A Framework to Evaluate Wildlife Feeding in Research, Wildlife Management, Tourism and Recreation

Do human-wildlife interactions predict offspring hiding strategies in peri-urban fallow deer?

Human activities can induce significant behavioural changes in wildlife. Often explored through extractive interactions (e.g. hunting) that can favour certain behavioural traits, the implications of non-extractive ones, such as wildlife feeding, remain understudied. Research shows that people tend to favour bolder individuals within populations despite their dynamics and consequences being unclear. Using fallow deer in a peri-urban environment, we studied whether mothers that show reduced fear of humans and consistently approach them for food adopt weaker anti-predator strategies by selecting less concealed fawning bedsites closer to human hotspots. This would provide the advantage of additional feeding opportunities in comparison with shyer mothers while keeping their fawns close. Our dataset encompassed 281 capture events of 172 fawns from 110 mothers across 4 years. Surprisingly, mothers that regularly accepted food from humans selected more concealed bedsites farther from human hotspots, giving their offspring better protection while also benefitting from additional food during lactation. Our results show behavioural adaptations by a subset of females and, for the first time, link the tendency to approach humans and strategies to protect offspring. Given previous findings that these begging females also deliver heavier fawns at birth, our research further investigates human-wildlife feeding interactions and their behavioural implications.

Human-influenced diets affect the gut microbiome of wild baboons

Industrialized diets that incorporate processed foods and are often high in simple sugars and fats and low in fiber have myriad health impacts, many of which may operate via impacts on the gut microbiota. Examining how these diets affect the gut microbiota can be challenging given that lab animal models experience altered environmental contexts, and human studies include a suite of co-varying cultural and environmental factors that are likely to shape the gut microbiota alongside diet. To complement these approaches, we compare the microbiomes of wild populations of olive baboons (Papio anubis) with differential access to human trash high in processed foods, simple sugars, and fats in Rwanda's Akagera National Park. Baboons are a good model system since their microbiomes are compositionally similar to those of humans. Additionally, this population inhabits a common environment with different social groups consuming qualitatively different amounts of human trash, limiting variation in non-dietary factors. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing we find that baboons with unlimited access to human trash have reduced microbial alpha diversity and reduced relative abundances of fiber-degrading taxa such as Ruminococcaceae, Prevotellaceae, and Lachnospiraceae. In contrast, baboons with limited access to human trash have a microbiome more similar to that of baboons with no access to human trash. Our results suggest that while a human-influenced diet high in processed foods, simple sugars, and fats is sufficient to alter the microbiome in wild baboons, there is a minimum threshold of dietary alteration that must occur before the microbiome is substantially altered. We recommend that data from wild primate populations such as these be used to complement ongoing research on diet-microbiome-health interactions in humans and lab animal models.

Urban Blue Spaces as Therapeutic Landscapes: "A Slice of Nature in the City"

Urban blue spaces are defined as all natural and manmade surface water in urban environments. This paper draws on how the concepts of experienced, symbolic, social, and activity space combine to position urban blue spaces as therapeutic landscapes. We conducted 203 intercept interviews between 12 October 2019 and 10 November 2019. Although safety concerns had health-limiting impacts, interacting with the Glasgow Canal and surrounding landscape was predominantly perceived as health-enhancing. Our findings build on current evidence, which has suggested that urban blue spaces, particularly canals, may foster therapeutic properties, contributing to healthier city environments. Further research is required to understand better the interconnectedness of urban blue spaces and health and how such spaces can be best developed and managed to improve the health outcomes of local populations.

