As urbanisation increases, wildlife is more likely to be exposed to humans. Although human disturbance is the main cause of biodiversity loss, some wildlife thrives in anthropogenic environments. Such species show increased behavioural tolerance to humans, which plays an important role in human-wildlife coexistence. However, whether wildlife modulates tolerance differently between regions and cities is inadequately understood. Understanding how animals behaviourally modulate their tolerance to humans at the larger geographical scale can provide useful information to predict behavioural adaptations to urbanisation and adequate management actions for conservation. We examined alert distance (AD), flight initiation distance (FID), and vertical escape distance (VED) in Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in four countries (Finland, Germany, Japan, and the UK). Linear mixed models with Tukey’s multicomparisons showed that all tolerance measures varied between countries. We subsequently analysed the relationship between site-scale environmental variables (vegetation conditions, presence of artificial feeding, and human population density) and tolerance behaviours separately by country. We found that squirrels were more tolerant in sites with taller trees and more underbrush cover in the UK,and more tolerant in sites with artificial feeding in Japan, while environmental variables were not associated with squirrels’ tolerance in Finland and Germany. Our results indicated that regional forms of environmental factors and human-squirrel interactions play a key role in tolerance modification at the larger spatial scale. Our study suggests the importance of considering regional-dependent relationships between tolerance behaviours and environmental characteristics for urban wildlife conservation and management.

中文翻译：

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对人类的区域依赖性耐受性：树栖松鼠水平和垂直逃生距离的多国比较


随着城市化进程的加快，野生动物更有可能接触到人类。尽管人类干扰是生物多样性丧失的主要原因，但一些野生动物在人为环境中茁壮成长。这些物种表现出对人类行为容忍度的增强，这在人类与野生动物的共存中起着重要作用。然而，野生动物是否对地区和城市之间的耐受性产生不同的调节作用尚不清楚。了解动物如何在更大的地理尺度上通过行为调节它们对人类的耐受性，可以为预测对城市化的行为适应和适当的保护管理行动提供有用的信息。我们检查了四个国家（芬兰、德国、日本和英国）的欧亚红松鼠 （Sciurus vulgaris） 的警觉距离 （AD） 、飞行起始距离 （FID） 和垂直逃逸距离 （VED）。具有 Tukey 多重比较的线性混合模型表明，所有容忍度指标都因国家而异。随后，我们按国家分别分析了场地规模环境变量（植被条件、人工喂养的存在和人口密度）与耐受性行为之间的关系。我们发现，在英国，松鼠在树木较高、灌木丛覆盖较多的地点更耐受，在日本，松鼠在人工喂养的地点更耐受，而在芬兰和德国，环境变量与松鼠的耐受性无关。我们的结果表明，环境因素的区域形式和人松鼠互动在更大空间尺度的耐受性改变中起着关键作用。 我们的研究表明，考虑容忍行为和环境特征之间的区域依赖关系对于城市野生动物保护和管理具有重要意义。