Mountain lions reduce movement, increase efficiency during the COVID-19 shutdown

Wildlife strongly alter behavior in response to human disturbance;
however, fundamental questions remain regarding the influence of human
infrastructure and activity on animal movement. The Covid-19 pandemic
created a natural experiment providing an opportunity to evaluate wildlife
movement during a period of greatly reduced human activity. Speculation in
scientific reviews and the media suggested that wildlife might be
increasing movement and colonizing urban landscapes during pandemic
slowdowns. However, theory predicts that animals should move and use space
as efficiently as possible, suggesting that movement might actually be
reduced relative to decreased human activity. We quantified space use,
movement, and resource-selection of 12 GPS-collared mountain lions (8
females, 4 males) occupying parklands in greater Los Angeles during the
Spring 2020 California stay-at-home order when human activity was far
below normal. We also tested the hypothesis that reduced traffic on Los
Angeles area roadways increased permeability of these barriers to animal
movement. Contrary to expectations that wildlife roamed more widely during
pandemic shutdowns, resident mountain lions used smaller areas and moved
shorter distances relative to their historical behavior in greater Los
Angeles. They also relaxed avoidance of anthropogenic landscape features
such as trails and development, which likely facilitated increased
traveling efficiency. However, there was no detectable change in
road-crossing, despite reduced traffic volume. Our results support the
theoretical prediction that animals maximize movement efficiency and
suggest that carnivores incur energetic costs while avoiding humans. While
mountain lions may restrict movement at the landscape-level relative to
barriers, they appear to increase distances moved at finer scales when
avoiding human activity - highlighting the scale-dependent nature of
animal responses to human disturbance. Avoiding humans can reduce direct
mortality of large carnivores and is often suggested to be an important
mechanism promoting coexistence in shared landscapes. However, energetic
costs incurred by increased movement and space-use while avoiding human
activity may have important consequences for population viability,
predator-prey interactions, community structure, and human-wildlife
conflict. Management providing sufficient wild prey and education
regarding best practices for protection of domestic animals are important
for conserving large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes.