Parrots and the city: modeling potential corridors in an urban environment

Urbanization is a worldwide problem affecting wildlife negatively. Cities cause habitat suppression, fragmentation, among other disease spreading, suitable conditions for exotic species, and direct animal kills—consequently, local native species might be extinct. Still, urban areas can also provide biodiversity maintenance because some species can be adapted to the urban environment. Here, we assess how the urban environment influences the displacement of native turquoise-fronted Amazon ( Amazona aestiva ). We created a map of environmental suitability to modeling A. aestiva displacement routes among three protected areas in Brasilia, Brazil. We tested (1) if the modeled corridors tend to be near to the areas where A. aestiva occurs and (2) how landscape spatial heterogeneity influences those modeled routes. We expected to observe oriented routes in homogeneous areas (few pixels with high-frequency selection), and the opposite in heterogeneous areas. To test our hypotheses, we recorded A. aestiva and correlated its presence/absence with the modeled corridors and correlated the landscape spatial heterogeneity with different metrics of the modeled corridors. Our results indicate that at least one of the modeled routes was near to the points with parrots. In general, potential dispersal routes with little spatial variation occurred in homogeneous areas. In the urban matrix, potential routes were less oriented with more spatial variation. Our results suggest the adoption of different strategies to manage the natural environment in an urban matrix. By managing the spatial heterogeneity, it is possible to direct how the species use the space, promoting the displacement to desired areas, avoiding the more urbanized ones.