Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns

Abstract

COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020 reduced human mobility, providing an opportunity to disentangle its effects on animals from those of landscape modifications. Using GPS data, we compared movements and road avoidance of 2300 terrestrial mammals (43 species) during the lockdowns to the same period in 2019. Individual responses were variable with no change in average movements or road avoidance behavior, likely due to variable lockdown conditions. However, under strict lockdowns 10-day 95th percentile displacements increased by 73%, suggesting increased landscape permeability. Animals’ 1-hour 95th percentile displacements declined by 12% and animals were 36% closer to roads in areas of high human footprint, indicating reduced avoidance during lockdowns. Overall, lockdowns rapidly altered some spatial behaviors, highlighting variable but substantial impacts of human mobility on wildlife worldwide.

Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape

“…It may thus be encouraging that many animal populations did not show dramatic changes in the amount or timing of their activity under conditions of higher human activity. Indeed, mean changes across all populations assessed were close to zero, suggesting that there was no global systematic shift in animal activity during the pandemic, consistent with other recent observations of highly variable animal responses 13 , 27 . Nevertheless, we saw stronger responses to human activity for certain species and contexts and these patterns can help us better understand and mitigate negative impacts of people on wildlife communities.…”

Both environmental conditions and intra- and interspecific interactions influence the movements of a marine predator

“…In addition, it is now recognized that bull sharks can adapt to urbanized areas and do not especially avoid these high human density areas and their activities (Hammerschlag et al, 2022; Werry et al, 2012). The majority of large-bodied terrestrial carnivores tend avoid high human densities and activities (Tucker et al, 2018, 2023). As opposed to most predators, it is possible that human activities are not fundamentally avoided by bull sharks because ocean landscapes maybe affected differently than terrestrial landscapes.…”

“…Finally, the human footprint has altered the spatial ecology of many species at different spatial and temporal scales, for example by decreasing animal movements as a result of behavioural changes, habitat fragmentation and barrier effects (Tucker et al, 2018), or by modifying activity-timing (Gilbert et al, 2023). COVID-19 lockdowns provided an empirical experiment where an abrupt reduction in human activity (so called Anthropause) led to decreases in animal movement rates and avoidance patterns of human footprint (Tucker et al, 2023). Human disturbance can also fundamentally alter the way that species interact, such as by causing a spatiotemporal compression of species co-occurrences in disturbed landscape which can lead to increases in competition, predation and infectious disease transmission (Gilbert et al, 2022).…”

Temporal and spatial biosonar activity of the recently established uppermost Yangtze finless porpoise population downstream of the Gezhouba Dam: Correlation with hydropower cascade development, shipping, hydrological regime, and light intensity

“…Animals are capable of altering their behavior in reaction to abrupt shifts in human mobility (Bates et al., 2021 ; Tucker et al., 2023 ). In order to stop the spread of COVID‐19 at the start of the year 2020, lockdowns were implemented globally, drastically restricting human mobility.…”

“…The navigation of vessels, along with its potential adverse impacts on porpoises, such as noise interference generated by boats, was also limited. Lockdowns swiftly impacted several spatial habits of wildlife on a global scale (Bates et al., 2021 ; Tucker et al., 2023 ). Lockdown also increases biosonar detection of the finless porpoise in the Poyang Lake and Yangtze River confluence region and the Wuhan region of the Yangtze River (Duan et al., 2023 ; Wang et al., 2024 ).…”