No abstract

Summary Managed public wild areas have dual mandates to protect biodiversity and provide recreational opportunities for people. These goals could be at odds if recreation, ranging from hiking to legal hunting, disrupts wildlife enough to alter their space use or community structure. We evaluated the effect of managed hunting and recreation on 12 terrestrial wildlife species by employing a large citizen science camera trapping survey at 1947 sites stratified across different levels of human activities in 32 protected forests in the eastern USA. Habitat covariates, especially the amount of large continuous forest and local housing density, were more important than recreation for affecting the distribution of most species. The four most hunted species (white‐tailed deer, raccoons, eastern grey and fox squirrels) were commonly detected throughout the region, but relatively less so at hunted sites. Recreation was most important for affecting the distribution of coyotes, which used hunted areas more compared with unhunted control areas, and did not avoid areas used by hikers. Most species did not avoid human‐made trails, and many predators positively selected them. Bears and bobcats were more likely to avoid people in hunted areas than unhunted preserves, suggesting that they perceive the risk of humans differently depending on local hunting regulations. However, this effect was not found for the most heavily hunted species, suggesting that human hunters are not broadly creating ‘fear’ effects to the wildlife community as would be expected for apex predators. Synthesis and applications. Although we found that hiking and managed hunting have measureable effects on the distribution of some species, these were relatively minor in comparison with the importance of habitat covariates associated with land use and habitat fragmentation. These patterns of wildlife distribution suggest that the present practices for regulating recreation in the region are sustainable and in balance with the goal of protecting wildlife populations and may be facilitated by decades of animal habituation to humans. The citizen science monitoring approach we developed could offer a long‐term monitoring protocol for protected areas, which would help managers to detect where and when the balance between recreation and wildlife has tipped.

The establishment of protected areas is a key strategy for preserving biodiversity. However, human use of protected areas can cause disturbance to wildlife, especially in areas that allow hunting and if humans are accompanied by dogs (Canis familiaris). We used citizen-science run camera traps to investigate how humans, dogs and coyotes (Canis latrans) used 33 protected areas and analyzed behavioral responses by three prey species: white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and northern raccoon (Procyon lotor). We obtained 52 863 detections of native wildlife, 162 418 detections of humans and 23 332 detections of dogs over 42 874 camera nights. Most (99%) dogs were on the trail, and 89% offtrail dogs were accompanied by humans. Prey avoided dogs, humans and coyotes temporally, but did not avoid them spatially, or greatly increase vigilance. Our results indicate that humans are perceived as a greater risk than coyotes, and this increases when dogs accompany their owners. The concentration of dogs on the trail with their owners, and relatively minor behavioral impacts on prey, contrasts the strong negative ecological effects found in studies of free-ranging dogs. We found dog management to be effective: prohibiting dogs in protected areas reduced their use of an area by a factor of 10 and leash laws increased leashing rates by 21%. Although millions of dogs use natural areas in North America each year, regulations

No abstract

Citizen science initiatives have shown promise to provide informal education about nature and conservation and simultaneously gather scientific data at large scales. eMammal is a platform for citizen science projects that recruits volunteers to place camera traps that collect data in the form of wildlife photographs. Our project offered informal education on wildlife ecology and conservation to volunteers through training materials, feedback during the project, and a natural history blog. We tested whether our education efforts and volunteer activities affected their project specific skills, wildlife knowledge, conservation attitudes, and what kind of information they shared with their social network. Volunteers accurately (>90%) identified 15 of 20 wildlife species captured in the photos and reduced the rejection rate of camera placements over time. Our surveys showed that volunteer's attitudes toward conservation were high before joining the project and did not change after participating. However, volunteer knowledge of wildlife was higher after working with eMammal. Volunteers also became advocates for mammal conservation by sharing their new knowledge. Roughly half of our volunteers reported actively discussing some type of information related to wildlife both before (50%) and after (54%) the project. However, after volunteering they were 84% more likely to discuss local mammals or local mammal conservation. The likelihood of discussing local mammals was positively influenced by the number of predator photos captured by volunteers, showing that the type of experience can influence how information is spread through a volunteer's social network. Citizen science can connect people to the natural world while simultaneously providing reliable data for conservation.

