Even our trekking changes the habits of the animals

We change the lives of animals even without doing anything, or almost nothing. On the other hand, the recent experience of lockdowns and the pandemic had put it before our eyes, with images of animals in the spaces that we had left empty. Without needing to interact with us, our presence alters the animal behavior, even when we do it in ways we think are minimally invasive, like walking. In fact, even just trekking has an impact on the wildlife, it changes its movements and habits. This is confirmed by a study that comes right from the time of the pandemic lockdowns, and which analyzed the behavior of some wild animals in an American park, Glacier National Park, in Montana.

Glacier is a breathtaking place, where marmots, mountain lions, coyotes, mountain goats, eagles and Rocky Mountain sheep (better known as bighorn) roam more or less undisturbed. The park is also a popular tourist destination, with over three million visitors a year. Like many other sites, the park was closed during the lockdowns, becoming an opportunity for the team at Daniel Thornton And Alissa Anderson of Washington State University and John Waller of Glacier National Park to observe wildlife behavior, and compare it to that of animals once visitors are readmitted. They did this using camera traps placed near the paths.

The results, as they tell about Scientific Reportsleave room for few interpretations. Human presence negatively impacts the animals’ habits: they see each other less and become more active at night overall. More in detail, human presence decreased the chances of sighting black bear, coyote, moose, marten and lynx. Black bear, coyote, moose and lynx made even less use of their usual spaces. Grizzlies and coyotes with human presence they tended to become more nocturnal.

There Red fox on the contrary, it stood out among the animals observed because it tended to be seen more during the opening periods of the park, perhaps, the authors venture, due to the disappearance of the coyotes, generally well tolerant to human presence. Trying to find trends in animal ecology has yielded no significant results. For instance, apex predatorshow wolves and pumasthey behaved in fact in different ways: the former seemed sensitive to human presence, the latter did not.

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“Our work doesn’t say that hiking is necessarily a bad choice for wild animals, but that it does have impacts on spatiotemporal ecology, and how and when animals use the animals they live in,” said Alissa Anderson. . More generally, Anderson and colleagues admit, reconciling the usability of natural parks with conservation strategies could be more difficult than believed.

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Studies like this, and even more in-depth studies – aimed at understanding whether we are only talking about changed habits or appreciable effects on the animals’ ability to survive – will certainly help to understand how to balance such different needs, the experts conclude. Without necessarily giving up wonders like those of the Glacier National Park.