ABSTRACT
Urban areas tend to be colonised by species originating from many different ecosystems: such an atypical mixture of species is often referred to as ‘recombinant’ communities. An explosive combination of urbanisation and biological invasions often leads to a situation in which a small number of species that are well adapted to human-dominated landscapes, and that often are highly successful alien invaders, replace a wider range of native species. Free-ranging cats are a global threat to a wide variety of small vertebrates, in particular in urban and suburban areas and on islands. The species is particularly successful in invading urban landscapes, less so in colonising rural landscapes. Late Quaternary paleo-environmental records provide evidence that Maya impacted on climate, vegetation and hydrology, altering local and regional ecosystems and landscapes, mainly through vast urban infrastructures and the creation of reservoir wetlands and canals.
