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Modification of the third phase in the framework for vertebrate species persistence in urban mosaic environments

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 21 April 2021

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Abstract

Urbanisation is rapidly transforming natural landscapes with consequences for biodiversity. Little is documented on the response of African wildlife to urbanisation. We reviewed case studies of vertebrate species’ responses to urbanisation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to determine trends. Connected habitat mosaics of natural and anthropogenic green spaces are critical for urban wildlife persistence. We present a novel modification to the final of three phases of the framework described by Evans et al. (2010), which documents this sequence for vertebrate species persistence, based on the perspective of our research. Species in suburbia exhibit an initial phase where behavioural and ecological flexibility, life-history traits and phenotypic plasticity either contribute to their success, or they stay at low numbers. Where successful, the next phase is a rapid increase in populations and distribution; anthropogenic food resources and alternate breeding sites are effectively exploited. The modified third phase either continues to spread, plateau or decline.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

modified from Evans et al. 2010). This highlights for species that increase, that in phase 3 species can either (a) continue to increase (red dotted line), (b) plateau, or (c) decline (blue dotted line) with time. Note that black dotted line in phase 1 is typical of species that persist in suburbia albeit being in low numbers and typically are not exceptional urban exploiters

Fig. 3

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Most of the data are available in the publications listed in Table 1 or are archived at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National Research Foundation (ZA; Grant 98404), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (ZA), the Hans Hohesien Trust (ZA), the Rufford Trust (UK), and Ethekwini Municipality D’RAP partnership (ZA) for funding. We thank the Ford Wildlife Foundation (ZA) for vehicle support.

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CTD conceptualised the modification of the framework with the other authors and drafted the manuscript. The other authors collected and analysed data and made comments on the draft manuscript. DES contributed editorial input.

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Correspondence to Colleen T. Downs.

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The authors do not have any conflict of interest.

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The original online version of this article was revised: Figure 2 is updated.

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Downs, C.T., Alexander, J., Brown, M. et al. Modification of the third phase in the framework for vertebrate species persistence in urban mosaic environments. Ambio 50, 1866–1878 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01501-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01501-5

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