Associate Professor Dieter Hochuli, a biologist at the University of Sydney, believes that ‘we need to understand how cities are changing the ecology of the systems they are built on, and how plants and animals are adapting to them’.
Gardens filled with flowering plants and fruit trees favour omnivorous birds such as currawongs, bowerbirds, and the city's most despised resident—the noisy miner bird. ‘They're a real winner in cities,’ Australian Museum ornithologist Richard Major says. ‘The predominant driver in the decline of small birds is that we've made a suitable environment for native noisy miners.’
Many invertebrates, such as the golden orb weaver spider and the blue triangle butterfly, also relish living in the city. The golden orb spiders in Sydney are fatter and fitter than species found elsewhere and Professor Hochuli and his team are trying to understand why. ‘We're trying to determine whether it's more food or the urban heat …, as it's up to four degrees warmer in the city.’
Catherine Price is trying to understand what encourages the little mammal into urban environments. ‘We don't know if it's an overflow from the park, or if they've got particular survival traits that allow them to evade dogs and cats, and use the urban habitat that benefits them,’ she says.
Questions
1. It is not clear why one small animal is moving from its natural environment.
2. Hot weather might positively affect the health of a species.
3. Sydney's residential gardens suit some species better than others.
4. Research into the natural world's responses to urban settings is vital.