Procko Michael, Naidoo Robin, LeMay Valerie, Burton A Cole
Department of Forest Resources Management, Forest Sciences Centre University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada.
WWF-US Washington District of Columbia USA.
Conserv Sci Pract. 2022 Jul;4(7):e12743. doi: 10.1111/csp2.12743. Epub 2022 Jun 7.
The dual mandate for many protected areas (PAs) to simultaneously promote recreation and conserve biodiversity may be hampered by negative effects of recreation on wildlife. However, reports of these effects are not consistent, presenting a knowledge gap that hinders evidence-based decision-making. We used camera traps to monitor human activity and terrestrial mammals in Golden Ears Provincial Park and the adjacent University of British Columbia Malcolm Knapp Research Forest near Vancouver, Canada, with the objective of discerning relative effects of various forms of recreation on cougars (), black bears (), black-tailed deer (), snowshoe hares (), coyotes (), and bobcats (). Additionally, public closures of the study area associated with the COVD-19 pandemic offered an unprecedented period of human-exclusion through which to explore these effects. Using Bayesian generalized mixed-effects models, we detected negative effects of hikers (mean posterior estimate = -0.58, 95% credible interval [CI] -1.09 to -0.12) on weekly bobcat habitat use and negative effects of motorized vehicles (estimate = -0.28, 95% CI -0.61 to -0.05) on weekly black bear habitat use. We also found increased cougar detection rates in the PA during the COVID-19 closure (estimate = 0.007, 95% CI 0.005 to 0.009), but decreased cougar detection rates (estimate = -0.006, 95% CI -0.009 to -0.003) and increased black-tailed deer detection rates (estimate = 0.014, 95% CI 0.002 to 0.026) upon reopening of the PA. Our results emphasize that effects of human activity on wildlife habitat use and movement may be species- and/or activity-dependent, and that camera traps can be an invaluable tool for monitoring both wildlife and human activity, collecting data even when public access is barred. Further, we encourage PA managers seeking to promote both biodiversity conservation and recreation to explicitly assess trade-offs between these two goals in their PAs.
许多保护区肩负着同时促进娱乐活动和保护生物多样性的双重使命，但娱乐活动对野生动物的负面影响可能会阻碍这一使命的实现。然而，关于这些影响的报告并不一致，这存在知识缺口，阻碍了基于证据的决策制定。我们使用相机陷阱监测了加拿大温哥华附近的金耳朵省立公园及相邻的英属哥伦比亚大学马尔科姆·克纳普研究森林中的人类活动和陆生哺乳动物，目的是辨别各种娱乐形式对美洲狮、黑熊、黑尾鹿、雪兔、郊狼和山猫的相对影响。此外，与新冠疫情相关的研究区域公共封闭提供了一个前所未有的人类排除期，借此来探究这些影响。使用贝叶斯广义混合效应模型，我们检测到徒步旅行者（平均后验估计值 = -0.58，95%可信区间[CI] -1.09至 -0.12）对山猫每周栖息地利用有负面影响，机动车辆（估计值 = -0.28，95% CI -0.61至 -0.05）对黑熊每周栖息地利用有负面影响。我们还发现，在新冠疫情封闭期间，保护区内美洲狮的检测率有所增加（估计值 = 0.007，95% CI 0.005至0.009），但保护区重新开放后，美洲狮检测率下降（估计值 = -0.006，95% CI -0.009至 -0.003），黑尾鹿检测率增加（估计值 = 0.014，95% CI 0.002至0.026）。我们的结果强调，人类活动对野生动物栖息地利用和活动的影响可能因物种和/或活动而异，相机陷阱可以成为监测野生动物和人类活动的宝贵工具，即使在禁止公众进入时也能收集数据。此外，我们鼓励寻求促进生物多样性保护和娱乐活动的保护区管理者在其保护区内明确评估这两个目标之间的权衡。
