Human-wildlife encounters in the city: socioecological insights from wildlife rehabilitation records

Keywords: Animals, urban, biogeography, care, conservation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 17

Abstract

Compassionate conservation recognizes the value of caring for animal lives. Yet for most humans, wildlife encounters are more likely to occur where they live in towns and cities, places not typically associated with conservation. Despite the frequency of such encounters, descriptions of them have been generally limited to individualistic affective approaches or quantitative techniques utilizing online observational databases like eBird or iNaturalist. Recognizing the importance of intimate encounters with wildlife motivated (sometimes erringly) out of care, we analyzed 30,000 geocoded records from a wildlife rehabilitation center serving a subtropical city in the southeastern U.S. (Tallahassee, Florida) to draw out socioecological relationships not typically accessed. Inventories of the taxonomic identities of injured birds, mammals and reptiles confirmed how cities are not devoid of significant biodiversity. Using multiscale geographically-weighted regression, this 17-year dataset also facilitated assessment of how census-based demographic characteristics correlate with participation in wildlife rehabilitation. Our results indicated that the individuals who rescue injured wildlife are not restricted to single households, but also include primary and secondary public schools, universities, law enforcement, as well as large facilities like apartment complexes, malls, and hospitals. Moreover, race and income segregation mattered for where and how often encounters between humans and injured wildlife occur. While these inequities may not have pronounced, direct consequences for the population dynamics of injured species, they do matter for broadening appreciation of the nearness and individuality of animal lives in cities. These intangibles may ultimately have more relevance for urban biodiversity than the act of rescue itself.