My lair is your house

Transcription

1 My lair is your house The wildlife of Budapest Mária Tóth PhD biologist HNHM, Budapest, Hungary Urban Nature Research Group 2014.

2 Urban wildlife Features of urban wildlife: most of them are - generalist - opportunist - adaptable to human presence - middle or small sized - r-strategy - high plasticity - urban wildlife Kancsal B. - ecological types: urban avoider, urban adapter and urban exploiter Urban biodiversity from the level of genes to the level of ecosystems

3 Biodiversity in Budapest?

4 Aims of the Urban Nature Research Group ( - Faunistical database of urban fauna (focusing on Budapest area). - Monitoring urban biodiversity. - Ecological studies of the isolated, fragmented habitats. - Ecological studies of urban wildlife. - Studies on the condition and parasites of urban vertebrates. Recent projects Stone marten: ditribution, lairs, feeding ecology Red squirrel: population biological parameters, habitat preferences Northern White-breasted hedgehog: complex ecology of an island population Common kestrel: nesting sites and feeding ecology Fauna of botanical gardens, parks, cemeteries (Insects, vertebrates) Balcony fauna - The Lepidoptera fauna of a Panel house

5 Stone marten (Martes foina) project Fotó: Fekete G.

6 1. Why and how to study?

7 Hideouts - habitats of stone martens

8 Feeding ecology of stone marten: seasonality, graduality, Kancsal B. Levins index Family house II. Spring SOTE IX. Summer SOTE IX. Autumn SOTE IX. Winter SOTE IX. Natural (K) Green urban (TGYÁ) Brown urban (ZS) 4,8 6,23 5,39 5,3 6,29 6,1 6,17 6,46 6,49 Desert (PAB) (Tóth et al. 2007, Tóth et al. 2011)

9 As a pet.

10 Discussion of the stone marten project Urban adapter species - generalist, opportunist, omnivore - high plasticity and adaptability to human presence - no graduality of occurrences Patch-dynamic life-strategy Importance of hideouts

11 Northern white-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus) project Fotó: Bárány A.

12 Why to study? Data insufficient Protected Where? Margaret island, Budapest ( )

13 Aims of hedgehog project How to study? The aim: complex ecological, parasitological and veterinary studies of the urban populations of Hedgehog. 1. project: Margaret island. -Volunteers -Students -Researchers

14 Discussion of the hedgehog project Preferred patches include bushy shelters, rich undergrowth, hide many good place to nest. Philopatry. Closed, dense population, but fluctuating (e.g. recapture rate, immigration): human disturbances?; parasites?, bottle neck? (Tóth et al. 2012) High ectoparasite prevalence (77%) (Földvári et al. 2011).

15 Hedgehog as a pet. Fotó: Tóth M.

16 Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) project Fotó: Tóth M.

17 Why to study? - Protected, urbanized, but data not sufficient - Introduced species might be dangerous for the red squirrel Aims of the squirrel project - the rool of urban parks as habitats for squirrels: study of isolated populations Where?

18 Discussion of the first red squirrel project - The urban paks are the refugies of red squirrels: high number and density Sampling area Margaret island Kerepesi cemetery Népliget (green area: 66,7 ha) (green area: 50 ha) (green area:56,8 ha) Density (d) 1,61 1,62 0,69 0,96 1,35 2,7 Size of estimated population (Péntek and Tóth 2012)

19 What did we learn from these studies? - the Nature comes to the built environment - Budapest is a diverse habitat - Budapest has diverse vertebrate and invertebrate fauna - graduality is not a general pattern -homogenization is not a general process Perspectives - urbanization is the way to survive and the Green cities are the best solution; - faunistical (invertebrate, vertebrate) and ecological studies are inevitable to understand the urbanization process of wildlife; We can plan the cities, plan the vegetation, but have to consider the wildlife and natural processes, too!

20 Thanks for your kind attention. Köszönöm figyelmüket. Fotó: Vörös A.