Temporal displacement of the mammal community in a protected area due to hunting and recreational activities

Abstract

Recreation (i.e., hiking and biking) and hunting can occur simultaneously in time and space, and both sources of disturbance affect wildlife behavior, leading to reactions resembling anti-predator behavior. However, the additive effects of lethal and non-lethal human disturbances on wildlife are only beginning to be understood, and research on the impact of hunting on non-target species is limited. Recreation and hunting commonly co-occur in areas where wildlife is present, and understanding their combined effects on wildlife behavior is crucial for protected area management. Using records from 122 camera traps placed along trails and in surrounding forests, we assessed the effect of varying intensities of hunting and recreation over space and time on the temporal activity of red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany. We documented the relative abundance of these species on trails versus in forests and applied Bayesian models to assess how hunting and recreation influenced wildlife nocturnality. Our results suggest that hunting is a strong driver behind wildlife temporal behavior. Hunting amplified avoidance of non-lethal recreation and potentially impacts species interactions. Red deer exhibited the most pronounced temporal avoidance of both hunting and recreational activity, increasing nocturnality and trail avoidance as these disturbances increased. Red deer were more diurnal in the non-hunting zone and decreased nocturnal activity with increasing distance from the hunting zone. Wild boar and non-hunted species exhibited moderate or negligible responses. However, high hunting effort led to species not targeted by hunting (roe deer and red fox) increasing their temporal avoidance of recreational activities, with wild boar and roe deer avoiding trails more strongly. In the context of protected area management, our results suggest that strictly reducing hunting in space and time while concentrating recreation in certain areas to create disturbance-free habitat year-round has great potential to reduce the temporal avoidance of humans by wildlife, thereby fostering nature conservation goals by protecting natural processes.

Topics & Concepts