Natural habitats have been converted to urban areas across the globe such that many landscapes now represent matrices of developed and protected lands. As urbanization continues to expand, associated pressures on wildlife will increase, including effects on animals in adjacent protected habitats. For prey species (e.g., ungulates), an understanding of the ecological impacts of urbanization is typically confounded by coincident effects from co-occurring predators. Yet, understanding how urbanization affects prey behaviors in the absence of predators is becoming increasingly relevant as many top predators face extirpation. We placed camera traps at varying distances from urban areas within protected areas in the Florida Keys, USA, to evaluate the influence of urbanization on the behavior of the key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium), an endangered species that has been without non-human mammalian predators for ∼ 4000 years. We predicted that as distance to urban areas decreased, key deer would use sites at the same rate, exhibit bigger group sizes, and shift activity patterns to be more nocturnal. Our results indicate that intensity of site use decreased with proximity to urban areas, potentially reflecting human avoidance. Group size increased closer to urban areas, consistent with other studies relating this behavior to anthropogenic subsidies and vigilance for humans. Activity patterns changed but did not become more nocturnal near urban areas as predicted by global analyses relating human disturbance to wildlife nocturnality. Our results have important implications for ungulate behavioral ecology and, taken together, suggest that influences on protected species from adjacent land uses are an important consideration when planning land use and designing protected areas.

自然栖息地已在全球范围内转变为城市地区，因此许多景观现在代表了发达和受保护土地的矩阵。随着城市化的不断扩大，对野生动物的相关压力将会增加，包括对邻近受保护栖息地的动物的影响。对于猎物（例如，有蹄类动物），对城市化的生态影响的理解通常会被同时发生的捕食者的巧合影响所混淆。然而，随着许多顶级捕食者面临灭绝，了解城市化如何在没有捕食者的情况下影响猎物行为变得越来越重要。我们在美国佛罗里达群岛保护区内距市区不同距离的地方放置了相机陷阱，以评估城市化对关键鹿行为的影响。Odocoileus virginianus clavium)，一种濒临灭绝的物种，已经有 4000 年没有非人类哺乳动物捕食者了。我们预测，随着与市区距离的缩短，主要鹿将以相同的速度使用地点，表现出更大的群体规模，并将活动模式转变为更加夜间活动。我们的结果表明，随着靠近城市地区，场地使用强度降低，这可能反映了人类的回避。群体规模越来越接近城市地区，这与其他将这种行为与人为补贴和对人类的警惕性相关的研究一致。正如将人类干扰与野生动物夜间活动联系起来的全球分析所预测的那样，活动模式发生了变化，但并未在城市附近变得更加夜间活动。我们的结果对有蹄类动物的行为生态学具有重要意义，并且综合起来，