Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human-nature relations in a remote nature-based tourism destination.

Tourism and nature-based recreation has changed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel restrictions caused sharp declines in visitation numbers, particularly in remote areas, such as northern Norway. In addition, the pandemic may have altered human-nature relationships by changing visitor behaviour and preferences.

Round-trip migration and energy budget of a breeding female humpback whale in the Northeast Atlantic.

In the northern hemisphere, humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) typically migrate between summer/autumn feeding grounds at high latitudes, and specific winter/spring breeding grounds at low latitudes. Northeast Atlantic (NEA) humpback whales for instance forage in the Barents Sea and breed either in the West Indies, or the Cape Verde Islands, undertaking the longest recorded mammalian migration (~ 9 000 km). However, in the past decade hundreds of individuals have been observed foraging on herring during the winter in fjord systems along the northern Norwegian coast, with unknown consequences to their migration phenology, breeding behavior and energy budgets.

Individual-Level Memory Is Sufficient to Create Spatial Segregation among Neighboring Colonies of Central Place Foragers.

AbstractCentral place foragers often segregate in space, even without signs of direct agonistic interactions. Using parsimonious individual-based simulations, we show that for species with spatial cognitive abilities, individual-level memory of resource availability can be sufficient to cause spatial segregation in the foraging ranges of colonial animals. The shapes of the foraging distributions are governed by commuting costs, the emerging distribution of depleted resources, and the fidelity of foragers to their colonies.