Scientists show changes in genes related to diet of urban coyotes who eat foods high in glucose and starches
Coyotes in urban America are evolving; this can be seen in their genes, says study (Links to an external site)
Category: Urban Biodiversity
Coyote genes may show urban evolution at work (Links to an external site)
A recent study in Genome Biology and Evolution co-authored by LEC postdoc Liz Carlen examines the genetic makeup of urban coyotes to understand how these animals adapt to city environments. The research suggests that urban coyotes may be undergoing evolutionary changes that enable them to thrive alongside human populations. These findings contribute to our understanding of urban ecology and the impact of urbanization on wildlife species.
Coyotes Silver and Solar logged hundreds of miles crisscrossing St. Louis (Links to an external site)
Researchers with the Forest Park Living Lab say that the home ranges of both Silver, a male coyote, and Solar, a female coyote with pups, were typical for urban coyotes.
Researchers hoped to track two coyotes in St. Louis for a year. The animals didn’t make it. (Links to an external site)
Forest Park Living Lab researchers aimed to track two coyotes for a year to study their behavior and movement patterns. Unfortunately, the animals did not survive.
The secret lives of St. Louis copperhead snakes (Links to an external site)
USHSP associate professor of biology and LEC Biodiversity Fellow, Ben Jellen, is featured on Saint Louis on the Air discussing his copperhead snake study in Powder Valley and his longstanding partnership with Saint Louis Zoo.
Building a “Nature City” from the ground up (Links to an external site)
On September 13th, the Living Earth Collaborative — a three-way partnership between the Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Zoo, and WashU — convened a symposium to imagine a St. Louis that lives in harmony with its natural surroundings.
Bridging movement ecology and public health through One Health (Links to an external site)
Forest Park Living Lab is understanding racoon ecology in urban land through GPS tracking and how this work informs One Health programs.
How gentrification impacts urban wildlife populations (Links to an external site)
Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis and University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis (UHSP) contributed to a national study that identifies how gentrified parts of a city have notably more urban wildlife than ungentrified parts of the same city.
Scientists track red-tailed hawks nesting near WashU campus (Links to an external site)
Researchers from the Forest Park Living Lab Project including LEC post-doc Stella Uiterwaal are conducting bird surveys to understand where and when birds like the red-tailed hawks can be found in Forest Park
Social inequities and citizen science can skew our view of the natural world (Links to an external site)
In a recently published paper in People and Nature, LEC post-doc Elizabeth Carlen and collaborators, demonstrated how citizen science data can be skewed by social and economic factors.
The Shutterbee Project shows how local gardens support high bee diversity in St. Louis (Links to an external site)
HEC Science and Technology video report features Biodiversity Fellow Nicole Miller-Struttmann’s Shutterbee Project, a community science project documenting St. Louis’ region’s bee diversity. The Shutterbee Project received a LEC seed grant in 2020.
How bias shows up in maps made with citizen science data (Links to an external site)
In a new paper published in People and Nature, LEC post-doc Elizabeth Carlen and her co-authors shared a framework that illustrates how social and ecological factors combine to create bias in contributory data and offered some recommendations to help address the problems.
Fred: a goose on a mission (Links to an external site)
Meet Fred, the Canada goose, that has been fitted with a satellite tracking tag as part of the Forest Park Living Lab project which was funded by a LEC Seed grant.
Beyond the lab: squirrels, urban landscapes, and the joy of research (Links to an external site)
Elizabeth Carlen and two of her undergraduate researchers work to bring science outside the walls of WashU.
St. Louis groups hope to inspire students to become scientists through ‘living lab’ (Links to an external site)
Forest Park Living Lab partners with Gateway to the Great Outdoors (GGO) to bring St. Louis metro students from low income schools to get more students interested in science, nature, and ecology.
Not-so-spooky sounds: Audio recordings help ID urban bats (Links to an external site)
WashU researchers at Tyson Research Center use acoustic recorders to detect bats.
‘Citizen scientist’ finds rare parasitic bumble bee identified through the Shutterbee Project (Links to an external site)
A citizen scientist participating in the Shutterbee Project,a research initiative supported by an LEC seed grant, discovered a rare parasitic bumblebee species, Bombus suckleyi, which was identified through the project’s efforts. This finding highlights the valuable contributions of citizen scientists to local biodiversity research and the importance of community involvement in ecological studies.
