For the first time in history, http://www.selleckchem.com/products/PD-98059.html the majority of the human population resides within urban areas, with over 3 billion people living in cities across the world (UNFPA, 2007; Gehrt, 2010). Gehrt (2010) defines ‘urban’ as an area of human residence, activity and associated land area developed for those purposes, usually defined by a threshold human density. These large groupings of people and associated structures comprise at least one town or city (Gehrt, 2010) and include a wide range of anthropogenic disturbances, including buildings and associated infrastructure, for example, gardens, roads, waste ground and parkland (Baker & Harris, 2007). However, the definition of what is classified

as ‘urban’ varies greatly depending on geographic location, which, in part, may reflect population density present in the country. Furthermore, while city centres may represent the extreme of anthropogenically altered environments, city suburbs, villages and small towns or even rural farmland also represent challenges in terms of altered landscapes (Fig. 1). With the spread of urban environments (e.g. McKinney, 2002; Radeloff et al., 2005), many terrestrial species have withdrawn into selleck chemicals llc reduced ranges; this response is particularly noticeable in mammalian carnivores (Woodroffe & Ginsberg, 1998; Woodroffe, 2000; Cardillo et al., click here 2004). Many carnivore

species actively avoid urban areas, rapidly disappearing from encroaching urban spread (‘urbanophobes’, sensu Witte, Diesing & Godde, 1985, ‘urban avoiders’, sensu McKinney, 2006). A number of other species, however, can be described as truly urban dwellers, maintaining varying levels of intimacy with humans, residing within cities and built-up areas across the globe, despite the significantly artificial environment. For some, cities have grown up around their preferred habitat; their presence close to human societies therefore represents continuation of a somewhat altered lifestyle (e.g. Radeloff et al., 2005), and they usually do not make extensive use of anthropogenic

resources, largely still relying on natural resources (‘urban adapters’, sensu McKinney, 2006). By contrast, fully synanthropic species (‘urban exploiters’, sensu McKinney, 2006) may actively invade city environments, make use of anthropogenic food and shelter, and often attain population densities far above those found for rural habitats. In this paper, we have reviewed available information on carnivores dwelling in urban environments (either as ‘urban adapters’ or ‘urban exploiters’) and compare these with species that have not successfully adapted to the urban environment (‘urban avoiders’). Why review the biology and ecology of urban carnivores? Firstly, as cities grow, we are removing alternative habitat for these animals.