Between Walls and Wilds: Myocastor coypus Abundance and Ocurrence in Gated and Open Communities Buenos Aires, Argentina

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4830447/v1

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Between Walls and Wilds: Myocastor coypus Abundance and Ocurrence in Gated and Open Communities Buenos Aires, Argentina

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4830447/v1

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Urban development changes landscapes and creates new environmental conditions, causing local wildlife to either become extinct or expand to new areas. An example is the Myocastor coypus, are increasingly establishing themselves in urban habitats, even within its natural distribution range. This species has the potential to impact crop production and natural vegetation, generating conflicts with humans. In the Conurbano Bonaerense, the construction of gated communities creates new niches for this species. This study aimed to analyze how the main characteristics of urban developments in the Conurbano Bonaerense (type of urbanization and water body and geographical location) are associated with the abundance and occurrence of M. coypus. Sampling was conducted during 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 in the peak activity season of the species, in open and gated communities across the Conurbano Bonaerense, covering approximately 3,680 km². The presence of the species and its signs of activity were recorded in 331 transects along streams and ponds at 24 sampling sites evenly distributed. The occurrence and abundance were higher in gated communities (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the occurrence of the species was higher in lentic water bodies compared to lotic water bodies (p < 0.05). The probability of the species reaching pest levels per transect was 0.62 (95% CI = 0.26–0.98) of gated communities, while in open communities, it was only 0.1 (95% CI = 0-0.2). These results emphasize the need for a multidisciplinary approach to develop management strategies and deepen the study of the species ecology at a local level.

Urban wetland

megadevelopments

Myocastor coypus

wildlife

management

Urban expansion is a drastic anthropogenic process that produces degradation, reduction, and fragmentation of natural habitats, along with the homogenization of the biota. (Marzluff and Ewing 2008; Escalante and Aguilar-Ortega 2021). Diverse populations of native species respond to this change agreeing to their species characteristics and the type and intensity of the disturbance (Suraci et al. 2021). In this context, species may become locally extinct or adapt to urban conditions (McKinney 2002; Tablado and Jenni 2017). The interactions between human and wildlife populations can be diverse (West et al. 2016; O 'Bryan et al. 2018). Wildlife may invade human spaces and pose threats, while humans may degrade habitats or perceive animals as threats (Corriale and Arenas 2016; Rothenburger et al. 2017).

The coypu (Myocastor coypus Molina 1782) is a semi-aquatic rodent native to southeastern South America (Mann 1978). Being a species with semi-aquatic habits, it requires an environment with permanent water relatively close by, mainly freshwater lakes and lagoons (Porini et al. 2019). Currently, is one of the world's worst invasive mammals, having major ecological and economic consequences. (Tricarico et al. 2016; Vaissi and Rezaei 2023; Wang 2023). Because to the use of its fur, it has been introduced outside of its native range and now occurs on all continents except Oceania and Antarctica (Schertler et al. 2020; Pedruzzi et al. 2022). This has led to severe economic damages in crops, forest plantations, and drainage systems (Carter and Leonard 2002; Bounds et al. 2003). Additionally, coypu populations are associated with diseases affecting humans (Moutou 1997) and negatively impacting native plant communities (Moss 1983). In Argentina, the coypu has substantial social and economic benefits due to its high-quality meat and fur. Historically, it was one of the most exploited wildlife species (Bó et al. 2006; Porini et al. 2019). Notably, coypus are increasingly establishing themselves in urban hábitats (Sheffels 2013), even within their natural distribution. This also generates conflicts in urban environments, mainly because of burrow building on the edges of the ponds and due to the foraging behavior, that leaves big patches of bare ground on gardens (Corriale and Arenas 2017). This poses challenges in controlling population density while ensuring the maintenance of the populations, since it is a native species, its status as a pest is controversial.

