This accessible textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the biological factors related to urban environments. A rigorous conceptual and theoretical framework is enriched with practical examples, offering insights into the challenges presented by this novel environment. The focus is on urban into the challenges presented by this novel environment. The focus is on urban denizens: species (both domesticated and non-domesticated) that live for all or part of their life cycle in towns and cities. The biology of companion animals and household plants is discussed alongside that of feral and undomesticated species. Temporal and spatial distribution patterns are described, with generalizations made and exceptions discussed. The variety of strategies and adaptations-genotypic, phenotypic, and behavioral used by plants and animals faced with the challenges presented by urban environments are explained in detail. The book concludes with a discussion of the impacts of urban environments on human biology and how this knowledge might be usefully applied to address the increasing human health burden associated with illnesses that are now characteristic of urbanites in the early twenty-first century.

The Biology of Urban Environments provides a highly readable introduction for any student, researcher, or professional addressing the multiplicity of issues which accompany a fast-growing world population and the associated global phenomenon of urbanization. Architects, planners, health professionals, ecologists, land managers, and politicians will all find this book a useful and authoritative summary of contemporary thinking on urban biology. Book jacket.