise, and increased yard access by pets.

I thought this article was interesting as it dives deeper into the way that the choices we make when maintaining our personal backyards can have a direct impact on the local wildlife. One thing I wish they talked more about was the impacts of pets in the backyard on the prescences of wildlife. They brought up having pets quite a bit and even in the results you could see that yards with pets tended to have a higher wildlife prescence. I think it would be interesting if they touched on that aspect more as many people who do have pets will let them outside or even keep them in their backyard. I also am interested in the impacts of pesticides and fertilizers in backyards and how that could have negative impacts on wildlife who use these backyards as corridors. I think this study was interesting and could be used a tool to educate people on the way their yards have direct impact on wildlife.

Kay, A.D., Hughes, Mnew .T., Ammend, M.G. et al. College squirrels gone wild? Using Sciurus carolinensis behavior to assess the ecosystem value of urban green spaces. Urban Ecosyst 26, 81–88 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01288-7

As urbanization becomes a more widepsread among cities across the globe, there have been many new solutions created as a way to help improve biodiversity in these areas with high amounts of urbanization. One of these is solutions is the implementation of “green infrastrcuture”. This study was done in Minnesota and included three different survery sites: college campuses, resedential yards, and municipal parks. The purpose of this study was to look at the giving up density (GUD) of the eastern gray squirrel in association to the green infrastructure. They also looked at the proximity of the green infrastrcture to roads and if this had any influence of the GUD of the eastern gray squirrels.

The study sites included nine different universities, seven municpal parks and 48 residential homes in the St. Paul and Minneapolis areas of Minnesota. In the second part of the study they assessed the effect of road proximity of on the squirrels GUD for only one of the college campuses (University of St. Paul). In each site they placed aluminum trays with sunflower seeds out for the squirrels. For each site they would place one tray closer in proximity to a roadway and one tray farther away from a roadway. They estimated the “maximum distance from road” using GoogleMaps and ImageJ software. For part 2 of the study they estimated the traffic volume on the University of St. Thomas Campus and explicitly placed the trays along the roadways.

Using the tray data, they found that the GUD did not differ among the three sites, but did differ due to the proximity to roads. The trays away from roads were visited more frequently than the trays near roads at all three locations. Greater distance to roads and the high traffic volumes are both linked to higher GUD. The maximum distance from roads varied at each site and location type, but was shorter for resedential yards in comparison to college campuses and parks. These results indicate that compared the residential yards, both parks and college campuses may be associate with reduced foraging costs for eastern gray squirrels due to greenspaces and distance from roads.

I think this study did a good job of placing feeding trays at several sites within the study site location. They did a good job of spacing the trays amongst each site in reference to roadways. One thing I wish this study did different was look at more than one unviersity setting for part two of their data. They only used one university to assess the direct impact of road proximity on the squirrels. If they had done more than one unviersity there could have been more data to compare these effects. Overall I think this paper sets up a good basis for the understanding on greenspaces in urban areas and college campuses and how roadways can have impacts on eastern gray squirrels foraging behaviors.

Kreling, S.E.S., Gaynor, K.M. and Coon, C.A.C. (2019), Roadkill distribution at the wildland-urban interface. Jour. Wild. Mgmt., 83: 1427-1436. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21692

As urbanization rapidly increases around the globe, the use of roads as prominent feature inthe wildland-urban interface has created an increase in wildlife- vehicle collisions. This article explores the spatial, temporal, and species-specific patterns of roadkill located along Interstate (I-280) in California. They also explored the impacts of land cover, fencing, lighting, and traffic on these areas and the associated species. This study aimed to learn more about wildlife movement in relevance to wildlife-vehicle collisions in an area with increasing urbanization.

The study area spanned over a 50km stretch of I-280 in the San Franciso Bay area in California. This are was chosen due its abundance of fast moving vehicles and its proximity to nearby residential development in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The average amount of traffic that reaches I-280 in a day is an estimated 125,000 cars a day in some sections of the highway. The area to the east of the I-280 is heavily developed and bordered by 3 major cities with populations over >70,000. To the west of I-280, there are several wildland habitats that are important to several wildlife species such as coyote, black-tailed deer, and mountain lion.

To assess roadkill data, they used data from the Road Ecology Centers California Roadkill Observation System which relies on data from citizen science volunteers. They then used data from Google to categorize information on fencing and lighting. The study also looks at other factors such as season, moon phase, and land cover. They compared this data from the East side of I-280 and the West side of I-280.

The results of this study found that roadkill was present throughout the whole study site, but more common in the north. More raccoon roadkill observations were observed in the north while deer roadkill was observed more uniformly throughout the study site. For all individual species, traffic had a negative correlation with roadkill. There was no indirect relationship between moonlight and roadkill for any other species. Road kill was more common in areas with less developed land which could represent the species either being attracted to development, them retreating to wildlands, or a combination of the two.

I chose this article because urbanization is rapidly increasing in the United States and wildlife-vehicle collisions are becoming more common as a result of this urbanization. I thought this paper did a good job of exploring the different variables that could be explaining the wildlife-vehicle colllisons. I think this research is a good stepping stone for further species specific research that could be done on roadkill and wildlife-vehicle collisions in urban areas.