Image Credit: Urban Wildlife by Scott Schrantz. http://www.flickr.com/photos/89414761@N00/4574608821 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Crows using traffic to crack walnut
During our discussions this week on man-made barriers to gene flow I came across term that was new to me, synurbization:
"Synurbization denotes adjustment of wild animal populations to specific conditions of urban environment. The new term, was introduced by theriologists and it is accepted in ornithology as well. The term “urbanization,” in turn, should be in ecology applied for changes in landscape (or environment) caused by urban development. The growing and global tendency towards synurbization, observed recently in animal world, is a response to world-wide expansion of urban development (urbanization). More and more bird and mammal populations colonize cities, and some of them are in urban conditions much more successful than in their native natural habitats" (Luniak, 2004).
Most everyone can point out examples of wildlife that are trying to adapting to life around human development - with variable results. As cities spread outward these interactions and adaptations are inevitable.
REFERENCES:
Luniak, M. (2004). Synurbization—adaptation of animal wildlife to urban development. In Proc. 4th Int. Symposium Urban Wildl. Conserv. Tucson (pp. 50-55).