In recent decades, Latin America has experienced accelerated urban growth (MacGregor-Fors and Ortega Álvarez 2013). Currently, the city of Buenos Aires is the sixteenth largest metropolis in the world, with a population bigger than 15 million (UN 2024). The city of Buenos Aires is made up of by 41 different districts: the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires and 40 counties of the Buenos Aires province that it surround it (INDEC 2003). Currently, due to urban expansion, the Conurbano Bonaerense are made up of 30 of the 40 provinces of the Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (INDEC 2003). Geographically, it is characterized by being a predominantly flat territory that extends along the estuary of the Río de la Plata, where a system of basins of rivers and streams flow perpendicular to the coast (Rotger 2018). Due to the waterlogged and inaccessible soil conditions, many areas of the Buenos Aires suburbs were not urbanized until there was an improvement in the highway system connecting with the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (Fernández et al. 2010). Since they were considered unproductive, unhealthy and degraded lands (Ríos & Caruso 2021), and of low economic value, the expansion was focused on the northern area of the Conurbano Bonaerense, in the wetlands belonging to the Luján River basin), the natural distribution area of coypu (Porini et al. 2009). This way, since the 1990s, the expansion process of real estate megadevelopments has confronted two types of urban conglomerates. Gated communities aimed at middle and upper class sectors (Fernández et al. 2010; Randado Díaz 2010; Giusti 2013) and historical informal settlements occupied by middle and lower class populations (Clichevsky 2002; Pírez 2004). This transformation of the environment involves filling flood-prone areas, building artificial ponds, and diverting natural water streams (Fernández et al. 2010; Pintos and Sgroi 2012). In last years, has reported the establishment of coypu in gated communities (Corriale and Abdenur-Araos 2024a, b). As a consequence of the increase in conflicts, the population of coypu is threatened by illegal hunting or capture. However, the situation of the coypu in the nearby open communities is not well documented. Although it is known that inhabitants have historically utilized the meat and leather of the coypu (Bó et al. 2006; Bó and Quintana 2013), it is possible that the species is still being exploited and could be a valuable resource for some families in these communities (Pers. obs.).

This scenario presents a situation in which both the socio-economic differences among communities and the ecological characteristics of the habitat differentially impact coypu populations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze how the main characteristics of urban developments in the Conurbano Bonaerense (type of urbanization, geographical location, and water body type) are associated with the occurrence and abundance of Myocastor coypus. We propose the hypothesis that gated communities and lentic water bodies occurrence and abundance are higher than in open urbanizations, with greater prevalence in the northern zone of the Conurbano Bonaerense. This study provides new ecological information that helps understand how the coypu respond to different urbanization environmental characteristics and, consequently, could contribute to providing necessary management measures, mitigating conflicts with people, and potentially engaging stakeholders for sustainable utilization. It also describes the current status of the species in urban habitats within its natural range.

Study site

The study was conducted in the Conurbano Bonaerense, located in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina (Fig. 1). The Conurbano covers an area of 3.680 km², with a population density of 2.694,8 inhabitants per km². It represents 1.20% of the total surface area of the Buenos Aires province (307.571 km²) and concentrates 63,47% of the total population of the province (Atlas del Conurbano Bonaerense 2016). The climate in the region is temperate, with annual precipitation around 1.000 mm and average annual temperatures close to 18 ℃ (estadistica.ec.gba.gov.ar). Due to its significant socio-territorial heterogeneity, the Conurbano Bonaerense can be classified in various ways. The separation into zones or corridors (North, South and West) considers sociodemographic and legal-administrative factors (Blanco Esmoris 2019; Suárez and Arce 2010). The North is differentiated by having more gated communities and sectors with high purchasing power, while the South and West areas are industrial sectors with recent urbanization and more pronounced social inequalities (Atlas del Conurbano Bonaerense 2016).

