Cities have been shown to be biodiverse, but it is unclear what fraction of a regional species pool can live within city borders and how this differs between taxa. Among animals, most research has focused on a few well-studied taxa, such as birds or butterflies. For other species, progress is limited by the paucity of data. We used species occurrence data for 11 taxa and 23 German cities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the different German states, in a 50-km buffer around the city centre, to investigate what proportion of species of the regional species pools also occur in cities. While data could be obtained for all cities from GBIF, state databases only provided data for a subset of cities. Sample coverage of data from GBIF was higher across all taxa than of the state databases. For each database and taxon, we analysed (i) all cities where the number of occurrences of a taxon was >50 and (ii) only those cities where additionally sample coverage was >0.85. Across all taxa studied on average, 44.9 ± 7.2% (GBIF) and 40.8 ± 9.6% (German states) of the species of the regional species pool were also found in cities. When all cities were considered together, more than 76% of all species occurred within city borders. Our results show that German cities harbour a large part of the regional diversity of different taxa when city borders rather than the city centre is considered. This opens up ample opportunities for conservation and for fostering human–nature relationships.
Jatropha, a widespread, species rich genus, ranges from the Americas and Caribbean to Africa and India. In Malesia five species occur, all of which were introduced and originated in Central and South America. The five species are revised and an identification key, nomenclature, descriptions, distributions, ecology, vernacular names, uses and notes are provided. Special attention is given to the uses of J. curcas, because it is steadily gaining popularity as a potential biofuel plant and, because of that, is being cultivated more often.
While there is growing consensus that nature should be promoted in cities, it is less clear what kind of nature this should be. One hypothesis is that humans show greater liking for those parts of nature that they know better. Using questionnaires, we studied the familiarity of 475 students with 91 urban animal species and the relationship between familiarity and attitudes towards the species. Students declared that they were familiar with most animals, but not all animals were equally liked. Better-known species were not generally the better-liked ones. The more familiar animal species were the more extreme attitudes became towards them, both positively and negatively. Our research shows that familiarity and attitude are not two sides of the same coin. It also emphasizes that there are parts of nature that are not liked by many humans and that this dislike is not necessarily correlated with insufficient knowledge. Detailed studies of what components of nature humans like and reasons underlying this are necessary to successfully increase nature in cities.
1. Urban nature can provide many benefits to humans. While there is growing consensus that nature should be increased in cities, it is less clear what kind of nature this should be. Humans differ in the kind of nature they like and how strongly they like it, and this is in particular true for animals in cities. One hypothesis, that also underlies environmental education, is that humans like nature more when they know it better.2. Using questionnaires, we studied the familiarity of 475 students with 91 animals that were selected to represent a wide range of urban species that occur in or around German cities, and tested whether the better-known animals were also the better-liked ones. 3. Students were familiar with most animals, but not all animals were equally liked: invertebrates were on average less liked than mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Better-known species were not generally the better-liked ones. The more familiar animal species were on average, the more extreme the attitudes towards them became, both positively and negatively.4. Our research included an unprecedented breath of animal species among studies on human attitudes towards animals, and showed that familiarity and attitude are not two sides of the same coin. More targeted research is needed to unravel the factors underlying human attitudes to animals.
The COVID‐19 pandemic has led to temporary changes in human–animal interactions due to changes in human activities. Here, we report on a surge in hedgehog observations during the first COVID‐19 lockdown in Germany in 2020, on the citizen science Web portal “Igel in Bayern” (Hedgehogs in Bavaria) in Germany. This increase in comparison with previous years was attributed to an increase in the number of people reporting hedgehog observations, rather than an increase in the number of hedgehog observations made by each observer. Additionally, in contrast to other studies on the effects of a COVID‐19 lockdown on observations recorded by citizen science projects, the share of observations made in more urbanized areas during the lockdown time was not higher than the change observed in less urbanized areas. This is possibly a result of the differences in COVID‐19 measures between Germany and other countries where preceding studies were carried out, in particular the lack of measures limiting traveling outdoor activities for citizens.
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