Ongoing urbanization and land transformation drive profound changes in ecosystems worldwide, with wildlife responding in myriad ways. Particularly, functional homogenization of wildlife communities due to these widespread changes may reduce biodiversity and urban ecosystem resilience. However, there are benefits of urbanization (e.g., increased resources and survival) for some mammal species, likely supported by corresponding traits that facilitate the exploitation of human-dominated landscapes. Using data collected simultaneously from 107 sites throughout the contiguous United States, we explored how urban development, agricultural development, and environmental factors affected mammalian functional diversity (i.e., richness, evenness, and divergence of effect traits) and mean species' traits at two spatial scales. Although we expected that urbanization would lead to mammal community functional homogenization, we found that urban development was positively associated with functional richness at the camera-site and all three functional metrics at the camera-array scales, whereas environmental variables (i.e., primary productivity, temperature) were not associated with any functional diversity metric. Sampling locations with greater urban development were associated with mammals that had smaller average home ranges, smaller average body sizes, and decreased mean rates of carnivory and scavenging. Identifying the effects of anthropogenic development on ecosystem functioning, as mediated by species' traits, is crucial as urban landscapes continue to expand globally.

Numerous avian species use anthropogenic materials in constructing nests, particularly in urbanized environments. Researchers have demonstrated anthropogenic materials, including plastics, to have both beneficial and harmful effects on survival and reproduction. During the spring of 2018, we collected 45 black-crested titmouse Baeolophus atricristatus nests in San Marcos, Texas, with two objectives: 1) to assess and compare the mass and proportion of nest materials along an urban gradient and 2) to examine the relationship between nest materials, clutch size, and hatching success. We categorized each nest based on collection location as urban, residential, park, or rural and separated nest materials into six categories: leaves, snake skin, twigs, moss, plastic, and nonplastic artificial materials. We then compared raw mass and proportion of mass of each nest material among urbanization categories. Nests in the urban category were 1.6???1.9 times lighter in mass than nests in other locations along the urban gradient (P 1/4 0.01) and contained 4???5 times greater proportion, but not mass, of plastic compared to nests in all other locations. Nests in residential areas contained the greatest mass of combined anthropogenic materials. Neither clutch size nor hatching success differed based on urbanization category, nest mass, or proportions of anthropogenic or natural nest materials. The differences in mass of nests and increased proportion of plastics could have been due to a lack of natural nesting materials; however, we did not estimate availability of nesting materials at any location. Results add to the growing literature that the use of anthropogenic materials in nests varies across an urban gradient, and the effect of anthropogenic materials on nesting parameters varies among species.

Abstract Although the COVID‐19 lockdowns in 2020 had some environmental benefits, the pandemic's impact on the global economy has also had conservation repercussions, especially in biodiverse nations. Ecuador, which is heavily reliant on petroleum, agricultural exports, and ecotourism, experienced a rise in poverty in response to pandemic shutdowns. In this study, we sought to quantify levels of illegal timber extraction and poaching before and after the start of COVID‐19 lockdowns throughout two protected areas (Reserva Jama Coaque [JCR] and Bosque Seco Lalo Loor [BSLL]) in the endangered Pacific Forest of Ecuador. We analyzed chainsaw and gunshot acoustic data recorded from devices installed in the forest canopy from December 2019 to March 2020 and October 2020 to March 2021. Results from generalized linear mixed effects models indicated less chainsaw activity before lockdowns (βpost.lockdown = 0.568 ± 0.266 SE, p‐value = .030), although increased average rainfall also seemed to negatively affect chainsaw activity (βavg.rainfall = −0.002 ± 0.0006 SE, p‐value = .003). Gunshots were too infrequent to conduct statistical models; however, 87% of gunshots were detected during the ‘lockdown’ period. Observational data collected by rangers from these protected areas also noted an increase in poaching activities beginning mid to late 2020 and persisting into 2021. These results add to the steadily growing literature indicating an increase in environmental crime, particularly in biodiverse nations, catalyzed by COVID‐19‐related economic hardships. Identifying areas where environmental crime increased during pandemic lockdowns is vital to address both socioeconomic drivers and enforcement deficiencies to prevent further biodiversity loss and disease outbreaks and to promote ecosystem resilience. Our study also demonstrates the utility of passive acoustic monitoring to detect illegal resource extraction patterns, which can inform strategies such as game theory modeling for ranger patrol circuits and placement of real‐time acoustic detection technologies to monitor and mitigate environmental crimes.

With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August-24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1,509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian's eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the United States. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban-wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as will future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this paper when using the data for publication.