Conclusions
The luxury effect for urban wildlife manifests as strong selection by
black-tailed deer for landscape features associated with wealth which
provide resource subsidies. Large residential lots of the wealthy had
the greatest positive effect on urban deer habitat selection, in
combination with protected green spaces and golf courses and with a
smaller effect of smaller residential lots. Our research illuminates
some of the mechanisms of the luxury effect of urban wildlife observed
across the globe, which are driven by subsidies of water and vegetation
(Chamberlain, Henry, Reynolds, Caprio and Amar 2019, Leong, Dunn and
Trautwein 2018, Magle, Fidino, Sander, Rohnke, Larson, Gallo, Kay,
Lehrer, Murray and Adalsteinsson 2021). Here, the conversion of
historical drought-resistant Garry oak ecosystems into lush and
landscaped urban environments have altered deer selection. The
consequences for biodiversity more generally remains unknown; we can
surmise greater biodiversity with luxury as observed elsewhere
(Chamberlain, Henry, Reynolds, Caprio and Amar 2019, Magle, Fidino,
Sander, Rohnke, Larson, Gallo, Kay, Lehrer, Murray and Adalsteinsson
2021), but given the negative effects on biodiversity of highly abundant
deer (Beckett, Elle, Kremen, Sherwood, McComb and Martin 2022, Côté,
Rooney, Tremblay, Dussault and Waller 2004, Martin, Arcese and Scheerder
2011) this is worth close examination. As urbanization continues to
expand around the world, thrusting humans into higher densities and
radically altering the habitats for millions of species, the mechanisms
driving urban biodiversity should be a 21st century
focus for wildlife ecology, so that future planning can effectively
allow for coexistence of urban population and wildlife approximating as
much as possible natural conditions.