Urbanization and related habitat fragmentation can disrupt wildlife behavior and lead to declines in biodiversity and ecosystem function. The northeastern United States is a patchwork of heavily developed urban centers mixed with rural and forested areas. This region serves as a useful model system to evaluate how wildlife respond to exurban sprawl. We studied the impacts of urbanization on seven mammal species in southeastern New Hampshire using an array of 104 cameras situated in exurban (n=48) and rural (n=56) areas. We deployed cameras over a six-month period from early summer through early spring 2022. The seven most frequently detected species represented several taxonomic groups, including ungulates (white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus), rodents (chipmunks Tamias striatus, gray squirrels Sciurus carolinensis, and red squirrels Sciurus vulgaris), and carnivores (coyotes Canis latrans, raccoons Procyon lotor, and red foxes Vulpes vulpes). We compared the activity levels (proportion of the day a species was active) and activity patterns (variation in activity across diel periods) of our focal species between rural and exurban areas. The activity levels of coyotes, deer, gray squirrels, and red squirrels differed significantly (p<0.05) between rural and exurban sites, but with differing directionality. There was no statistical significance in the differences between activity levels for chipmunks, raccoons, or red foxes. The activity patterns of chipmunks, deer, gray squirrels, and red foxes differed significantly between rural and exurban sites (p<0.05), while coyotes, raccoons, and red squirrels exhibited no significant difference between sites. These results suggest that wildlife alter activity as an adaptation to exurban development and that such adaptations are species-specific; some species change their level of activity while others change their activity patterns. Overall, this study sheds light on the complex behavioral adaptations that wildlife make in response to urbanization and the potential consequences for mammal communities.
