Kellner Kenneth F, Hill Jacob E, Gantchoff Mariela G, Kramer David W, Bailey Amanda M, Belant Jerrold L
Camp Fire Program in Wildlife Conservation State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse New York USA.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Albany New York USA.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Jul 15;10(16):8705-8714. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6567. eCollection 2020 Aug.
Measuring wildlife responses to anthropogenic activities often requires long-term, large-scale datasets that are difficult to collect. This is particularly true for rare or cryptic species, which includes many mammalian carnivores. Citizen science, in which members of the public participate in scientific work, can facilitate collection of large datasets while increasing public awareness of wildlife research and conservation. Hunters provide unique benefits for citizen science given their knowledge and interest in outdoor activities. We examined how anthropogenic changes to land cover impacted relative abundance of two sympatric canids, coyote (), and red fox () at a large spatial scale. In order to assess how land cover affected canids at this scale, we used citizen science data from bow hunter sighting logs collected throughout New York State, USA, during 2004-2017. We found that the two species had contrasting responses to development, with red foxes positively correlated and coyotes negatively correlated with the percentage of low-density development. Red foxes also responded positively to agriculture, but less so when agricultural habitat was fragmented. Agriculture provides food and denning resources for red foxes, whereas coyotes may select forested areas for denning. Though coyotes and red foxes compete in areas of sympatry, we did not find a relationship between species abundance, likely a consequence of the coarse spatial resolution used. Red foxes may be able to coexist with coyotes by altering their diets and habitat use, or by maintaining territories in small areas between coyote territories. Our study shows the value of citizen science, and particularly hunters, in collection of long-term data across large areas (i.e., the entire state of New York) that otherwise would unlikely be obtained.
衡量野生动物对人为活动的反应通常需要长期、大规模且难以收集的数据集。对于珍稀或隐秘物种而言尤其如此，其中包括许多食肉类哺乳动物。公民科学是指公众成员参与科学工作，它有助于收集大型数据集，同时提高公众对野生动物研究和保护的认识。鉴于猎人对户外活动的了解和兴趣，他们为公民科学带来了独特的益处。我们在大空间尺度上研究了土地覆盖的人为变化如何影响两种同域犬科动物，即郊狼（）和赤狐（）的相对丰度。为了评估土地覆盖在该尺度上如何影响犬科动物，我们使用了2004年至2017年期间在美国纽约州各地收集的弓猎者目击记录中的公民科学数据。我们发现这两个物种对开发活动有不同的反应，赤狐与低密度开发的百分比呈正相关，而郊狼呈负相关。赤狐对农业也有积极反应，但当农业栖息地碎片化时反应较小。农业为赤狐提供食物和筑巢资源，而郊狼可能会选择森林地区筑巢。尽管郊狼和赤狐在同域地区存在竞争，但我们没有发现物种丰度之间的关系，这可能是由于所使用的空间分辨率较粗的结果。赤狐可能能够通过改变饮食和栖息地利用方式，或者通过在郊狼领地之间的小区域维持领地来与郊狼共存。我们的研究表明了公民科学，尤其是猎人，在收集大面积（即整个纽约州）长期数据方面的价值，否则这些数据不太可能获得。