Sex Differences Dictate the Movement Patterns of Striped Hyenas, Hyaena hyaena, in a Human-Dominated Landscape

Large-carnivore populations have experienced significant declines in the past centuries in extended parts of the world. Habitat loss, fragmentation, and depletion of natural resources are some of the main causes of this decline. Consequently, behavioral flexibility, enabling the exploitation of anthropogenic food resources in highly disturbed human-dominated landscapes, is becoming critical for the survival of large carnivores. These behavioral changes increase the potential for human-large carnivore conflict and can further intensify carnivore persecution. Here, we examine how land cover types (representing a gradient of anthropogenic disturbance) alter the behavior of striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena) in a human-dominated landscape in Israel, and whether differences in life history between males and females affect their reaction to such disturbances and consequently their level of exposure to humans. We used a Hidden Markov Model on GPS-tracking data for seven striped hyenas to segment individual-night trajectories into behavioral states (resting, searching, and traveling). We then used multinomial logistic regression to model hyenas’ behavioral state as a function of the interaction between land cover and sex. Females traveled less than males both in terms of average distance traveled per hour, per night, and nightly net displacement. Most steps were classified as “searching” for females and as “traveling” for males. Female hyenas spent a higher proportion of time in human-dominated areas and a lower proportion in natural areas compared to males, and they were also more likely to be found close to settlements than males. Females changed their time allocation between natural and human-dominated areas, spending more time resting than traveling in natural areas but not in human-dominated ones; males spent more time searching than resting in human-dominated areas but were equally likely to rest or search in natural ones. The differences in life history between male and female hyenas may reflect different motivations for space use as a means to optimize fitness, which affects their exposure to humans and therefore their potential involvement in human-hyenas conflict. Understanding the mechanisms that lead to behavioral change in response to human disturbance is important for adaptive management and promoting human large-carnivores co-existence in general.

Feeding the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus L.)-risks of commercial diets for wildlife

The supplemental feeding of wildlife is a worldwide phenomenon. The most widespread and socially accepted example is bird feeding. Commercial hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus L.) diets are readily available in Switzerland. To test the hypothesis that commercial hedgehog diets are nutritionally inadequate, the following parameters (as taken from the label) of five commercial diets (three dry and two wet) were compared to the natural diet of E. europaeus: List of feed materials, crude ash (CA), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), ether extract (EE) and nitrogen-free extracts (NfE). To test the second hypothesis, that feed labels of commercially available hedgehog diets in Switzerland are in accordance with Swiss and European law, the following parameters were assessed: Type of feed, net quantity, moisture content, instructions for proper use, list of the feed materials and claims. In all dry diets, the first ingredient was cereals (38.8%-50%), whereas in both wet diets, it was meat and meat by-products (51% in one product). Only one product had a CP content comparable to that of the natural diet and four products had a higher NfE content. Overall, the wet products were more comparable to the natural diet, especially regarding CP and NfE content. Of the five examined diets, three were labelled as complete feeds and two as compound feeds. The label analysis revealed inaccuracies and possible misleading information on two products. In conclusion, the use of commercial dry hedgehog diets should be discouraged as they do not resemble the natural diet of E. europaeus and are likely nutritionally inadequate. The commercial wet hedgehog diets should only be used supplementary. The feed labels of commercially available hedgehog diets were not always in compliance with Swiss and European law. The public should be educated about feeding E. europaeus and the risks of commercial diets for wildlife.

Using Landscape Change Analysis and Stakeholder Perspective to Identify Driving Forces of Human–Wildlife Interactions

Human–wildlife interactions (HWI) were frequent in the post-socialist period in the mountain range of Central European countries where forest habitats suffered transitions into built-up areas. Such is the case of the Upper Prahova Valley from Romania. In our study, we hypothesized that the increasing number of HWI after 1990 could be a potential consequence of woodland loss. The goal of our study was to analyse the effects of landscape changes on HWI. The study consists of the next steps: (i) applying 450 questionnaires to local stakeholders (both citizens and tourists) in order to collect data regarding HWI temporal occurrences and potential triggering factors; (ii) investigating the relation between the two variables through the Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA); (iii) modelling the landscape spatial changes between 1990 and 2018 for identifying areas with forest loss; (iv) overlapping the distribution of both the households affected by HWI and areas with loss of forested ecosystems. The local stakeholders indicate that the problematic species are the brown bear (Ursus arctos), the wild boar (Sus scrofa), the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and the grey wolf (Canis lupus). The number of animal–human interactions recorded an upward trend between 1990 and 2018, and the most significant driving factors were the regulation of hunting practices, the loss of habitats, and artificial feeding. The landscape change analysis reveals that between 1990 and 2018, the forest habitats were replaced by built-up areas primarily on the outskirts of settlements, these areas coinciding with frequent HWI. The results are valid for both forest ecosystems conservation in the region, wildlife management, and human infrastructures durable spatial planning.

