Variation in human diel activity patterns mediates periodic increases in recreational activity on mammal behavioural response: investigating the presence of a temporal 'weekend effect'

Abstract

As the world's human population continues to concentrate within urban areas and these landscapes continue to expand worldwide, wildlife is under pressure to adapt to novel environmental disturbances. Along wild-to-urban gradients, and especially within less developed areas, human recreation can affect wildlife behaviour. These effects may be most apparent during peaks in human recreational activity. In this study, we used data from a large-scale citizen science camera trapping project to assess whether periodic increases in human recreational activity elicit behavioural responses across multiple mammal species in northern Utah, U.S.A. Specifically, we assessed whether increases in human recreational ac-tivity during the weekend affected mammalian temporal activity patterns at the community-wide and species-specific level. In general, we found little evidence supporting the presence of a temporal 'weekend effect'. At the community-wide scale, we found that mammalian diel activity patterns did not change in response to periodic increases in human recreational activity during the weekend. on the species-specific scale, only elk, Cervus canadensis, and rock squirrel, Otospermophilus variegatus, signifi-cantly altered temporal activity patterns during the weekend. However, people significantly altered temporal activity during the weekend, with more activity occurring in midday and less activity occurring in the early evening, leading to consistent decreases in human-wildlife temporal overlap. This study highlights the possibility of altered human activity patterns during periods of increased rates of activity serving as a human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategy.(c) 2023 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.