Li Han, Crihfield Chase, Feng Yashi, Gaje Gabriella, Guzman Elissa, Heckman Talia, Mellis Anna, Moore Lauren, Romo Bechara Nayma, Sanchez Sydney, Whittington Samantha, Wolf Joseph Gazing, Garshong Reuben, Morales Kristina, Petric Radmila, Zarecky Lindsey A, Schug Malcolm D
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA.
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Sep 11;10(9):1636. doi: 10.3390/ani10091636.
In the urban environment, wildlife faces novel human disturbances in unique temporal patterns. The weekend effect describes that human activities on weekends trigger changes in the environment and impact wildlife negatively. Reduced occurrence, altered behaviors, and/or reduced fitness have been found in birds, ungulates, and meso-carnivores due to the weekend effect. We aimed to investigate if urban bat activity would differ on weekends from weekdays. We analyzed year-round bat acoustic monitoring data collected from two sites near the city center and two sites in the residential area/park complex in the city periphery. We constructed generalized linear models and found that bat activity was significantly lower on weekends as compared to weekdays during spring and summer at the site in the open space near the city center. In contrast, during the same seasons, the sites in the city periphery showed increased bat activity on weekends. Hourly bat activity overnight suggested that bats might move from the city center to the periphery on weekends. We demonstrated the behavioral adaptability in urban wildlife for co-existing with human. We recommend that urban planning should implement practices such as adding new greenspaces and/or preserving old-growth vegetation to form continuous greenways from the city center to the city periphery as corridors to facilitate bat movements and reduce possible human-wildlife conflict.
在城市环境中，野生动物面临着以独特时间模式出现的新型人类干扰。周末效应描述的是周末的人类活动引发环境变化并对野生动物产生负面影响。由于周末效应，在鸟类、有蹄类动物和中型食肉动物中已发现其出现频率降低、行为改变和/或适应性下降。我们旨在调查城市蝙蝠活动在周末与工作日是否会有所不同。我们分析了从市中心附近的两个地点以及城市周边居民区/公园区域的两个地点收集的全年蝙蝠声学监测数据。我们构建了广义线性模型，发现市中心附近开阔空间的地点在春季和夏季，蝙蝠活动在周末比工作日显著更低。相比之下，在相同季节，城市周边的地点在周末蝙蝠活动增加。夜间每小时的蝙蝠活动表明，蝙蝠可能在周末从市中心迁往周边地区。我们展示了城市野生动物与人类共存的行为适应性。我们建议城市规划应实施一些措施，比如增加新的绿地和/或保护原生植被，以形成从市中心到城市周边的连续绿道作为走廊，便于蝙蝠活动并减少可能的人兽冲突。
