Behavioural responses of wildlife to urban environments

This influential review synthesised how animals adjust behaviour to survive in cities, organising responses into categories such as altered activity timing, boldness, foraging on anthropogenic food, and modified communication under noise and light. Drawing examples from many taxa including carnivores, the authors framed behavioural flexibility as the proximate mechanism enabling urban colonisation, distinguishing plastic responses from evolutionary adaptation. The review became a touchstone for urban behavioural ecology, providing the conceptual vocabulary used to interpret nocturnality shifts, reduced fear and dietary opportunism in urban felids. It clarified why some species thrive in cities while others cannot, centring behaviour as the key filter of urban tolerance.