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城市中心在全球范围内的迅速扩张，生物学家一直在努力解释为什么有些物种可以在这些人类改变的环境中入侵并茁壮成长，而其他物种则会下降，通常会灭绝。认知缓冲假说（CBH）认为，大大脑和高级认知能力的进化使一些物种能够对人为干扰表现出更灵活的行为反应。然而，由于评估野生动物认知能力的挑战，这一假设缺乏实证支持。我已经利用先进的技术来自动和适应性地测试城市中型食肉动物的认知能力。我现在正在建立不列颠哥伦比亚省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改造的景观中持续存在，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。我在未来五年内追求两个关键的短期目标：1）量化城市环境对野生动物的复杂性，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参与人类与野生动物的冲突，减少城市栖息地的人类与野生动物的冲突。我使用基于GPS的跟踪技术和广泛的相机捕获断面来量化空间使用模式，活动模式，社交网络和物种间的竞争相互作用的城市浣熊和郊狼在温哥华，不列颠哥伦比亚省我结合联合收割机基于实地的观察方法与几种不同的分析技术，使用生物样本，如稳定同位素，激素和遗传分析，以确定城市化是如何影响饮食，社会结构和城市野生动物的健康。我还使用射频识别技术、夜视摄像头和智力挑战，如拼图盒，以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野生动物问题的专业中心。我回答有关智力，动物认知，动物行为和城市生态学的进化的基本问题，同时也改善了城市环境中人类和野生动物的结果。加拿大的额外利益将来自来自不同背景的6名研究生和10名本科生的科学培训，他们将接受学术界，政府，动物园和私营部门职位的理想培训。

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.