A study published in Global Change Biology found that about 58% of mammals across North America may be benefitted from human activity as they were more likely to be found in areas with increasing human disturbance. However, 33% of mammal species were less likely to be in areas surrounding human presence, the research said.
Scientists used data from 3,212 camera traps set across North America to track 24 mammal species across 61 camera trap projects set in diverse regions.
“We’ve been very interested, for a long time, in how human disturbance influences wildlife,” said Chris Wilmers, one of the study’s authors and an environmental studies professor at UC Santa Cruz, in a news release by UC Santa Cruz. According to Wilmers, his team wanted to see “how wildlife, in general, are responding to similar anthropogenic pressures across North America.”
Scientists combined the data of thousands of camera traps across the US, Canada, and Mexico and divided the observations into two categories of human disturbance. The first type was the “footprint of human development,” areas where things built by humans exist such as roads, agricultural fields, and houses. The second type was the mere human presence, such as picnics and recreational activities in jungles and natural landscapes.
Upon analyzing the data, the researchers found that wolves, wolverines, grizzly bears, and lynx were less likely to be near developed areas, and when they were found, they were less likely to be active. The species of Elk, mule deer, striped skunks, red foxes, bobcats, coyotes, and pumas were also less likely to be found in such areas. However, when they did visit, they were more active in developed areas.
On the other hand, raccoons and white-tailed deers were among the species that were more likely to be found and tended to be more active in developed areas.
However, the researchers acknowledge that because, near developed areas, there is such little available natural habitat for animals like pumas, it is likely that their higher recorded activity is because they did not have places to go beyond where camera traps were set.
