The global lockdown to mitigate COVID-19 pandemic health risks has altered human interactions with nature. Here, we report immediate impacts of changes in human activities on wildlife and environmental threats during the early lockdown months of 2020, based on 877 qualitative reports and 332 quantitative assessments from different studies. Hundreds of reports of unusual species observations from around the world suggest that animals quickly responded to the reductions in human presence. However, negative effects of lockdown on conservation also emerged, as confinement resulted in some park officials being unable to perform conservation, restoration and enforcement tasks, resulting in local increases in illegal activities such as hunting. Overall, there is a complex mixture of positive and negative effects of the pandemic lockdown on nature, all of which have the potential to lead to cascading responses which in turn impact wildlife and nature conservation. While the net effect of the lockdown will need to be assessed over years as data becomes available and persistent effects emerge, immediate responses were detected across the world. Thus, initial qualitative and quantitative data arising from this serendipitous global quasi-experimental perturbation highlights the dual role that humans play in threatening and protecting species and ecosystems. Pathways to favorably tilt this delicate balance include reducing impacts and increasing conservation effectiveness.

Concentrated resources or hotspots, within an individual's usual home range may be strong determinates of movement behavior. We evaluated the patterns of mineral lick use by a population of mountain goats Oreamnos americanus displaying high site fidelity at two mineral licks along the Trans‐Canada Highway in the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, Canada. Access to these mineral licks was characterized by deliberate and repetitive movements into marginal habitat. We describe the patterns of mineral lick use over decadal, seasonal and daily periods by using dendrochronological analysis of trampling scars along mountain goat trails, movements determined from GPS collar locations, and camera traps placed along trails and at mineral licks, respectively. Our findings suggest that mountain goats have strong trans‐generational behavioral traditions and that they predictably access mineral licks using the same trails, seasons and daily patterns. Differences in the patterns of mineral lick visitation between males and females may be related to reproductive and nutritional status, while their nocturnal use appears to be a response to disturbance at the mineral licks. Understanding how animals adjust their behavior in response to highly localized resource hotspots outside their usual home range can provide valuable information for the management of these critical habitat features and the wider conservation of mountain goat populations.