Citizen science approaches are of great interest for their potential to efficiently and sustainably monitor wildlife populations on both public and private lands. Here we present two studies that worked with volunteers to set camera traps for ecological surveys. The photographs recorded by these citizen scientists were archived and verified using the eMammal software platform, providing a professional grade, vouchered database of biodiversity records. Motivated by managers’ concern with perceived high bear activity, our first example enlisted the help of homeowners in a short-term study to compare black bear activity inside a National Historic Site with surrounding private land. We found similar levels of bear activity inside and outside the NHS, and regional comparisons suggest the bear population is typical. Participants benefited from knowing their local bear population was normal and managers refocused bear management given this new information. Our second example is a continuous survey of wildlife using the grounds of a nature education center that actively manages habitat to maintain a grassland prairie. Center staff incorporated the camera traps into educational programs, involving visitors with camera setup and picture review. Over two years and 5,968 camera-nights this survey has collected 41,393 detections of 14 wildlife species. Detection rates and occupancy were higher in open habitats compared to forest, suggesting that the maintenance of prairie habitat is beneficial to some species. Over 500 volunteers of all ages participated in this project over two years. Some of the greatest benefits have been to high school students, exemplified by a student with autism who increased his communication and comfort level with others through field work with the cameras. These examples show how, with the right tools, training and survey design protocols, citizen science can be used to answer a variety of applied management questions while connecting participants with their secretive mammal neighbors.

Predators affect prey directly by removing animals from the population and indirectly by modifying prey behavior. Humans have extirpated apex predators from many ecosystems, and the extent to which smaller predators, or humans themselves, can ecologically replace apex predators remains uncertain. White‐tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus in the Eastern United States were released from their two most important predators a century ago following the extirpation of cougars Puma concolor and wolves Canis lupus. We studied the extent to which perceived predation risk from humans and a newly arrived mesopredator, the coyote, Canis latrans affects deer behavior, predicting that deer will be most vigilant in areas hunted by humans which also have the highest levels of coyote activity. We quantified deer vigilance rates in 33 natural areas of which 15 allowed hunting, across six states by evaluating the head posture of 3470 deer photographed at unbaited camera traps. We documented wide variation in coyote activity (0–2.5 detections/day) and human activity (0–306 detections/day), but contrary to our predictions, did not find strong positive relationships between deer vigilance and either of these predators. Deer vigilance was lower in areas with high levels of human recreation, suggesting that deer become habituated to the presence of humans. Vigilance increased across the fall season in both hunted and non‐hunted populations, which suggests that increased vigilance may be associated more with mating behavior or environmental factors other than hunting. Our results show that variation in coyote and human activity does not significantly impact the vigilance behavior of white‐tailed deer year‐round, suggesting that deer rely on other risk‐avoidance behaviors or neither are functioning as apex predators in the region.

The digitization of biocollections is a critical task with direct implications for the global community who use the data for research and education. Recent innovations to involve citizen scientists in digitization increase awareness of the value of biodiversity specimens; advance science, technology, engineering, and math literacy; and build sustainability for digitization. In support of these activities, we launched the first global citizen-science event focused on the digitization of biodiversity specimens: Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections (WeDigBio). During the inaugural 2015 event, 21 sites hosted events where citizen scientists transcribed specimen labels via online platforms (DigiVol, Les Herbonautes, Notes from Nature, the Smithsonian Institution's Transcription Center, and Symbiota). Many citizen scientists also contributed off-site. In total, thousands of citizen scientists around the world completed over 50,000 transcription tasks. Here, we present the process of organizing an international citizen-science event, an analysis of the event's effectiveness, and future directions—content now foundational to the growing WeDigBio event.