Bridging human mobility to animal activity: when humans are away, bears will play

In the Anthropocene, findings on animal behavioral flexibility in response to anthropogenic changes are accumulating: human presence and activity affect the distribution, movement, activity rhythm, physiology, and diet of animal species. However, conclusions are limited by the lack of simultaneous quantitative data on both the animal and human side. Hence, the dynamic link between animal behavior and human activity and mobility is often poorly estimated. Based on long-term monitoring of a wild bear population in the Trentino region (10 bears monitored from 2006 to 2019; 20 bear-years) combined with human mobility data (Cumulative Outdoor activity Index, derived from the Strava Global Heatmap) and tourist count records, we investigated how spatial behavior and activity rhythms of bears change with variations in experienced human disturbance. We found that bears were mainly nocturnal and that, on an annual scale, nocturnality was associated with movement behavior, but both were independent of experienced human disturbance. Furthermore, nocturnality tended to increase in periods of more intense exploitation of outdoor areas by humans. Overall, these preliminary findings show that bears exhibit a notable behavioral flexibility to minimize their exposure to human presence. Through the application of different sources of human activity data, this work showcases that the integration of high resolution animal movement data with dynamic data on human mobility is crucial to meaningfully catch wildlife responses to anthropisation

Brown bear multi-scale response to human presence and mobility in the Italian Alps

In an increasingly human-dominated world, wildlife is constrained by human presence and activity, inducing behavioural adjustments as a consequence. Large mammals are especially sensitive to such changes, questioning the potential of their behavioural flexibility to cope with human disturbance. Using brown bears in the Italian Alps as a study case, we investigated their response to changes in human presence over different temporal scales. Combining human mobility data with bear tracking and activity data spanning from 2006 to 2019, we analysed bears’ behaviour and movement as a function of human activities. We observed that over the years bear activity and daily movement length have increased, while diurnality and range size have decreased. While tourism has grown in parallel, this was not identified as the main driver of such responses. Rather, it was mostly due to the increase in bear population, whose space is nonetheless limited by human infrastructure. At a weekly scale, we observed no difference in daily movement lengths between weekdays and weekends. This might perhaps be because of the continuous human disturbance in the area overall. Finally, at the daily scale, we found that individuals roamed in places more intensively exploited by humans at night compared to daytime, especially when ranging in heavily disturbed areas. Our results highlight how humans are indirectly, by hampering connectivity, and directly, through disturbance, shaping brown bear behaviour and movement. In view of a growing volume of outdoor human activity, we analyze the implications of such responses and present challenges for human-wildlife coexistence

Human infrastructure can alter the ecosystem services provided by a migratory ungulate

Wild ungulates, through their movement over the landscape, provide key ecosystem functions. Environmental processes such as soil productivity, seed dispersal and carbon sequestration are significantly affected by the presence of large herbivores. However, with the loss of migratory routes due to expanding human infrastructure networks and climate change, landscapes that depend on the movement of these species may experience changes in ecosystem functionality. Nutrient translocation and deposition, which is an important service provided by large herbivores, is of particular interest in alpine agricultural landscapes. Human activities generally have a negative impact on the quality, quantity, and dynamics of soil nutrient in the landscape, particularly nitrogen. Wild ungulates, with their movement and space use, can offset some of these human impacts by restoring concentrations over the landscape. In this project, we aim to map the nitrogen (N) flow derived by large migrating ungulates in a fragmented Alpine ecosystem. To this end, we developed an Agent-Based Model to quantify animal-vectored subsidies balance, based on observed movement of 15 GPS-tracked red deer over two years, and parameterized with population parameters from local monitoring, and species-specific information from literature. Preliminary stoichiometric nutrient budget maps indicate that human infrastructure networks and land use are shaping the movement of red deer, resulting in hotspots of nitrogen intake and uptake. Barrier to movements, caused by anthropogenic land use, has the potential to alter ecosystem services provided by free-ranging animals, particularly important in an ever-changing Alpine environment

Spatial Aspects of Gardens Drive Ranging in Urban Foxes (Vulpes vulpes): The Resource Dispersion Hypothesis Revisited.

Red foxes are a well-established species of urban ecosystems in the UK and worldwide. Understanding the spatial ecology of foxes in urban landscapes is important for enhancement of urban biodiversity and effective disease management. The Resource Dispersion Hypothesis (RDH) holds that territory (home range) size is linked to distribution and richness of habitat patches such that aggregation of rich resources should be negatively associated with range size. Here, we tested the RDH on a sample of 20 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the city of Brighton and Hove. We focused on residential garden areas, as foxes were associated with these in previous studies. We equipped 12 male and 8 female foxes with GPS collars recording at 15 min intervals during discrete seasons over four years. We regressed fox core area size against garden size, number of garden patches, and edge density within and between patches as extracted from GIS in a series of bivariate linear mixed models. We found that foxes used smaller core areas where gardens were large and well-connected and larger core areas where numerous, smaller gardens were fragmented by internal barriers (e.g., fences, walls) or bisected by other habitats such as managed grassland or built-up areas. Our findings confirm the RDH and help to inform future urban planning for wildlife

Effect of deer density on tick infestation of rodents and the hazard of tick-borne encephalitis. II: Population and infection models