The evolutionary consequences of human-wildlife conflict in cities

Human-wildlife interactions, including human-wildlife conflict, are increasingly common as expanding urbanization worldwide creates more opportunities for people to encounter wildlife. Wildlife-vehicle collisions, zoonotic disease transmission, property damage, and physical attacks to people or their pets have negative consequences for both people and wildlife, underscoring the need for comprehensive strategies that mitigate and prevent conflict altogether. Management techniques often aim to deter, relocate, or remove individual organisms, all of which may present a significant selective force in both urban and nonurban systems. Management-induced selection may significantly affect the adaptive or nonadaptive evolutionary processes of urban populations, yet few studies explicate the links among conflict, wildlife management, and urban evolution. Moreover, the intensity of conflict management can vary considerably by taxon, public perception, policy, religious and cultural beliefs, and geographic region, which underscores the complexity of developing flexible tools to reduce conflict. Here, we present a cross-disciplinary perspective that integrates human-wildlife conflict, wildlife management, and urban evolution to address how social-ecological processes drive wildlife adaptation in cities. We emphasize that variance in implemented management actions shapes the strength and rate of phenotypic and evolutionary change. We also consider how specific management strategies either promote genetic or plastic changes, and how leveraging those biological inferences could help optimize management actions while minimizing conflict. Investigating human-wildlife conflict as an evolutionary phenomenon may provide insights into how conflict arises and how management plays a critical role in shaping urban wildlife phenotypes.

The elephant at the fence: almsman, panhandler, friend or foe?

Feeding of wild Asian elephants at the Udawalawe National Park perimeter electric fence by the general public is longstanding. We monitored the elephants and feeding activities, and conducted questionnaire surveys of stakeholders. Over 50 individual adult male elephants engaged in the activity. The exclusive male presence was consistent with a high-risk high-gain male strategy. The elephants were mostly offered fruits and vegetables. Over a thousand people a day watched and fed the elephants. Most people bought food for elephants from roadside stalls and vendors had significantly more sales if elephants were present. The feeding of elephants brought significant economic benefit to communities bordering the park. We found the impacts of feeding on the elephants and environment to be largely neutral. Impacts on people and conservation were mainly positive. Actions taken by authorities to stop the feeding have targeted the elephants and resulted in the decrease of feeding but not its elimination. Managing the activity instead would help increase economic benefits and ensure safe interaction between people and elephants. Such management, by directly benefitting local communities, could make them partners in the conservation process and form the basis of an effective outreach program.

Identifying individual polar bears at safe distances: A test with captive animals

The need to recognise individuals in population and behavioural studies has stimulated the development of various identification methods. A commonly used method is to employ natural markers to distinguish individuals. In particular, the automated processing of photographs of study animals has gained interest due to the speed of processing and the ability to handle a high volume of records. However, automated processing requires high-quality photographs, which means that they need to be taken from a specific angle or at close distances. Polar bears Ursus maritimus, for example, may be identified by automated analysis of whisker spot patterns. However, to obtain photographs of adequate quality, the animals need to be closer than is usually possible without risk to animal or observer. In this study we tested the accuracy of an alternative method to identify polar bears at further distances. This method is based on distinguishing a set of physiognomic characteristics, which can be recognised from photographs taken in the field at distances of up to 400 m. During five trials, sets of photographs of 15 polar bears from six zoos, with each individual bear portrayed on different dates, were presented for identification to ten test observers. Among observers the repeatability of the assessments was 0.68 (SE 0.011). Observers with previous training in photogrammetric techniques performed better than observers without training. Experience with observing polar bears in the wild did not improve skills to identify individuals on photographs. Among the observers with photogrammetric experience, the rate of erroneous assessment was on average 0.13 (SE 0.020). For the inexperienced group this was 0.72 (SE 0.018). Error rates obtained with automated whisker spot analysis were intermediate (0.26–0.58). We suggest that wildlife studies will benefit from applying several identification techniques to collect data under different conditions.

