RAPID: Using an abrupt and complete cessation of tourism to test the relationship between species traits, movement and connectivity for large carnivore guilds in three ecosystems.

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

Due to habitat loss, many wild animals now live in small, isolated populations. Large predators are especially vulnerable because they always live in small populations and often come into conflict with humans. Understanding how they move in response to humans and how well they travel between populations (“connectivity”) are high priorities for their conservation and management. Scientists know that connectivity depends on features of the landscape -- for example, where predators on the move can find food and temporary shelter. Connectivity also depends on differences in behavior between species; some are bolder or more aggressive than others. This project tests a new idea about how movements of lions, hyenas, cheetahs and wild dogs are affected by human activities and by interactions with one another. These species are well-suited to test the new idea because they compete intensely with one another, occur mainly in isolated protected areas, and can travel long distances between those areas. Because COVID-19 has stopped all tourist activity in three protected areas where these species occur, researchers have a unique opportunity to collect data on how a large change in human presence affects these animals. The researchers will compare the animals' behavior before and during the pandemic. Documenting how differences between species affect their ability to move will help to develop policies to maintain critical connections between populations in an increasingly fragmented world. An additional benefit of this project is that it will provide students with mentoring and international experiences in field research. In combination with existing long-term data, this project will provide an unusual pseudo-experimental "difference in differences" test of how a change in human activity alters previously observed differences between species in their patterns of movement, and how these changes differ between ecosystems. Tests with multiple species at a range of temporal scales, across a set of ecosystems that differ in their pre-COVID intensity of human use, will advance our understanding of the manner in which species’ traits interact with human-affected landscapes to allow or prevent movement. Because virtually all species are affected by interspecific competition and by anthropogenic effects, our results will provide broad and generalizable advances in the integration of species’ ecology into models of connectivity. Funding for this project comes from the Population and Community Ecology program in the Division of Environmental Biology and from the Behavioral Systems program in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.