Welcome to Urban Ecology

I’ll start with a quick introduction about myself and my ambitions for this page. For the last 7 years I have (very slowly) progressed through a Bachelor of Zoology with a major in ecology. I commenced my studies with a goal of researching amphibians and it wasn’t until my final years that I learned about the impacts of urbanisation on frog populations. This set off a spark inside of me and, having worked in roles where I educated the public in regards to human interactions with snakes, I realised that I wanted to share my knowledge with the public and hopefully rub off some of my passion for the wildlife that call our home, home.

Urban ecology is only a fairly new branch of ecology with very few scientific studies examining the impacts of urbanisation on wildlife. With human populations reaching 7.6 billion, urbanisation and agriculture is likewise expanding. The United Nations predicts that by 2025, approximately 60% of people will be living in urban environments (Sukopp, 1998). Even though urban areas only account for 1-6% of the planet, they have a large impact on native flora and fauna (Alberti et al., 2003). With the destruction of suitable habitat, many animals have had to adapt to an urban lifestyle and unfortunately, many species will go extinct. As the dominant species on this planet, the survival of wildlife depends on us.

As we encroach on their homes, some of these animals may be viewed as problematic to us humans. The aim of this page is to convey the importance of conserving the wildlife that we share our backyards and cities with and I hope that through education, we can all live side by side in harmony after all, we all share this planet, and there is only one. I will provide some of the latest research on how we can co-exist with our furry, feathered and scaly friends.

I thank you for your kind support. Happy reading

Kimberly

References:

Alberti, M., Marzluff, J.M., Shulenberger, E., Bradley, G, Ryan, C., & Zumbrunnen, C. (2003). Integrating humans into ecology: opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystems. Bioscience, 53(12): 1169-1179.

Sukopp, H. (1998). Urban Ecologist- Scientific and practical aspects. In: Breuste, J., Feldmann, H., Uhlmann, O. (eds.) Urban Ecology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.