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Ecological and behavioral drivers of supplemental feeding use by roe deer Capreolus capreolus in a peri-urban context

Winter supplemental feeding of ungulates potentially alters their use of resources and ecological interactions, yet relatively little is known about the patterns of feeding sites use by target populations. We used camera traps to continuously monitor winter and spring feeding site use in a roe deer population living in a peri-urban area in Northern Italy. We combined circular statistics with generalized additive and linear mixed models to analyze the diel and seasonal pattern of roe deer visits to feeding sites, and the behavioral drivers influencing visit duration. Roe deer visits peaked at dawn and dusk, and decreased from winter to spring when vegetation regrows and temperature increases. Roe deer mostly visited feeding sites solitarily; when this was not the case, they stayed longer at the site, especially when conspecifics were eating, but maintained a bimodal diel pattern of visits. These results support an opportunistic use of feeding sites, following seasonal cycles and the roe deer circadian clock. Yet, the attractiveness of these artificial resources has the potential to alter intra-specific relationships, as competition for their use induces gatherings and may extend the contact time between individuals, with potential behavioral and epidemiological consequences

Population assessment without individual identification using camera-traps: a comparison of four methods

The use of camera traps to estimate population size when animals are not individually recognizable is gaining traction in the ecological literature, because of its applicability in population conservation and management. We estimated population size of synthetic animals with four camera trap sampling-based statistical models that do not rely on individual recognition. Using a realistic model of animal movement to generate synthetic data, we compared the random encounter model, the random encounter and staying time model, the association model and the time-to-event-model and we investigated the impact of violation of assumptions on the population size estimates. While under ideal conditions these models provide reliable population estimates, when synthetic animal movements were characterised by differences in speed (due to diverse behaviours such as locomotion, grazing and resting) none of the model provided both unbiased and precise density estimates. The random encounter model and the time-to-event-model provided pre- cise results but tended to overestimate population size, while the random encounter and staying time model was less precise and tended to underestimate population size. Lastly, the association model was unable to provide precise results. We found that each tested model was very sensitive to the method used to estimate the range of the field-of-view of camera traps. Density esti- mates from both random encounter model and time-to-event-model were also very sensitive to biases in the estimate of ani- mals’ speed. We provide guidelines on how to use these statistical models to get population size estimates that could be useful to wildlife managers and practitioners

A comparison of small rodent assemblages after a 20 year interval in the Alps

Human-induced environmental alterations in the Alps may importantly affect small mammal species, but evidence in this sense is limited. We live-trapped small rodents in the Central-Eastern Italian Alps in three close-by habitat types (rocky scree, alpine grassland, and heath) at 2100 m a.s.l. during summer-fall, in 1997 and 2016. We compared small rodent assemblages through a Redundancy Detrended Analysis (RDA). In both surveys, we detected two specialist species, i.e., the common vole (Microtus arvalis) and the snow vole (Chionomys nivalis), and, unexpectedly, the forest generalist bank vole (Myodes glareolus). In 1997, grassland was mainly occupied by the common vole, while the bank vole and the snow vole were sympatric in the other habitats. In 2016, the snow vole was detected only in the scree, while other species did not show distribution changes. We discuss a series of hypotheses that might have driven the differences observed across decades, among which is a species-specific response to abiotic and biotic environmental alterations, with the alpine habitat specialist moving out of sub-optimal habitats. We encourage further research on this topic, e.g., via long-term longitudinal studies

Atypical polypoid adenomyoma follow-up and management: Systematic review of case reports and series and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Atypical polypoid adenomyoma (APA) is a rare uterine tumor typically found in fertile age and associated with infertility. Among young nullipara women, conservative treatment is proposed despite the high recurrence rate and the association with endometrial cancer.Our aim was to assess the risk of recurrence with different conservative treatments in fertile ages and the prevalence of malignant or pre-malignant associated lesions to better address an adequate patient counselling when treatment modalities are discussed. METHODS: This study is a systematic review and meta-analysis of case reports and case series about APA management and follow-up. A literature search was carried from Medline and Scopus for studies published from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2018. RESULTS: We included 46 observational studies and 296 cases in fertile women. The prevalence of APA relapse was 44% (CI.95 33-57%) and was lower in cases treated with operative hysteroscopy (22%; CI.95 11-39%) than in cases treated with blind curettage and polypectomy (38%; CI.95 15-67%). The prevalence of the concomitant or during the follow-up diagnosis of endometrial carcinoma was 16% (CI.95 9-29%). The risk of cancer development during follow-up was significantly less in cases treated with histeroscopy (10.56% new cumulative diagnosis at 5 years follow up; CI.95 0-23.7%) than blind curettage and polypectomy (35.5% new cumulative diagnosis at 5 years; CI.95 11.65-52.92%; P\u200a<\u200a.05). Medical treatment with medroxyprogesterone acetate after surgery does not reduce APA recurrence. Pregnancy was observed in 79% cases in which the desire was expressed. CONCLUSION: This review suggests that conservative treatment performed by operative hysteroscopy is the optimal choice because it lowers the risk of recurrence, improves the accuracy of concomitant carcinoma or hyperplasia diagnosis, and leaves the possibility of future pregnancies