Food-provisioning negatively affects calf survival and female reproductive success in bottlenose dolphins

Food-provisioning of wildlife can facilitate reliable up-close encounters desirable by tourists and, consequently, tour operators. Food-provisioning can alter the natural behavior of an animal, encouraging adverse behavior (e.g. begging for food handouts), and affect the reproductive success and the viability of a population. Studies linking food-provisioning to reproductive success are limited due to the lack of long-term datasets available, especially for long-lived species such as marine mammals. In Bunbury, Western Australia, a state-licensed food-provisioning program offers fish handouts to a limited number of free-ranging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus). Coupled with long-term historical data, this small (<200 individuals), resident dolphin population has been extensively studied for over ten years, offering an opportunity to examine the effect of food-provisioning on the reproductive success of females (ntotal = 63; nprovisioned females = 8). Female reproductive success was estimated as the number of weaned calves produced per reproductive years and calf survival at year one and three years old was investigated. The mean reproductive success of provisioned and non-provisioned females was compared using Bayes factor. We also used generalized linear models (GLMs) to examine female reproductive success in relation to the occurrence of food-provisioning, begging behavior and location (within the study area). Furthermore, we examined the influence of these variables and birth order and climatic fluctuations (e.g. El Niño Southern Oscillation) on calf survival. Bayes factor analyses (Bayes factor = 6.12) and results from the best fitting GLMs showed that female reproductive success and calf survival were negatively influenced by food-provisioning. The negative effects of food-provisioning, although only affecting a small proportion of the adult females' population (13.2%), are of concern, especially given previous work showing that this population is declining.

A global paucity of wild bird feeding policy

Feeding wild birds is a common and popular human-wildlife interaction throughout the world. However, controversy exists over the benefits and costs to the birds and humans involved. This bibliometric study documents wild bird feeding policies around the globe and examines environmental and socio-cultural factors which may influence the position adopted by these policies. We located 412 policies from 237 different countries, territories or dependencies (jurisdictions); 58.7% of jurisdictions had no information available online regarding wild bird feeding policy. Generalized Linear Modelling revealed that colder minimum ambient temperatures were associated with more pro-feeding policy settings. An index of controversy was calculated for each jurisdiction; most (77.6%) had no controversy. This study highlights the significant variation in policy settings for wild bird feeding across jurisdictions and controversy in almost a quarter of jurisdictions. Recommendations are made for the development of clear, consistent and readily available policy advice on this globally popular human-wildlife interaction.

Human-nature interactions and the consequences and drivers of provisioning wildlife

Many human populations are undergoing an extinction of experience, with a progressive decline in interactions with nature. This is a consequence both of a loss of opportunity for, and orientation towards, such experiences. The trend is of concern in part because interactions with nature can be good for human health and wellbeing. One potential means of redressing these losses is through the intentional provision of resources to increase wildlife populations in close proximity to people, thereby increasing the potential for positive human-nature experiences, and thence the array of benefits that can result. In this paper, we review the evidence that these resource subsidies have such a cascade of effects. In some Westernized countries, the scale of provision is extraordinarily high, and doubtless leads to both positive and negative impacts for wildlife. In turn, these impacts often lead to more frequent, reliable and closer human-nature interactions, with a greater variety of species. The consequences for human wellbeing remain poorly understood, although benefits documented in the context of human-nature interactions more broadly seem likely to apply. There are also some important feedback loops that need to be better characterized if resource provisioning is to contribute effectively towards averting the extinction of experience.This article is part of the theme issue 'Anthropogenic resource subsidies and host-parasite dynamics in wildlife'.

