Status and Ecology of House Sparrow Passer domesticus along an urban to rural gradient in Coimbatore, India

Abstract

In due course of the evolution of human civilisation, from their nomadic to the resident lifestyle, they were industrious agents of change. Their behaviours changed ecological processes in agglomerates of residences and trades, in cities and as well as in other areas (Vitousek et al. 1997). As the human population rise, infrastructure grows up; urbanisation spreads and increasingly affects biodiversity (Blair 2004). Human activities in the form of land use changes, urbanisation and infrastructure developments are considered major threats to biodiversity (Gontier 2008). This in turn results in the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, thereby threatening populations of local species and ultimately biodiversity (Saunders et al. 1991). Urban development produces the greatest local extinction rates and eliminates the majority of the species (Vale and Vale 1976, Marzluff 2001, Czech et al. 2000). This replacement brings in the process of biotic Homogenisation that threatens to reduce the biological uniqueness of local ecosystems (Blair 2001). The loss and fragmentation of valuable habitats influences the long-term viability of species populations, which may ultimately become extinct at the local or regional scale