Brown, W. M. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2023

Spatial analysis of environmental factors at found locations of orphaned mammals (Didelphis virginiana, Procyon lotor, Sciurus carolinensis, and Sylvilagus floridanus) in Champaign County, Illinois, USA

Interactions between people and wildlife are increasing as developments encroach on nature. Concurrently, neonatal and juvenile mammals are presented to rehabilitation centers as real or perceived "orphans", believed to be lacking appropriate parental care for survival. Four common orphaned mammals presented to wildlife rehabilitation facilities are the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana, DIVI), common raccoon (Procyon lotor, PRLO), eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis, SCCA), and eastern cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus, SYFL). As some individuals are unnecessarily taken from their habitat, there is a benefit to characterizing where they are collected. This study utilized Geographic Information System to examine the spatial relationship between the environment and originating locations of orphans presented to the University of Illinois Wildlife Medical Clinic within Champaign County from 2015-2020 (99 Virginia opossums, 80 common raccoons, 441 eastern gray squirrels, and 602 eastern cottontails). Environmental factors evaluated included percent tree canopy, land cover classification, and distance to water. Overall, these species were frequently found in highly developed areas (p < 0.001), near water (p < 0.027), with a low percent canopy (p < 0.001). Our analysis identifies environments associated with greater human-wildlife interactions and opportunities for targeted educational outreach.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

The drivers of West Nile virus human illness: fine scale dynamic effects of weather, mosquito infection, social, and biological conditions

West Nile virus (WNV) has consistently been reported to be associated with human cases of illness in the region near Chicago, Illinois. However, the number of reported cases of human illness varies across years, with intermittent outbreaks. Several dynamic factors, including temperature, rainfall, and infection status of vector mosquito populations, are responsible for much of these observed variations. However, local landscape structure and human demographic characteristics also play a key role. The geographic and temporal scales used to analyze such complex data affect the observed associations. Here, we used spatial and statistical modeling approaches to investigate the factors that drive the outcome of WNV human illness on fine temporal and spatial scales. Our approach included multi-level modeling of long-term weekly data from 2005 to 2016, with weekly measures of mosquito infection, human illness and weather combined with more stable landscape and demographic factors on the geographical scale of 1000m hexagons. We found that hot weather conditions, warm winters, and higher MIR in earlier weeks increased the probability of an area of having a WNV human case. Higher population and the proportion of urban light intensity in an area also increased the probability of observing a WNV human case. A higher proportion of open water sources, percentage of grass land, deciduous forests, and housing built post 1990 decreased the probability of having a WNV case. Additionally, we found that cumulative positive mosquito pools up to 31 weeks can strongly predict the total annual human WNV cases in the Chicago region. This study helped us to improve our understanding of the fine-scale drivers of spatiotemporal variability of human WNV cases.

bioinformatics↗