Attitudes Toward Engagement in Citizen Science Increase Self-Related, Ecology-Related, and Motivation-Related Outcomes in an Urban Wildlife Project.

Citizen science projects are crucial for engaging citizens in conservation efforts. Although attitudes toward engagement in citizen science were mostly considered an outcome of citizen science participation, citizens may also have a certain attitude toward engagement in citizen science when starting with a citizen science project. Moreover, there is a lack of citizen science studies that consider changes over longer periods of time. Therefore, in this research, we present two-wave data from four field studies of a citizen science project about urban wildlife ecology using cross-lagged panel analyses. We investigated the influence of attitudes toward engagement in citizen science on self-related, ecology-related, and motivation-related outcomes. We found that positive attitudes toward engagement in citizen science at the beginning of the project had positive influences on the participants' psychological ownership and pride in their participation, their attitudes toward and enthusiasm about wildlife, and their internal and external motivation 2 months later. We discuss the implications for citizen science research and practice.

Spatiotemporal interactions of a novel mesocarnivore community in an urban environment before and during SARS-CoV-2 lockdown.

Studying species interactions and niche segregation under human pressure provides important insights into species adaptation, community functioning and ecosystem stability. Due to their high plasticity in behaviour and diet, urban mesocarnivores are ideal species for studying community assembly in novel communities. We analysed the spatial and temporal species interactions of an urban mesocarnivore community composed of the red fox Vulpes vulpes and the marten Martes sp. as native species, the raccoon Procyon lotor as invasive species, and the cat Felis catus as a domestic species in combination with human disturbance modulated by the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown effect that happened while the study was conducted. We analysed camera trap data and applied a joint species distribution model to understand not only the environmental variables influencing the detection of mesocarnivores and their use intensity of environmental features but also the species' co-occurrences while accounting for environmental variables. We then assessed whether they displayed temporal niche partitioning based on activity analyses, and finally analysed at a smaller temporal scale the time of delay after the detection of another focal species. We found that species were more often detected and displayed a higher use intensity in gardens during the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown period, while showing a shorter temporal delay during the same period, meaning a high human-induced spatiotemporal overlap. All three wild species spatially co-occurred within the urban area, with a positive response of raccoons to cats in detection and use intensity, whereas foxes showed a negative trend towards cats. When assessing the temporal partitioning, we found that all wild species showed overlapping nocturnal activities. All species displayed temporal segregation based on temporal delay. According to the temporal delay analyses, cats were the species avoided the most by all wild species. To conclude, we found that although the wild species were positively associated in space, the avoidance occurred at a smaller temporal scale, and human pressure in addition led to high spatiotemporal overlap. Our study sheds light to the complex patterns underlying the interactions in a mesocarnivore community both spatially and temporally, and the exacerbated effect of human pressure on community dynamics.

Beyond the landscape: Resistance modelling infers physical and behavioural gene flow barriers to a mobile carnivore across a metropolitan area.

Urbanization affects key aspects of wildlife ecology. Dispersal in urban wildlife species may be impacted by geographical barriers but also by a species' inherent behavioural variability. There are no functional connectivity analyses using continuous individual-based sampling across an urban-rural continuum that would allow a thorough assessment of the relative importance of physical and behavioural dispersal barriers. We used 16 microsatellite loci to genotype 374 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) from the city of Berlin and surrounding rural regions in Brandenburg in order to study genetic structure and dispersal behaviour of a mobile carnivore across the urban-rural landscape. We assessed functional connectivity by applying an individual-based landscape genetic optimization procedure. Three commonly used genetic distance measures yielded different model selection results, with only the results of an eigenvector-based multivariate analysis reasonably explaining genetic differentiation patterns. Genetic clustering methods and landscape resistance modelling supported the presence of an urban population with reduced dispersal across the city border. Artificial structures (railways, motorways) served as main dispersal corridors within the cityscape, yet urban foxes avoided densely built-up areas. We show that despite their ubiquitous presence in urban areas, their mobility and behavioural plasticity, foxes were affected in their dispersal by anthropogenic presence. Distinguishing between man-made structures and sites of human activity, rather than between natural and artificial structures, is thus essential for better understanding urban fox dispersal. This differentiation may also help to understand dispersal of other urban wildlife and to predict how behaviour can shape population genetic structure beyond physical barriers.

Wild inside: Urban wild boar select natural, not anthropogenic food resources.

Most wildlife species are urban avoiders, but some became urban utilizers and dwellers successfully living in cities. Often, they are assumed to be attracted into urban areas by easily accessible and highly energetic anthropogenic food sources. We macroscopically analysed stomachs of 247 wild boar (Sus scrofa, hereafter WB) from urban areas of Berlin and from the surrounding rural areas. From the stomach contents we determined as predictors of food quality modulus of fineness (MOF,), percentage of acid insoluble ash (AIA) and macronutrients such as amount of energy and percentage of protein, fat, fibre and starch. We run linear mixed models to test: (1) differences in the proportion of landscape variables, (2) differences of nutrients consumed in urban vs. rural WB and (3) the impact of landscape variables on gathered nutrients. We found only few cases of anthropogenic food in the qualitative macroscopic analysis. We categorized the WB into five stomach content categories but found no significant difference in the frequency of those categories between urban and rural WB. The amount of energy was higher in stomachs of urban WB than in rural WB. The analysis of landscape variables revealed that the energy of urban WB increased with increasing percentage of sealing, while an increased human density resulted in poor food quality for urban and rural WB. Although the percentage of protein decreased in areas with a high percentage of coniferous forests, the food quality increased. High percentage of grassland decreased the percentage of consumed fat and starch and increased the percentage of fibre, while a high percentage of agricultural areas increased the percentage of consumed starch. Anthropogenic food such as garbage might serve as fallback food when access to natural resources is limited. We infer that urban WB forage abundant, natural resources in urban areas. Urban WB might use anthropogenic resources (e.g. garbage) if those are easier to exploit and more abundant than natural resources. This study shows that access to natural resources still is mandatory and drives the amount of protein, starch, fat or fibre in wild boar stomachs in urban as well as rural environments.

A broad spectrum screening of Schmallenberg virus antibodies in wildlife animals in Germany.

To identify native wildlife species possibly susceptible to infection with Schmallenberg virus (SBV), a midge-transmitted orthobunyavirus that predominantly infects domestic ruminants, samples from various free-living ruminants, but also carnivores, small mammals and wild boar were analyzed serologically. Before 2011, no SBV-specific antibodies were detectable in any of the tested species, thereafter, a large proportion of the ruminant population became seropositive, while every sample taken from carnivores or small mammals tested negative. Surprisingly, SBV-specific-antibodies were also present in a large number of blood samples from wild boar during the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 hunting seasons. Hence, free-ranging artiodactyls may play a role as wildlife host.