Research overview: demographic effects of food subsidies on urban carnivores

Reliable anthropogenic food can boost carnivore survival and reproduction, producing higher densities and altered population dynamics in subsidised urban environments. This overview synthesises research on how food subsidies influence litter size, juvenile survival, body condition and population growth in urban carnivores, with implications for felids exploiting abundant prey near cities. It examines how subsidies can create population sources or ecological traps where high density coincides with elevated mortality from roads and poisons, and how demography responds to changes in food availability. The synthesis frames anthropogenic food as a powerful demographic driver shaping the size and stability of urban carnivore populations.