Raptor research during the COVID-19 pandemic provides invaluable opportunities for conservation biology

Studying pauses and pulses in human mobility and their environmental impacts

“…Third, while most attention is currently focussed on mapping immediate lockdown effects, it is essential to examine possible long-term consequences. For example, in some animal species and environmental contexts, sudden lockdown-related changes in movement and foraging behaviour could occur, which later impact reproductive and mortality rates, and ultimately translate into altered population levels and distributions 9 . Likewise, lockdowns can trigger complex cascading effects that take time to manifest 2,4 .…”

Global Birdwatching Data Reveal Uneven Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…With increased hunting due to a loss of revenue and a need for incomes, and the loss of data from these key areas, we do not yet know the impact of this hunting on the status of these species. Furthermore, whilst the "anthropause" has been heralded as positive for biodiversity (Derryberry et al 2020), the positive impacts have been largely temporary incursions of common, often generalist species into urban areas (Rutz., 2020;Zulanga et al, 2021Sumasgutner et al, 2021. Worryingly, the ability of areas to recover post-covid may be hampered by the slow return of tourism needed to fund local economies, the loss of rangers and other staff, and the suspension of environmental regulations to stimulate economic recovery post-covid (Bobylev 2020).…”

Commentary: the Past, Present, and Future of the Global Raptor Impact Network

“…Such infrastructure will not only allow individual entities to achieve their own goals, but will facilitate the collaboration necessary for monitoring, research, and conservation of the world's raptors at scales unachievable by any single entity. GRIN is part of the newly formed Global Anthropause Raptor Research Network-a network of researchers studying the effects of the COVID-19 ''anthropause'' on raptor ecology and research (Sumasgutner et al 2021)-and the One Health initiative to conserve Old World vultures and their ecosystem services (Ottinger et al 2021). These entities are taking advantage of GRIN's infrastructure to deposit data from multiple research programs into a single platform for collation, storage, dissemination, and analysis.…”