PS 43-67 - Comparing exurban and rural wildlife activity in a diverse mammal community

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

Located in: ESA Exhibit Hall

Presenting Author(s)

MP

Mairi Poisson

Graduate Assistant
University of New Hampshire
Rochester, New Hampshire, United States

Coauthor(s)

AB

Andrew Butler, n/a

University of New Hampshire, United States
PT

Patrick Tate

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, United States
DB

Daniel Bergeron

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, United States
RM

Remington Moll

University of New Hampshire, United States

Background/Question/Methods

Urbanization and related habitat fragmentation can disrupt wildlife behavior and lead to declines in biodiversity and ecosystem function. The northeastern United States is a patchwork of heavily developed urban centers mixed with rural and forested areas. This region serves as a bellwether for the ongoing expansion of human development into more rural areas of the country, and as such acts as a useful model system to evaluate how wildlife respond to exurban sprawl. We studied the impacts of urbanization, measured as proportion impervious surface cover, on the activity patterns of seven mammal species in southeastern New Hampshire using an array of 104 cameras situated in exurban (n=48) and rural (n=56) areas. We deployed cameras over a six-month period from early summer through early winter 2021. The seven most frequently detected species represented several taxonomic groups, including ungulates (white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus), rodents (chipmunks Tamias striatus, gray squirrels Sciurus carolinensis, and red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris), and carnivores (coyotes Canis latrans, raccoons Procyon lotor, and red foxes Vulpes vulpes).

Results/Conclusions

We analyzed over 12,000 detections of our focal species to compare activity levels (overall proportion of the day a species was active) and activity patterns (variation in activity across diel periods) between rural and exurban areas. The activity levels of coyotes, deer, gray squirrels, and red squirrels differed significantly (p < 0.05) between rural and exurban sites. In contrast, there was no statistical significance in the differences between activity levels for chipmunks, raccoons, or red foxes. The direction of these relationships varied by species: coyotes were more active at rural sites, while deer were more active at exurban sites. The activity patterns of chipmunks, deer, gray squirrels, and red foxes differed significantly between rural and exurban sites (all p-values < 0.05), while coyotes, raccoons, and red squirrels exhibited no significant difference between sites. These results suggest that wildlife alter activity as an adaptation to exurban development and that such adaptations are species-specific. Further, this work indicates that some species adapt by changing their level of activity while others maintain activity levels but change activity patterns. Overall, this study sheds light on the complex behavioral adaptations that wildlife make in response to urbanization and the potential consequences thereof for mammal communities.