Meeting Abstract
A fundamental question in behavioral ecology is whether and how animals are able to cope with human-induced rapid environmental changes. For example, urbanization is a global phenomenon that causes declines in biodiversity and habitat fragmentation. In such disturbed environments, foraging animals are likely to experience an array of novel conditions, such as predators, parasites, food resources and artificial substrates. Theory states that animals may be able to increase their fitness by adjusting their foraging decisions to match current environmental conditions. However, maximizing the benefits of foraging while minimizing the risk of predation in uncertain environments poses many challenges, especially in novel environments. We conducted two manipulative experiments, observed activity times, and analyzed diets to examine the foraging behavior and ecology of naturally occurring populations of brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) across habitats varying in the degree of urbanization and predation risk. We found that anoles occupying urban and suburban habitats were less willing to exploit foraging opportunities when experimentally presented to them compared to anoles in natural forest habitats. Differences in the daily patterns of activity were only found for anoles occupying urban habitats containing a ground-based predator. Consistent with these activity patterns, anoles from these habitats had longer latencies to feed and spent less time on the ground after feeding when predators were active compared to when predators were inactive. This temporal behavioral shift was not found in urban habitats without the ground predator. Our results suggest that anoles modify their foraging behavior in response to urbanization and associated predation-risk.
