Urbanization significantly impacts the health and viability of wildlife populations yet it is not well understood how urban landscapes differ from non-urban landscapes with regard to their effects on wildlife. This study investigated the physiological response of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) to land use at a landscape scale. Using fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) we compared stress levels of kangaroo populations in urban and non-urban environments. We modeled FGM concentrations from 24 kangaroo populations against land use (urban or non-urban) and other anthropogenic and environmental factors, using a linear modeling approach. We found that land use was a significant predictor of FGM concentrations in eastern grey kangaroos with significant differences in concentrations between urban and non-urban populations. However, the direction of the relationship differed between northern and southern regions of Australia. In the northern study sites, kangaroos in urban areas had significantly higher FGM levels than their non-urban counterparts. In contrast, in southern sites, where kangaroos occur in high densities in many urban areas, urban kangaroos had lower FGM concentrations than non-urban kangaroos. Rainfall and temperature were also significant predictors of FGM and the direction of the relationship was consistent across both regions. These results are consistent with the contrasting abundance and persistence of kangaroo populations within the urban matrix between the two study regions. In the northern region many populations have declined over the last two decades and are fragmented, also occurring at lower densities than in southern sites. Our study indicates that it is the characteristics of urban environments, rather than the urban environment per se, which determines the extent of impacts of urbanization on kangaroos. This research provides insights into how the design of urban landscapes can influence large mammal populations.

中文翻译：

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并非所有城市景观都是相同的：大型草食哺乳动物的城市土地利用与压力之间的相互作用。

城市化对野生动植物种群的健康和生存能力产生重大影响，但人们对城市景观与非城市景观对野生动植物的影响之间的差异还知之甚少。这项研究调查了东部灰色袋鼠（Macropus giganteus）对景观规模土地利用的生理反应。使用粪便糖皮质激素代谢物（FGM），我们比较了城市和非城市环境中袋鼠种群的应激水平。我们使用线性建模方法对24个袋鼠种群的FGM浓度与土地利用（城市或非城市）以及其他人为和环境因素进行了建模。我们发现，土地使用是东部灰色袋鼠中FGM浓度的重要预测指标，而城市人口和非城市人口的浓度差异显着。然而，澳大利亚北部和南部地区之间的关系方向不同。在北部的研究地点，城市地区的袋鼠的外阴残割率明显高于非城市的袋鼠。相反，在南部城市，袋鼠在许多城市中以高密度发生，城市袋鼠的FGM浓度低于非城市袋鼠。降雨和温度也是FGM的重要预测因子，并且在两个地区之间的关系方向是一致的。这些结果与两个研究区域之间城市矩阵中袋鼠种群的丰富度和持久性形成鲜明对比。在北部地区，过去二十年来许多人口减少了，而且分散了，密度也低于南部地区。我们的研究表明，决定城市化对袋鼠的影响程度的是城市环境的特征，而不是城市环境本身。这项研究提供了有关城市景观设计如何影响大型哺乳动物种群的见识。