Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Urbanization is transforming ecosystems worldwide, creating novel environmental conditions that wildlife must adjust to. Because urban species differ markedly in ecological strategies, functional traits, and societal perceptions, they experience divergent pressures that shape their responses to the challenges associated with city living. A comparative framework can therefore reveal how both individual and species-level differences influence behaviors such as risk-taking and problem solving, even among related taxa in the same habitat. Here, we challenged free-ranging mesopredators with a novel foraging task and predicted a gradient of species-specific behavioral responses, hypothesizing that boldness, exploration, and effort would influence problem-solving success within and across species. We collected data from 110 locations across the East Bay of California for five mesopredator species: raccoons, opossums, striped skunks, coyotes, and domestic cats. Individuals from all species solved the task multiple times, but raccoons and coyotes emerged as the most successful despite divergent approaches. Across species, effort was the strongest predictor of success, whereas within species, exploratory individuals were most likely to solve. In contrast, boldness did not predict success. These results illustrate how trait differences within and among a taxonomic guild shape behavioral responses to novel challenges, offering insights on the strategies that facilitate urban persistence.
Source: Scientific Reports
Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
Awards: NSF PRFB FY 2023: How does urban environmental heterogeneity and societal inequity shape phenotypic traits in wildlife?, Postdoctoral Fellowship: PRFB: You are what you eat: how anthropogenic diets shape the gut microbiome, health, and behavior of urban wildlife, Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
OpenAlex ID: W7223045932