War, politics and belief shape the evolution of urban wildlife

The Syrian civil war drove the sparrows to the local area of ​​the bombed community extinction. Buddhism prays that animals are released to spread invasive beef in Asian cities.

Apartheid policies in American cities have created genetic bottlenecks in urban wildlife populations. These are not stories of sociology, but evolve in actions driven by the greatest power: religion, politics, and war.

A broad new analysis published in Natural Cities reveals how social and political unrest can reshape the evolutionary trajectory of urban wildlife in ways scientists have hardly begun to understand. The international research team believes that the power of ignoring these human-driven forces leaves a huge gap in our understanding of how cities shape life itself.

Sacred space, evolutionary consequences

“For a long time, we’ve separated people from biology. But humans, especially in urban areas, are a very positive part of biology and our decisions have consequences,” said Elizabeth Carlen, a survival Earth collaboration after the Life Earth collaboration at Washington University of St. Louis of St. Louis and co-leading author of the study.

Religious practices create unexpected evolutionary pressures throughout the urban landscape. In Oviedo, Spain, walls built around religious buildings triggered genetic drifts of fire sals, causing significant genetic differences between inside and outside the fence area. Meanwhile, in the Karni Mata Temple in India, thousands of black rats flourish under religious protection, providing far more people every day by priests and devotees than can be maintained by natural environment.

These are not isolated incidents. The sacred woods of Indian cities, the cemetery habitats of European cities and the temple grounds of Asia all serve as evolutionary refuges that apply different selection pressures. Species may be protected from predation, enhanced food supply or altered social dynamics that may promote rapid evolutionary changes.

Political fragmented city genome

Political decisions reshape urban landscapes with far-reaching genetic consequences. The most striking examples come from the United States, where historical policies such as the Red Line and the Racial Covenant have created lasting environmental inequality that affect the evolution of wildlife today.

Research shows that these discriminatory practices lead to systematic differences in urban green space distribution along racial and economic routes. The downstream effects are measurable at the genetic level:

• Historically, wildlife populations in Red Line communities show a decrease in genetic diversity
• Limited green corridors among ethnic minority communities limit gene flow
• Parks in poorer areas usually have fewer trees and bushes, reducing habitat connections
• These patterns create evolutionary “deserts” where wildlife populations become increasingly isolated

A similar pattern comes from Europe’s political transformation after 1989. The collapse of the Communist government has triggered intensive urban development, which could reduce genetic flows and wildlife populations in 15 countries, although the hypothesis is largely untested.

War is an evolutionary force

Armed conflict has created some of the most extreme evolutionary pressures. During the siege in Sarajevo, three-quarters of the urban trees in the siege line were cut into firewood, devastating habitat corridors and broken wildlife populations. Similar deforestation occurred in Bachmut and Trojans in Ukraine as residents sought heating fuel during the conflict.

The ongoing war in Ukraine provides real-time case studies in conflict-driven evolution. Russian air strikes triggered more than 37,000 fires, affecting about 250,000 acres of Ukrainian forests. Meanwhile, human evacuation from Kharkiv allowed roe deer and wild boars to recolonize urban parks after a decade of absence and had the potential to restore gene flow patterns.

Paradoxically, post-conflict zones can sometimes become unexpected wildlife reserves. Founded in 1953, the demilitarized zone of the Korean War has evolved into an unexpected nature reserve, where Asian black bears, Amur leopards and yellow-throated Martels are back decades after their absence.

Digital evolution tracking

Modern technology offers unprecedented opportunities to document the evolution it takes place. “Digital technology enables us to revolutionize the data we collect,” Karen noted. “One of our co-authors published a paper on social media coverage of animal changes during the war.

This approach – social media introducing wildlife observations during conflicts, which should change how scientists study the evolution of war zones that traditional research has become impossible.

The research team stressed that understanding the socio-political driving force of these evolutions is not just academic curiosity. As urban planners design future cities, considering evolutionary processes can help create environments that benefit humans and wildlife. Key insights? Cities are not only concrete and steel, but human decisions become evolutionary laboratories for the power of natural selection.

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