Uses Scientific research

The Effects of Urbanization on Behaviour, Cognition, and Personality in Wild-living Coyotes

The Anthropocene is characterized by rapid environmental change, including urbanization. In her Doctoral thesis Sage Raymond addresses three questions: How does urbanization affect coyote reproductive behaviour and life history? What are the consequences of urbanization-induced behavioural change for people, parasites, etc.? How does individual variation in cognition and personality enable adaptive behavioural change?

Sage started with observation. She tracked coyotes for 800 km to study their behaviour and found their dens by following their trails. She discovered that cognitive and personality traits appear to underlie coyote persistence in the face of environmental novelty. She concluded that urban adaptation is a synthetic process, that recruits behaviour, cognition, and ecology.

In an era of rapid ecological change, animals innovate solutions to novel environmental challenges, with consequences that reverberate through ecosystems.