1. Managing activities that result in human-wildlife conflict is a challenging goal for modern scientists and managers. In recent years, the self-motivated feeding of wildlife by humans has garnered popularity but with consequent risks for the health and safety of both parties. This has resulted in calls for management in areas of high contact, for example, parklands. Traditional controls are typically utilised (i.e. signage, patrols), yet their success is varied, leading to a rise in research aiming to improve them. This research has primarily focused on language and design, with little attention paid to the role that audience type (i.e. international tourists vs. locals/residents) may play in their success. Proportions in audience type present can vary both between parks and spatially within a single park, however, controls are usually applied homogeneously with no consideration for how response may vary between these groups.2. Here, we performed a robust before-after study across two summers using a wild fallow deer population in a public park that are commonly fed by visitors as our model. We deployed controls, following best practice as outlined by the literature, and tested their overall effectiveness. We then identified key areas with differences in visitor type proportions and tested for variation in success between them.3. We found that the numbers of visitors feeding the deer significantly decreased overall after the introduction of controls, although interactions were not eliminated entirely. We discovered that the effectiveness of these controls varied with changes in visitor type, with the most positive effects occurring in areas with more international tourists and no significant effect occurring in areas dominated by resident visitors. Notably, of the food offerings remaining, the proportion of foods that could be perceived as 'nutritionally beneficial' increased in | 919People and Nature GRIFFIN et al.

Disturbance ecology refers to the study of discrete processes that disrupt the structure or dynamics of an ecosystem. Such processes can, therefore, affect wildlife species ecology, including those that are important pathogen hosts. We report on an observational before-and-after study on the association between forest clearfelling and bovine tuberculosis (bTB) herd risk in cattle herds, an episystem where badgers (Meles meles) are the primary wildlife spillover host. The study design compared herd bTB breakdown risk for a period of 1 year prior to and after exposure to clearfelling across Ireland at sites cut in 2015–2017. The percent of herds positive rose from 3.47% prior to clearfelling to 4.08% after exposure. After controlling for confounders (e.g., herd size, herd type), we found that cattle herds significantly increased their odds of experiencing a bTB breakdown by 1.2-times (95%CIs: 1.07–1.36) up to 1 year after a clearfell risk period. Disturbance ecology of wildlife reservoirs is an understudied area with regards to shared endemic pathogens. Epidemiological observational studies are the first step in building an evidence base to assess the impact of such disturbance events; however, such studies are limited in inferring the mechanism for any changes in risk observed. The current cohort study suggested an association between clearfelling and bTB risk, which we speculate could relate to wildlife disturbance affecting pathogen spillback to cattle, though the study design precludes causal inference. Further studies are required. However, ultimately, integration of epidemiology with wildlife ecology will be important for understanding the underlying mechanisms involved, and to derive suitable effective management proposals, if required.

Background:Zoonotic diseases represent a significant societal challenge in terms of their health and economic impacts. One Health approaches to managing zoonotic diseases are becoming more prevalent, but require novel thinking, tools and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is one example of a costly One Health challenge with a complex epidemiology involving human, domestic animal, wildlife and environmental factors, which require sophisticated collaborative approaches.Objective:We undertook a scoping review of multi-host bTB epidemiology to identify recent trends in species publication focus, methodologies, scales and One Health approaches. We aimed to identify research gaps where novel research could provide insights to inform control policy, for bTB and other zoonoses.Results:The review included 167 articles. We found different levels of research attention across episystems, with a significant proportion of the literature focusing on the badger-cattle-TB episystem, with far less attention given to the multi-host episystems of southern Africa. We found a limited number of studies focusing on management solutions and their efficacy, with very few studies looking at modelling exit strategies. Surprisingly, only a small number of studies looked at the effect of human disturbances on the spread of bTB involving wildlife hosts. Most of the studies we reviewed focused on the effect of badger vaccination and culling on bTB dynamics with few looking at how roads, human perturbations and habitat change may affect wildlife movement and disease spread. Finally, we observed a lack of studies considering the effect of weather variables on bTB spread, which is particularly relevant when studying zoonoses under climate change scenarios.Conclusions:Significant technological and methodological advances have been applied to bTB episystems, providing explicit insights into its spread and maintenance across populations. We identified a prominent bias towards certain species and locations. Generating more high-quality empirical data on wildlife host distribution and abundance, high-resolution individual behaviours and greater use of mathematical models and simulations are key areas for future research. Integrating data sources across disciplines, and a "virtuous cycle" of well-designed empirical data collection linked with mathematical and simulation modelling could provide additional gains for policy-makers and managers, enabling optimised bTB management with broader insights for other zoonoses.

Systematic camera trap surveys are important for gathering information on terrestrial wildlife. Such surveys reveal distributions, abundances, and behaviours that can inform conservation and wildlife management by providing evidence of animal presence at known locations and times. However, in Ireland, international-standard camera trap surveys have not been undertaken to inform the management of large terrestrial wildlife. Through participation in a continent-wide initiative (Snapshot Europe) with a shared methodology, we undertook Ireland’s first systematic camera trap survey for large mammals over a two-month period in 2021 in a known deer “hotspot” - central Wicklow, Ireland. We captured eight wild mammal species from 19 forest camera trap sites. Sika (Cervus nippon) or sika-red deer hybrids (Cervus nippon × Cervuselaphus) were detected at all sites and comprised 92% of all independent camera trap events of  wild mammals. Sika (and hybrid) events occurred at an average rate of 1.1 events per site per day. Females were more often detected than males (male:female = 1:1.42). We also noted that most females were not accompanied by juveniles (female:juvenile = 1:0.31). Overall, we demonstrate the efficacy of even this exploratory survey for revealing wildlife dynamics and generating data for science-informed management and conservation. We recommend that further surveys should be carried out across Ireland to achieve minimum international standards for monitoring terrestrial wildlife.