Into the forest (Links to an external site)
With its host of top-rated attractions and miles of bike paths and running trails, Forest Park has enticed generations of WashU community members to step outside the university’s campuses and explore. Today, students and faculty are venturing deeper into the woods to learn about the biodiversity that teems there and to highlight the connectedness between the natural and the human.
Forest Park Living Lab (Links to an external site)
Forest Park Living Lab is collaborative of six different partners: the Saint Louis Zoo, Washington University, St. Louis University, Forest Park Forever, the World Bird Sanctuary and the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, where researchers from around the St. Louis area are tracking animals and trying to learn more about them and how they’re adapting to the urban area around the park.
Bee Enthusiasts Swarm Webster’s Campus for the Shutterbee Symposium (Links to an external site)
On November 12, 2022,Webster University held the Shutterbee Symposium. The symposium featured 12 presentations on topics ranging from the American Goldfinch to native gardening, highlighting the project’s success in documenting nearly 39,000 individual bees in the region since its inception in 2020.
Forest Park Living Lab (Links to an external site)
St. Louis scientists including LEC postdoctoral fellow, Stella Uiterwaal, collaborate on new study of wildlife in one of America’s greatest urban parks called the Forest Park Living Lab. The Forest Park Living Lab received a LEC seed grant in 2022.
Squirrels and the city (Links to an external site)
Elizabeth Carlen is a postdoctoral fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis. She is studying how city life is changing the local populations of eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis).
Canid conservation program launched (Links to an external site)
Washington University in St. Louis and the Living Earth Collaborative are part of a new Missouri-based conservation initiative led by the Saint Louis Zoo. Working with the Endangered Wolf Center, scientists are looking to answer ecological and health-related questions about canids — red foxes, gray foxes and coyotes — as well as bobcats, which live in close association with canids.
Researchers start study on health of Missouri foxes, coyotes, and bobcats (Links to an external site)
Researchers from the St. Louis Zoo, Washington University, and the Endangered Wolf Center have initiated the Canid Conservation Initiative to study the health and ecological roles of Missouri’s foxes, coyotes, and bobcats. The study is conducted at two sites: the Tyson Research Center near Eureka and the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Park in north St. Louis County. To date, the team has collected samples from 16 opossums, 12 raccoons, one red fox, and two bobcats, with the red fox and bobcats now being monitored via GPS tracking devices.
Foxes, Coyotes, Bobcats, Oh My! A New Conservation Initiative (Links to an external site)
Researchers from WashU, Saint Louis Zoo, and the Endangered Wolf Center have have launched a collaborative research effort to investigate the ecological roles and health of Missouri’s native canids—red foxes, gray foxes, and coyotes—as well as bobcats. The research focuses on two distinct sites: the rural Tyson Research Center and the suburban Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Park, aiming to determine if these species can serve as indicators of ecosystem health.
Episode 4: The wonders of urban wildlife (Links to an external site)
National Geographic Explorer Danielle Lee reveals the incredible array of wildlife often hiding in plain sight in our cities. Her other mission? As a Black scientist, she wants to open the door for others to join the field.
From pigeon stalker to squirrel chaser: Elizabeth Carlen studies urban wildlife in St. Louis (Links to an external site)
Meet Elizabeth Carlen, a Living Earth Collaborative postdoc and NSF postdoctoral fellow working in the Losos lab at Washington University
Rooted in St. Louis: The Elizabeth Danforth Butterfly Garden (Links to an external site)
The Elizabeth “Ibby” Danforth Butterfly Garden began as a service project of the Washington University Women’s Club in 1996, to honor the eponymous wife of former chancellor William Danforth.
‘Shutterbee’ Has Biologists Asking St. Louisans To Collaborate As Backyard Naturalists (Links to an external site)
St. Louis Public Radio interview with LEC Biodiversity Fellow and Webster University faculty member, Nicole Miller-Struttmann about Shutterbee.
Caught on camera (Links to an external site)
Wildlife of greater St. Louis area comes into focus in new biodiversity project. The St. Louis Wildlife Project is a collaboration between St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the Tyson Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis. The project aims to quantify biodiversity and improve the understanding of wildlife ecology in the greater St. Louis area.