Data from: Does hunting or hiking affect wildlife communities in protected areas?

Managed public wild areas have dual mandates to protect biodiversity and provide recreational opportunities for people. These goals could be at odds if recreation, ranging from hiking to legal hunting, disrupts wildlife enough to alter their space use or community structure. We evaluated the effect of managed hunting and recreation on 12 terrestrial wildlife species by employing a large citizen science camera trapping survey at 1947 sites stratified across different levels of human activities in 32 protected forests in the eastern USA. Habitat covariates, especially the amount of large continuous forest and local housing density, were more important than recreation for affecting the distribution of most species. The four most hunted species (white-tailed deer, raccoons, eastern grey and fox squirrels) were commonly detected throughout the region, but relatively less so at hunted sites. Recreation was most important for affecting the distribution of coyotes, which used hunted areas more compared with unhunted control areas, and did not avoid areas used by hikers. Most species did not avoid human-made trails, and many predators positively selected them. Bears and bobcats were more likely to avoid people in hunted areas than unhunted preserves, suggesting that they perceive the risk of humans differently depending on local hunting regulations. However, this effect was not found for the most heavily hunted species, suggesting that human hunters are not broadly creating ‘fear’ effects to the wildlife community as would be expected for apex predators. Synthesis and applications. Although we found that hiking and managed hunting have measureable effects on the distribution of some species, these were relatively minor in comparison with the importance of habitat covariates associated with land use and habitat fragmentation. These patterns of wildlife distribution suggest that the present practices for regulating recreation in the region are sustainable and in balance with the goal of protecting wildlife populations and may be facilitated by decades of animal habituation to humans. The citizen science monitoring approach we developed could offer a long-term monitoring protocol for protected areas, which would help managers to detect where and when the balance between recreation and wildlife has tipped.

受管理的公共荒野区域肩负双重使命：既要保护生物多样性，也要为民众提供户外游憩机会。若休闲活动（涵盖徒步旅行至合法狩猎等范畴）对野生动物造成足够干扰，进而改变其空间利用模式或群落结构，那么这两大目标可能会产生冲突。本研究依托美国东部32片保护森林中、按人类活动强度分层布设的1947个监测点位，开展大规模公民科学红外相机监测（camera trapping）调查，以此评估受管理的狩猎活动与休闲活动对12种陆生野生动物的影响。生境协变量（covariates），尤其是连片大型森林面积与本地住宅密度，对多数物种种群分布的影响显著程度高于休闲活动。四种最常被狩猎的物种（白尾鹿、浣熊、东部灰松鼠与狐松鼠）在该区域内普遍被监测到，但在开展狩猎活动的点位相对少见。休闲活动对郊狼的种群分布影响最为显著：相较于未设置狩猎活动的对照区域，郊狼更频繁地使用狩猎管控区域，且不会避开徒步旅行者活动的区域。多数物种不会刻意避开人工步道，诸多捕食者甚至会主动选择步道周边的活动区域。相较于未受狩猎管控的保护区，黑熊与短尾猫在受狩猎管控的区域中更倾向于规避人类活动区，这表明它们对人类风险的感知会因当地狩猎法规的差异而有所不同。但这一效应并未在狩猎压力最大的物种中显现，这说明人类狩猎活动并未如顶级捕食者（apex predators）相关研究的预期那样，对整个野生动物群落产生广泛的“恐惧效应”。研究总结与应用启示。尽管本研究发现徒步活动与受管理的狩猎活动会对部分物种的分布产生可检测的影响，但相较于与土地利用及生境破碎化相关的生境协变量的重要性而言，这类影响相对有限。上述野生动物分布格局表明，该区域当前的休闲活动管控实践具备可持续性，且与保护野生动物种群的目标相契合，这或许得益于数十年来野生动物对人类活动的适应性驯化。我们开发的公民科学监测方法，可为保护区提供长期标准化监测方案，助力管理者精准识别休闲活动与野生动物保护间的平衡被打破的时间与地点。