Data collection

Using freely accessible satellite images (Google Earth TM), 24 sites were selected, eight in each of the zones of Conurbano Bonaerense. In each zone, four sites were chosen in gated communities, and four in open communities to represent different environmental conditions. The minimum criterion for site selection was the presence of at least one permanent body of water (natural or artificial, lentic or lotic), essential for the survival of the coypu (Gosling and Baker 1991; Woods et al. 1992). At each site, an area of approximately 100 ha was chosen that included a minimum of 3 transects of 300 meters each (separated by 200 m along the shoreline, Corriale et al. 2020 which is the area of greatest species activity, Guichón et al. 2003). The maximum number of transects was determined by the number and size of water bodies at each site. In each transect, the presence of the species and/or its signs of activity (footprints, feces, feeding ground, nests, caves) were counted and signs were surveyed between the months of September and April in two consecutive periods (2021–2022 and 2022–2023).

The presence of at least one sign of activity was considered as evidence of the species occurrence in that transect. Abundance was estimated in each transect based on the size and disposition of caves and nests according to Corriale et al (2008). To evaluate the possibility that the species could behave as a pest was expressed abundance as the number of individuals along 100 meters shoreline and three levels were established. Null abundance level when the abundance was equal to 0 ind/100m, lower abundance level when the abundance was greater than 0 ind/100m and less than 1.9 ind/100m and higher abundance level when it was greater than 1.9 ind/100m. These levels were established because it has been observed that in urban environments that densities lower than 1.9 ind/100m do not cause damage and consequently do not generate conflicts with humans (Corriale and Arenas 2019).

Data analysis

To analyze the influence of main characteristics of urban developments over the abundance and occurrence of coypu, a backward stepwise multiple regression procedures using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) and the Laplace approximation method was used (Bolker et al. 2009; Crawley 2012). The occurrence and abundance levels of the species in each transect were used as the response variable, while the type of urbanization (gated or open), the type of water body (lotic or lentic), and the Conurbano zone (north, south, or west) were used as explanatory variables. We also included to the models the relevant interactions. The site and the water body’s identity were included as random effect factors to account for possible nested structure in the data and lack of independence of repeated measures. For the abundance model, a Tweedie distribution was used due to overdispersion of the data with a log link function (Bolker et al. 2009). For the occurrence model, a Bernoulli distribution was used with logistic link function (Bolker et al. 2009). While to analyze the levels of abundance in which the coypu could behave as a pest, was used an ordinal regression with logistic link function (Guisan and Harrell 2000). To obtain the most parsimonious and best-fitting model, we conducted a Backward Stepwise Regression (Crawley 2012), and we removed non-signicant variables (P-values > 0.05). Models comparison were performed using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC; Akaike 2011), selecting the one with the lowest AIC. The glmmTMB (Brooks et al. 2017) and clmm (Christensen 2023) packages from program R version 3.4.4 (R Development Core Team 2017) were used for these analysis.

A total of 331 transects were recorded throughout the study period. Were sampled 96 transects in open communities (3–4 transects for site) and 235 transects in gated communities (3–16 transects for site). The coypu recorded in all Conurbano zone (Fig. 2). In gated communities it occurred in the 94% of the sampled transects and in open communities in the 31%. In all Conurbano Bonaerense the average abundance of individuals was 2.5 ind/100m (min-max = 0-19.3 ind/100m). Predictions about the association between type urbanization and Conurbano zone with occurrence and abundance of coypus were partially confirmed.

As expected, it occurrence was associated with the type of urbanization (LRT = 4.96, df = 1, P-value 0.05) and the type of water body (LRT = 3.94, df = 1, P-value < 0.05, null AIC = 155.46, model AIC = 134.44). According to the GLMM analysis, the proportion of sites where coypus occurred was higher in gated communities (0.997, 95% CI = 0.892-1) compared to open communities (0.194, 95% CI = 0.005–0.917) and in lentic water bodies (0.990, 95% CI = 0.795-1.000) compared to lotic water bodies (0.464, 95% CI = 0.040–0.946).

