Chicago Wildlife Watch Talk

How does housing density impact how likely species are to colonize new habitat patches?

  • mason_UWI by mason_UWI scientist

    Hi all,

    We are preparing for the international urban wildlife conference that we are hosting at the Lincoln Park Zoo this month. With that, I am working on a poster with one of my coworkers about some new methods we have developed to analyze camera trap photos. Here is a figure that illustrates how likely some of our mesocarnivores should colonize a vacant habitat patch (i.e. if we did not observe this species at a patch in season 1, how likely are we to see them in season 2 at that patch). Clearly, some species have low rates of colonization, namely the red fox and the skunk, while other species move into new patches rather readily (the raccoon).

    Regardless, all species are less likely to colonize highly urban locations.

    Just thought I would share. Thanks for your help!

    enter image description here

    Posted