Understanding how biodiversity responds to urbanization is challenging, due in part to the single‐city focus of most urban ecological research. Here, we delineate continent‐scale patterns in urban species assemblages by leveraging data from a multi‐city camera trap survey and quantify how differences in greenspace availability and average housing density among 10 North American cities relate to the distribution of eight widespread North American mammals. To do so, we deployed camera traps at 569 sites across these ten cities between 18 June and 14 August. Most data came from 2017, though some cities contributed 2016 or 2018 data if it was available. We found that the magnitude and direction of most species' responses to urbanization within a city were associated with landscape‐scale differences among cities. For example, eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) responses to urbanization changed from negative to positive once the proportion of green space within a city was >~20%. Likewise, raccoon (Procyon lotor) and Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) responses to urbanization changed from positive to negative once the average housing density of a city exceeded about 700 housing units/km2. We also found that local species richness within cities consistently declined with urbanization in only the more densely developed cities (>~700 housing units/km2). Given our results, it may therefore be possible to design cities to better support biodiversity and reduce the negative influence of urbanization on wildlife by, for example, increasing the amount of green space within a city. Additionally, it may be most important for densely populated cities to find innovative solutions to bolster wildlife resilience because they were the most likely to observe diversity losses of common urban species.

Research on urban wildlife can help promote coexistence and guide future interactions between humans and wildlife in developed regions, but most such investigations are limited to short‐term, single‐species studies, typically conducted within a single city. This restricted focus prevents scientists from recognizing global patterns and first principles regarding urban wildlife behavior and ecology. To overcome these limitations, we have designed a pioneering research network, the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), whereby partners collaborate across several cities to systematically collect data to populate long‐term datasets on multiple species in urban areas. Data collected via UWIN support analyses that will enable us to build basic theory related to urban wildlife ecology. An analysis of mammals in seven metropolitan regions suggests that common species are similar across cities, but relative rates of occupancy differ markedly. We ultimately view UWIN as an applied tool that can be used to connect the public to urban nature at a continental scale, and provide information critical to urban planners and landscape architects. Our network therefore has the potential to advance knowledge and to improve the ability to plan and manage cities to support biodiversity.

Our study focuses on the spatial ecology and seasonal habitat use of two aquatic turtles in order to understand the manner in which upland habitat use by humans shapes the aquatic activity, movement, and habitat selection of these species in an urban setting. We used radiotelemetry to follow 15 female Graptemys geographica (common map turtle) and each of ten male and female Trachemys scripta (red-eared slider) living in a man-made canal within a highly urbanized region of Indianapolis, IN, USA. During the active season (between May and September) of 2002, we located 33 of the 35 individuals a total of 934 times and determined the total range of activity, mean movement, and daily movement for each individuals. We also analyzed turtle locations relative to the upland habitat types (commercial, residential, river, road, woodlot, and open) surrounding the canal and determined that the turtles spent a disproportionate amount of time in woodland and commercial habitats and avoided the road-associated portions of the canal. We also located 21 of the turtles during hibernation (February 2003), and determined that an even greater proportion of individuals hibernated in woodland-bordered portions of the canal. Our results clearly indicate that turtle habitat selection is influenced by human activities; sound conservation and management of turtle populations in urban habitats will require the incorporation of spatial ecology and habitat use data.

Time is a fundamental component of ecological processes. How animal behavior changes over time has been explored through well-known ecological theories like niche partitioning and predator-prey dynamics. Yet, changes in animal behavior within the shorter 24-hour light-dark cycle have largely gone unstudied. Understanding if an animal can adjust their temporal activity to mitigate or adapt to environmental change has become a recent topic of discussion and is important for effective wildlife management and conservation. While spatial habitat is a fundamental consideration in wildlife management and conservation, temporal habitat is often ignored. We formulated a temporal resource selection model to quantify the diel behavior of eight mammal species across ten U.S. cities. We found high variability in diel activity patterns within and among species and species-specific correlations between diel activity and human population density, impervious land cover, available greenspace, vegetation cover, and mean daily temperature. We also found that some species may modulate temporal behaviors to manage both natural and anthropogenic risks. Our results highlight the complexity with which temporal activity patterns interact with local environmental characteristics, and suggest that urban mammals may use time along the 24-hour cycle to reduce risk, adapt, and therefore persist, and in some cases thrive, in human-dominated ecosystems.

Time budgets for 17 behaviors were analyzed for cohort, day-period, season-period and interactions among the main effects for three colonies of yellowbellied marmots in the Upper East River Valley in western Colorado. These effects explained up to 79% of the variation in the behaviors. Marmots allocated more time (40-60%, 110-265 min daily) above-ground to sitting/lying than to any other activity. Foraging was the other major activity (12-23%, 37 to 94 min daily). Vigilance/alert varied from 1.1 to 14.5% and from 12.0 to 71.7 min daily. Social status affected the time budget, especially time allocated to vigilance/alert. All other behaviors averaged about 5% or less except for out-of-sight and enterburrow. The adult male cohort spent significantly more time above-ground than all other cohorts and reproductive females allocated significantly more time to foraging than the other cohorts. The amount of time spent above-ground decreased linearly from the down-river site to the up-river site. The proportion of time spent above-ground was significantly less at mid day than in the morning or afternoon. Above-ground activity was lowest during gestation, increased during lactation, remained high during early post-lactation, and declined during the final season-period. The following significant relationships common to the three colonies suggest species characteristics or common environmental influences: more time allocated to foraging and foraging-vigilance in the afternoon and more time allocated to foraging-alert, alert, and locomotion during gestation and lactation than during post-lactation. Marmots adjust their behaviors according to prevailing conditions. The remaining significant relationships can be attributed to specific age-sex cohorts or to habitat differences. Because marmots allocate so much time to sitting/lying, we suggest that energy budgets are not constrained by foraging time but by time required to process ingested food. Similarly, time spent vigilant/alert does not seem to constrain energy intake. Social behavior is not limited by time, but could easily be expanded by spending less time inactive. In general, there do not seem to be tradeoffs among activities. Among other species of ground-dwelling sciurids, social behavior occupies a small proportion of the time budget, but the amount of time allocated to foraging and sitting/lying varies widely.