According for GLMMs analysis, the model that best described coypu abundance included the type of urbanization (LRT = 16.21, Df = 1, P-value < 0.001; null AIC = 1807, model AIC = 1792.8). The gated communities presented markedly higher abundances of the species (2.8 ind/100m, 95% CI = 1.5–5.1 ind/100m) compared to open communities (0.3 ind/100m, 95% CI = 0.1–0.6 ind/100m). Finally, according to abundance levels that the species could behave as a pest, the best model was that included the type of urbanization (LRT = 17.74, df = 1, P-value < 0.001; null AIC = 482.99, model AIC = 471.70). The abundance of coypu tended to reach pest levels in the gated communities (0.62 predicted probabilities of transects, 95% CI = 0.26–0.98 predicted probabilities of transects), being similar in the three areas of the Conurbano Bonaerense. In contrast, open communities mostly presented low abundances or absence of the species, with the percentage of transects with high abundances being almost null (0.1 predicted probabilities of transects, 95% CI = 0-0.2 predicted probabilities of transects). (Fig. 3).

Our results support the idea that some types of urban expansion may create environments suitable for some wildlife species. Is known that coypu tolerate human presence and can form stable populations even in urban areas, especially if they are not hunted by humans or do have not predators (Meyer et al. 2005; Corriale et al. 2006; Corriale and Arenas 2019). Gated communities constitute new niches with physical and biological characteristics that allow coypus to meet their needs for food, shelter, and water (Corriale and Arenas 2019). These conditions allow populations of coypu occupy these neighborhoods, reaching pest levels in most of them. This is likely due to the availability and quality of forage resources throughout the year, the stability of water levels, and the relatively low human population density (Corriale and Abdenur 2024a) added to the fact that wildlife hunting is not allowed by gated communities administrations and is socially frowned upon (personal obs.). Additionally, the incorporation of artificial water bodies with high connectivity between aquatic environments could be more appropriate for the establishment of populations of coypu (Corriale et al. 2020). According to the results obtained, the abundance of coypu in gated communities of the Conurbano Bonaerense is higher to that observed in natural areas of the province of Buenos Aires (min-max = 2.3–3.1 ind/100 m; Guichón 2003). However, there is great variability in the size of coypu populations in gated communities, reaching abundances higher than those observed in artificial ponds in the city of Buenos Aires (min-max = 4.7–8.9 ind/100 m; Corriale 2006) and in places where the species was introduced and is considered a pest (3.9–6.1 ind /100 m; Balestrieri et al). This could be related with poor management of the species in many gated communities. Often to reduce costs, they are illegally controlled without a management plan that includes preventive actions like the reduction of it habitat suitability (Corriale and Arenas 2019).

On the other hand, the low abundance found in open communities may be associated with the microenvironmental conditions of the water bodies and the strong hunting pressure from local residents (Hong et al. 2015; Bilenca et al. 2017). The lower stability of water bodies together with the low availability of forage resources such as aquatic vegetation or large green areas on the margins of water bodies could be unfavorable factors for the establishment of the coypu in these places (Bilenca et al. 2017; Corriale and Arenas 2019). Likewise, hunting activity represents the second threat to mammal species, after habitat degradation (Mace and Reynolds 2001). Particularly in the Neotropics, the exploitation of wildlife represents an important source of food for marginalized sectors (Robinson and Redford 1991). It is likely that this landscape structure combined with the spatial variation of hunting activity determines a source-sink dynamic in the populations of coypu of the Conurbano Bonaerense (Gosling 1988; Doncaster and Micol 1989; Guichón and Cassini 2005; Túnez et al. 2005). In this context, gated communities could function as “sources,” where high-quality habitats allow populations of coypu to increase. Given an excess of individuals in the sources, they can frequently move to sinks, in this case to the water bodies of open communities, where the habitat conditions are different. It should be noted that all the studies carried out to date focus on a sector of the Conurbano Bonaerense, mainly in gated communities in the northern zone (Corriale and Arenas 2018; Corriale and Abdenur 2022; Corriale and Abdenur 2024a). Consequently, it is the first time that the occurrence and abundance of the species has been studied throughout an urban megalopolis and apparently in all zones the situation is similar, with differences due to the type of urbanization.

