How can we tackle interruptions to human-wildlife feeding management? Adding media campaigns to the wildlife manager’s toolbox

In recent years, wildlife managers have been seeking ways to reduce the occurrence of independent, recreational human-wildlife feeding interactions, which continue to gain global popularity and may have negative effects on the humans and wildlife involved. Current popular methods, such as signage and posters, have yielded mixed results and their application is often interrupted, though the effects of these interruptions on feeding levels are currently unknown. This has led to calls to both identify a management option that can be applied successfully from a distance and to determine whether this action may assist in recovering long-term programmes from the potential effects of interruptions. