Predation and Scavenging in the City: A Review of Spatio-Temporal Trends in Research

Abstract

Many researchers highlight the role of urban ecology in a rapidly urbanizing world. Despite the ecological and conservation implications relating to carnivores in cities, our general understanding of their potential role in urban food webs lacks synthesis. In this paper, we reviewed the scientific literature on urban carnivores with the aim of identifying major biases in this topic of research. In particular, we explored the number of articles dealing with predation and scavenging, and assessed the geographical distribution, biomes and habitats represented in the scientific literature, together with the richness of species reported and their traits. Our results confirmed that scavenging is largely overlooked compared to predation in urban carnivore research. Moreover, research was biased towards cities located in temperate biomes, while tropical regions were less well-represented, a pattern that was more evident in the case of articles on scavenging. The species reported in both predation and scavenging articles were mainly wild and domestic mammals with high meat-based diets and nocturnal habits, and the majority of the studies were conducted in the interior zone of cities compared to peri-urban areas. Understanding the trophic role of carnivores in urban environments and its ecological consequences will require full recognition of both their predation and scavenging facets, which is especially desirable given the urban sprawl that has been predicted in the coming decades.