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

随着当前生物多样性危机的升级和全球城市中心的迅速扩张，生物学家一直在努力解释为什么一些物种可以在这些人类改变的环境中入侵并茁壮成长，而另一些物种则衰落，往往濒临灭绝。认知缓冲假说(CBH)认为，大脑和高级认知能力的进化使某些物种对人为干扰表现出更灵活的行为反应。然而，由于评估野生动物的认知能力面临挑战，这一假设缺乏实证支持。我已经利用技术进步来自动和自适应地测试城市中食肉动物的认知能力。我现在正在建立不列颠哥伦比亚大学城市野生动物项目(UBC UWP)，以实现我的长期目标，即全面了解野生动物对人类影响的适应。我的工作重点是通过研究城市野生动物的行为、认知和生态如何使它们能够在人类修改的景观中坚持下去，以及城市化如何改变城市野生动物的行为、生态和认知来测试CBH。在接下来的五年里，我正在追求两个关键的短期目标：1)量化城市环境中野生动物的复杂性，2)评估城市空间中单个野生动物的认知能力。我还致力于确保我们的研究对城市野生动物管理产生可衡量的影响，并将追求第三个目标：3)通过调查哪些动物最有可能卷入人与野生动物冲突，减少城市栖息地的人与野生动物冲突。我使用基于GPS的跟踪技术和广泛的相机捕捉横断面来量化不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华的城市浣熊和郊狼的空间使用模式、活动模式、社会网络和物种间竞争互动。我将基于现场的观察方法与几种不同的分析技术相结合，使用生物样本，如稳定同位素、激素和遗传分析，以确定城市化如何影响城市野生动物的饮食、社会结构和健康。我还使用射频识别技术、夜视摄像头和认知挑战(如拼图盒子)来远程和自适应地评估单个野生动物的认知能力。我的研究计划将在加拿大建立一个关于野生动物和城市交界处野生动物问题的专业中心。我回答了有关智力、动物认知、动物行为和城市生态进化的基本问题，同时也改善了城市环境中人和野生动物的结果。来自不同背景的6名研究生和10名本科生的科学培训将给加拿大带来额外的好处，他们将受到理想的学术界、政府、动物园和私营部门职位的培训。

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.