Cities Support More Threatened Species Than Wild Areas Do in Australia

When you think of wild animals, you usually think of the country or woodlands far away from human civilization. Now, though, researchers have found that cities may just host more threatened species than what can be found outside of urban areas.

Our planet is currently facing a catastrophic species extinction crisis. The dominant approach to conservation during this time has been to focus on protecting pristine environments. However, the new researchers suggests that on average, urban environments contain disproportionately more threatened protected species in a given area than non-urban environments.

In this study, the scientists looked at the distributions of 1,643 protected species in Australia. They then counted up the number of these species that occurred in square-kilometer units across the continent. By comparing the cells found in cities with those located in non-urban areas, the researchers were able to see the relative importance of cities when it came to conserving nationally-protected species.

All of the cities in Australia contained protected species, and 30 percent of the species listed as protected in Australia inhabited urban environments. Cities consistently supported a greater number of protected species than other areas.

"Our results show that to tackle species extinction we can no longer afford to ignore the places where most of us live and work," said Christopher Ives, co-lead author of the new study, in a news release. "In Australia, every city has a role to play in safeguarding the country's most threatened biodiversity."

The findings are published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

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