Impacts of human recreation on carnivores in protected areas.

PLoS One

Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana, United States of America.

Published: July 2018

AI Article Synopsis

  • Mammalian carnivores are highly sensitive to human disturbances, even in protected areas, which can affect their habitat occupancy and community diversity.
  • In southern Arizona, study findings showed that common species like coyotes and bobcats were more prevalent in disturbed areas, while less common species thrived in low-disturbance zones, indicating a clear link between human activity and carnivore distribution.
  • The research emphasizes that increased human visitation in the region, due to population growth, could lead to a decline in carnivore diversity, favoring more adaptable species to disturbances like roads and trails.

Article Abstract

Mammalian carnivores can be particularly sensitive to human disturbance, even within protected areas (PAs). Our objective was to understand how human disturbance affects carnivore communities in southern Arizona, USA by studying habitat occupancy based on data collected using non-invasive methods in three PAs with different levels of human disturbance. Carnivore occupancy varied based on human disturbance variables (i.e., roads, trails, etc.). Common carnivore species (coyotes, gray foxes, and bobcats) had high occupancy probability in highly disturbed sites, while all other carnivore species had a higher probability of occupancy in low disturbance protected areas. Additionally, overall carnivore diversity was higher in PAs with low human disturbance. Edges of PAs appeared to negatively impact occupancy of nearly all carnivore species. We also found the presence of roads and trails, and not necessarily how much they are used, had a significant negative impact on the occupancy of most carnivore species. Furthermore, the overall level of disturbance within a PA influenced how sensitive carnivores were to human disturbance variables. Carnivores were more sensitive in PAs with higher levels of disturbance and were relatively unaffected by disturbance variables in a PA with low base levels of disturbance. Increased visitation to PAs, expected with the region's high level of population growth, is likely to cause shifts in the carnivore communities favoring species that are less sensitive to disturbance.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5886570PMC
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195436PLOS

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