How wildlife adapt to urban environments and the role of cognition in the success of urban wildlife

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As the current biodiversity crisis escalates and urban centers rapidly expand worldwide, biologists have struggled to explain why some species can invade and thrive in these human-altered environments, whereas others decline, often to the point of extinction. The Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis (CBH) posits that the evolution of big brains and advanced cognitive abilities has enabled some species to exhibit more flexible behavioral responses to anthropogenic disturbances. There is a lack of empirical support for this hypothesis, however, due to the challenges of assessing cognition in wild animals. I have harnessed technological advances to automatically and adaptively test the cognitive abilities of urban mesocarnivores. I am now establishing the University of British Columbia Urban Wildlife Program (UBC UWP) to achieve my long-term goal to gain a comprehensive understanding of wildlife adaptations to anthropogenic impacts. My work focuses on testing the CBH by examining how the behaviour, cognition, and ecology of urban wildlife enable their ability to persist in human-modified landscapes, as well as how urbanization is altering the behaviour, ecology, and cognition of urban wildlife. I am pursuing two key short-term objectives over the next five years: 1) quantifying the complexity of urban environments for wildlife and 2) assessing cognitive abilities of individual wild animals in urban spaces. I am also committed to ensuring that our research has a measurable impact on urban wildlife management and will pursue a third objective: 3) to reduce human-wildlife conflicts in urban habitats by investigating which animals are most likely to become involved in human-wildlife conflict. I use GPS-based tracking technologies and extensive camera-trapping transects to quantify space-use patterns, activity patterns, social networks, and inter-species competitive interactions of urban raccoons and coyotes in Vancouver, B.C. I combine field-based observational methods with several different analytical techniques using biological samples such as stable isotope, hormone, and genetic analyses to determine how urbanization is impacting the diet, social structure, and health of urban wildlife. I also use radio-frequency identification technology, night-vision cameras, and cognitive challenges such as puzzle boxes to remotely and adaptively assess the cognitive abilities of individual wild animals. My research program will create a centre of expertise in Canada for wildlife issues at the wild-urban interface. I answer fundamental questions about the evolution of intelligence, animal cognition, animal behaviour, and urban ecology while also improving outcomes for people and wildlife in urban environments. Additional benefits to Canada will result from the scientific training of 6 graduate and 10 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds, who will be ideally trained for positions in academia, government, zoos, and the private sector.