Unlike abundance, occurrence of coypu was also associated with water body type. It is worth noting that most gated communities are characterized by artificial ponds or streams with very low water flow. The higher probability of occurrence in lentic water bodies could be related solely to species preference for this type of water body (Hong et al. 2015; Porini 2019) or to the common characteristics of ponds (Bilenca et al. 2017; Corriale et al. 2020) as artificial ones (Bilenca et al. 2017). This could be mainly due to two factors. On the one hand, these aquatic habitats provide greater stability to the edges where they spend most of their time (Bilenca et al. 2017; Guichón et al. 2003; Porini 2019). In their study, Hong et al. (2015) compiled information on the occurrence of coypu in southern Korea and observed that occurrence of coypu was inversely correlated with water flow, being more frequent in lentic systems and stagnant areas of the river and tributary channels. On the other hand, artificial ponds are very suitable for burrowing because of their shores slopes. It has been observed that in urban environments the species prefers to build burrows to seek refuge from humans (Salas et al. 2022). Coypus use water bodies with steep banks to dig their burrows (Red-Ford and Eisenberg 1992). In order to deepen the analysis of the influence that urban environments have on the abundance and occurrence of the species, it would be important to continue studies in a multidisciplinary manner. In this way, the association that the social context and other characteristics at the habitat and landscape scale may have with should be addressed.

The high probability of coypu will cause damage or reach pest level in gated communities implies the urgency of developing management plans at the different levels of political-administrative organization to prevent damages. Coypu is considered a pest in many regions of the world due it is and exotic species and to its potentially severe effects on biodiversity, the economy, ecosystem functionality, and public health (Howerth et al. 1994; Bertolino and Genovesi 2007; Bertolino et al 2020). In our study area the species is native but increase in the abundance of coypu in the gated communities of the Conurbano Bonaerense generates continuous conflicts with the local populations (Corriale and Abdenur-Araos 2024a) associated to a greater extent with the damage they generate in the grassy landscaped areas and the coastal edges (Corriale and Arenas 2016). Our results show that in most places the species reaches pest abundances levels. The favorable conditions presented by these urbanizations cause coypu populations to grow uncontrollably, becoming highly harmful to the environment (Corriale and Arenas 2019; Corriale and Abdenur 2024a).

In conclusion, the Myocastor coypus is widely distributed throughout the Conurbano Bonaerense, with a probability of reaching plague levels markedly higher in gated communities compared to open communities. Although initially we considered the possibility that the species might be more abundant in gated communities in the northern area, we have observed similar abundances in the three zones. The uncontrolled increase in populations of coypu in these places is an indicator of the imbalance that is being generated in these environments. Although the conditions of these environments seem to benefit these populations (Corriale et al. 2006; Salas et al. 2022), the species can become harmful to local residents. As described for Pampean agroecosystems (Bilenca et al. 2017; Corriale et al. 2020), the open communities of the Conurbano Bonaerense, characterized by natural streams and rivers, showed very low abundance and occurrence of the species. This situation makes it a priority to carry out a management plan for the species by the provincial authorities. To this end, further research is required on the ecology of the coypu in order to contribute to an understanding of the species response to the different socioecological dynamics it faces. In our case, it is important not only to study it in order to carry out proper species management but also because it is a native wildlife species.

Funding

This work was supported by Fundación Natura, COMFAUNA and the funding of Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant 9258), and the National Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology (PICT FONCyT 2019 − 0983).

Author Contribution

MJC and FAA: sampling and statistical analysisFAA: preparation of figures and writing of the main text of the manuscriptFAA, RC and MJC: manuscript review

Acknowledgement

We express our sincere thanks to the mayors of the private neighborhoods and the residents of all the communities that make up this study.

Data Availability

The data cannot be shared openly because it corresponds to data from the first author's doctoral thesis, which is still in development.

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Between Walls and Wilds: Myocastor coypus Abundance and Ocurrence in Gated and Open Communities Buenos Aires, Argentina

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