Urbanization is one of the biggest global threats to biodiversity. However, urban areas can offer opportunities for biodiversity conservation because of the assortment of resources and numerous taxa that occur in these habitats. While the use of gardens by animals is well documented, the ability of native fauna to exclusively use (i.e. reside in) them is largely uninvestigated and therefore constrains our current understanding of their conservation ‘value’. We aimed to determine whether individuals of a threatened species can exclusively reside in gardens for several months of their life, and the frequency that novel resources (i.e. non-natural) are used compared to natural ones. We predicted that individuals captured in gardens would use both bushland and residential habitat, and use natural resources more frequently than novel resources because of the assumption that remnant habitat is more suitable than modified gardens. Using the Critically Endangered western ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus occidentalis) as a case study, we captured 20 individuals in gardens and radio-tracked them for a period of 95 ± 3.3 days to determine their habitat use. Contrary to our predictions, for the duration of our study individuals exclusively resided within gardens, irrespective of proximity to bushland, and used novel resources more frequently than natural resources for all behaviours. We also found that over half (53%) of all the captured female possums had pouch young, and at the conclusion of the study, male possums were on average 43 g heavier. Our results exemplify that gardens can be of sufficient quality to support individuals, and that these modified habitats should be incorporated into conservation policy in urban landscapes. Given the extensive number of threatened species located within cities globally, our finding that a threatened species can reside exclusively within gardens further highlights the conservation opportunity that residential landscapes and cities offer wildlife.

中文翻译：

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极度濒危的有袋动物称住宅花园为家

城市化是生物多样性面临的最大全球威胁之一。然而，城市地区可以为生物多样性保护提供机会，因为这些栖息地中存在各种各样的资源和众多分类群。虽然动物对花园的使用有据可查，但本地动物群专门使用（即居住）它们的能力在很大程度上未经调查，因此限制了我们目前对其保护“价值”的理解。我们的目的是确定受威胁物种的个体是否可以在其生命中的几个月内专门居住在花园中，以及与天然资源相比使用新资源（即非天然资源）的频率。我们预测在花园中捕获的个体将同时使用丛林和住宅栖息地，并且比新资源更频繁地使用自然资源，因为假设残余栖息地比改造后的花园更合适。使用极度濒危的西部环尾负鼠 (西方伪足) 作为案例研究，我们在花园中捕获了 20 只个体，并对它们进行了 95 ± 3.3 天的无线电跟踪，以确定它们的栖息地用途。与我们的预测相反，在我们的研究期间，个人完全居住在花园内，无论是否靠近丛林，并且在所有行为中使用新资源的频率高于自然资源。我们还发现，在所有捕获的雌性负鼠中，超过一半 (53%) 都有幼袋，在研究结束时，雄性负鼠平均重 43 克。我们的研究结果表明，花园的质量足以支持个人，并且这些改良的栖息地应纳入城市景观的保护政策中。鉴于全球城市中存在大量受威胁物种，