By Leslie Reed | University Communication and Marketing; Alex Walls | University of British Columbia
Many summer visitors to America’s national parks hope for a glimpse of a moose or a bighorn sheep — or perhaps to spot a wolf or a bear.
A newly published study by a multinational group of wildlife scientists took advantage of the unique opportunity offered by the 2020 COVID-19 shutdowns to better understand why such glimpses can be so elusive.
Using GPS collar data, researchers tracked 229 animals from 14 U.S. national parks and protected areas. They compared the animals’ movements while the parks were closed to visitors during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to movements during a similar time frame in 2019.
Some of America’s most beloved national parks were included in the study, such as Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Yosemite National Park in California, Zion National Park in Utah and Glacier National Park in Montana. The movements of five predator species — wolves, mountain lions, grizzly bears, black bears and foxes — and five ungulate species — moose, mule deer, elk, mountain goats and bighorn sheep — were tracked.
John Benson of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln' School of Natural Resources was part of the team of more than 60 scientists representing 13 universities and nearly 40 other entities, including the National Park Service and state agencies. Benson, an associate professor in the School of Natural Resources, helped conceptualize the study, which sought to tease out whether animals shy away from human infrastructure like campgrounds, parking lots, roads and trails even in the absence of human beings.
“COVID provided ecologists with a valuable natural experiment,” he said. “We know that animals can respond strongly to humans, but it is often not clear whether they respond to the 'human footprint' of roads, trails and development, or to the humans themselves. Our study allowed us to separate the foot from the footprint to an extent."
Follow the rest of the article at https://news.unl.edu/article/wildlife-shows-wide-range-of-responses-to-human-presence-in-us-national-parks