Abstract

Urbanization impacts wildlife survival by altering foraging decisions and introducing anthropogenic food sources, like waste. Foraging behaviours are critical to animal survival, and understanding these decisions provides insights into species adaptation and resilience, which can inform biodiversity conservation strategies. While the physical impacts of ingesting waste are well-documented, the nuanced behavioural aspects are often overlooked. This thesis explored foraging route choice among Eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) through an experimental field study on wild urban squirrels, compared these data with Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), and investigated how anthropogenic food sources alter foraging strategies in urban vertebrates through a literature review. In Chapter 2, I used a 1mx2m multi-destination, Z-shaped foraging array to collect 62 foraging trials on squirrels at Mount Royal Park in Montreal. Comparing these data with macaque data from Joyce et al. (2021), I found that squirrels (1) foraged more slowly, (2) exhibited a higher rate of platform revisiting, and (3) chose routes consistent with heuristic use at a similar rate to macaques. Observations also indicated that garbage and human food waste were an important part of the squirrels’ diet, leading to Chapter 3's exploration of how urban trash affects wildlife behaviour. I found that urban species foraging on waste modify their behaviours in various ways, including adopting new behaviours, changes in foraging methods, timing, energy budgets and social behaviours. My research enhances our understanding of urban mammal foraging behaviour and my literature review highlights the specific behaviours urban species adopt to thrive in urbanized settings.