The artificial selection of traits in wildlife populations through hunting and fishing has been well documented. However, despite their rising popularity, the role that artificial selection may play in non‐extractive wildlife activities, for example, recreational feeding activities, remains unknown. If only a subset of a population takes advantage of human‐wildlife feeding interactions, and if this results in different fitness advantages for these individuals, then artificial selection may be at work. We have tested this hypothesis using a wild fallow deer population living at the edge of a capital city as our model population. In contrast to previous assumptions on the randomness of human‐wildlife feeding interactions, we found that a limited non‐random portion of an entire population is continuously engaging with people. We found that the willingness to beg for food from humans exists on a continuum of inter‐individual repeatable behaviour; which ranges from risk‐taking individuals repeatedly seeking and obtaining food, to shyer individuals avoiding human contact and not receiving food at all, despite all individuals having received equal exposure to human presence from birth and coexisting in the same herds together. Bolder individuals obtain significantly more food directly from humans, resulting in early interception of food offerings and preventing other individuals from obtaining supplemental feeding. Those females that beg consistently also produce significantly heavier fawns (300–500 g heavier), which may provide their offspring with a survival advantage. This indicates that these interactions result in disparity in diet and nutrition across the population, impacting associated physiology and reproduction, and may result in artificial selection of the begging behavioural trait. This is the first time that this consistent variation in behaviour and its potential link to artificial selection has been identified in a wildlife population and reveals new potential effects of human‐wildlife feeding interactions in other species across both terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

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.

Recent debate has focused on whether variation in personality primarily reflects variation in resource allocation or resource acquisition of individuals. These two mechanisms predict different relationships between personality and survival. If personality mainly reflects variation in resource allocation, then bold (i.e. risk-taking) individuals are expected to live shorter lives, whereas the opposite pattern is expected with resource acquisition. Here we studied the relationship between neonate personality and early-life survival in 269 juveniles of a population of fallow deer ( Dama dama ). We found that bolder individuals paid no apparent survival cost. Interestingly, among-individual differences in the physiological response at capture (heart rates, which covary with the behavioural response, i.e. latency to leave) were linked to survival, where individuals with lower heart rates when handled by humans had a higher probability of early-life survival. This suggests that bolder individuals may be of higher state than their shyer counterparts. As the first study linking neonate personality to survival in a free-ranging mammal, we provide novel insights into drivers behind early-life individual variation.

Variation and disparity in resource access between individuals in an animal population within human-dominated landscapes require attention as artificial selection processes may be at work. Independent, recreational human–wildlife feeding interactions constitute an increasingly prevalent, yet understudied, food resource for birds and mammals living in our cities. However, only a limited number of risk-taking individuals may access it. Using urban fallow deer as our model species, we hypothesized that if these interactions result in positive effects for the engaging individual, e.g. increased milk quality and yield, then this would result in the increased growth rates of their offspring. Alternatively, if these individuals were prioritizing investing time in engagement with humans, resulting in decreased maternal care, then this would result in slower growth rates in their offspring. We found that the offspring of those females that regularly interacted with humans displayed significantly faster growth rates than their risk-adverse counterparts. This advantage for fearless mothers in terms of boosted neonatal growth rates could be mirrored in birds accessing garden feeders, seagulls or pigeons utilizing urban resources, or seals approaching city harbours. Here, we add a new piece to the complex puzzle of how humans are impacting wildlife living within human-dominated landscapes.

Applied research involves interactions between different organisations—academia, industry, government. Breakdowns in communication can occur during these interactions which alter a project's outcome. We omit how we encounter and overcome these problems from scientific manuscripts which mask the social and cultural considerations that are critical to a project's success. Autoethnography is a form of structured reflection whereby researchers use personal experience to contribute to understanding collaborative processes. We propose an applied form of autoethnography as a repeatable protocol to describe inter‐organisational interactions during the research process in ecology and environmental research. We demonstrate the use of this protocol with five case studies from a diversity of wildlife research across a wide variety of experience levels and scales from small mammals, large herbivores and predators to digital ecology. Our applied autoethnography protocol would ensure that specific biases and context are adequately described and that problems encountered and lessons learned from the experience are reflected upon. These reports can be presented as stand‐alone publications where appropriate, that is, to communicate an effective solution for a novel problem, or within the methods or supplementary material of manuscripts to further explain how the project developed from initial idea to final publication. Furthermore, this protocol can be used by practitioners to evaluate the trajectory of management decisions and policy implications in their jurisdiction to promote transparency and improve communication with stakeholders. Synthesis and Applications: Applied science will continue to intersect with organisations that help or hinder research efforts depending on cultural contexts and biases. Using adequate reflection on case studies to record these experiences and disseminate lessons to the wider community will improve how we approach problems in research, help us to avoid repeating mistakes and ultimately save time and resources. Outside of research, case studies derived from this protocol allow practitioners to holistically understand the methods, biases and challenges of the research from a new perspective, thus providing a novel knowledge brokering function between academia and practitioners in applied ecology.