Food for contagion: synthesis and future directions for studying host-parasite responses to resource shifts in anthropogenic environments

Human-provided resource subsidies for wildlife are diverse, common and have profound consequences for wildlife-pathogen interactions, as demonstrated by papers in this themed issue spanning empirical, theoretical and management perspectives from a range of study systems. Contributions cut across scales of organization, from the within-host dynamics of immune function, to population-level impacts on parasite transmission, to landscape- and regional-scale patterns of infection. In this concluding paper, we identify common threads and key findings from author contributions, including the consequences of resource subsidies for (i) host immunity; (ii) animal aggregation and contact rates; (iii) host movement and landscape-level infection patterns; and (iv) interspecific contacts and cross-species transmission. Exciting avenues for future work include studies that integrate mechanistic modelling and empirical approaches to better explore cross-scale processes, and experimental manipulations of food resources to quantify host and pathogen responses. Work is also needed to examine evolutionary responses to provisioning, and ask how diet-altered changes to the host microbiome influence infection processes. Given the massive public health and conservation implications of anthropogenic resource shifts, we end by underscoring the need for practical recommendations to manage supplemental feeding practices, limit human-wildlife conflicts over shared food resources and reduce cross-species transmission risks, including to humans.This article is part of the theme issue 'Anthropogenic resource subsidies and host-parasite dynamics in wildlife'.

Assessing the Effects of Tourist Provisioning on the Health of Wild Barbary Macaques in Morocco

Feeding wildlife is a very popular tourist activity, largely because it facilitates the close observation of animals in their natural habitat. Such provisioning may benefit animals by improving their survival and reproductive success, especially during periods of natural food shortage. However, provisioning by tourists may also have negative impacts on the health of the animals involved; to date such impacts are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the effects of tourist provisioning on the health of wild adult Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus, in Morocco. We compared health measures between a heavily provisioned group and a group that received negligible food from tourists and, in the former group, we also assessed health measures in relation to the intensity of provisioning. We used a broad range of non-invasive health measures relating to birth rate and survival, disease and injury risk, body size and condition, and physiological stress. Our findings indicate that feeding by tourists may overall have negative impacts on the health of Barbary macaques, being linked in particular to larger body size, elevated stress levels and more alopecia. Finally, we propose a framework to help consider the potential costs and benefits of provisioning, which may facilitate future research and management decisions on whether-and how much-provisioning is acceptable.

Is Wildlife Fertility Control Always Humane?

Investigation of fertility control techniques to reduce reproductive rates in wildlife populations has been the source of much research. Techniques targeting wildlife fertility have been diverse. Most research into fertility control methods has focused upon efficacy, with few studies rigorously assessing animal welfare beyond opportunistic anecdote. However, fertility control techniques represent several very different mechanisms of action (modalities), each with their own different animal welfare risks. We provide a review of the mechanisms of action for fertility control methods, and consider the role of manipulation of reproductive hormones ("endocrine suppression") for the long-term ability of animals to behave normally. We consider the potential welfare costs of animal manipulation techniques that are required to administer fertility treatments, including capture, restraint, surgery and drug delivery, and the requirement for repeated administration within the lifetime of an animal. We challenge the assumption that fertility control modalities generate similar and desirable animal welfare outcomes, and we argue that knowledge of reproductive physiology and behaviour should be more adeptly applied to wild animal management decisions. We encourage wildlife managers to carefully assess long-term behavioural risks, associated animal handling techniques, and the importance of positive welfare states when selecting fertility control methods as a means of population control.

Sharks and people: insight into the global practices of tourism operators and their attitudes to shark behaviour

Shark tourism is a popular but controversial activity. We obtained insights into this industry via a global e-mailed questionnaire completed by 45 diving/snorkelling operators who advertised shark experiences (shark operators) and 49 who did not (non-shark operators). 42% of shark operators used an attractant to lure sharks and 93% stated they had a formal code of conduct which 86% enforced "very strictly". While sharks were reported to normally ignore people, 9 operators had experienced troublesome behaviour from them. Whilst our research corroborates previous studies indicating minimal risk to humans from most shark encounters, a precautionary approach to provisioning is required to avoid potential ecological and societal effects of shark tourism. Codes of conduct should always stipulate acceptable diver behaviour and appropriate diver numbers and shark operators should have a moral responsibility to educate their customers about the need for shark conservation.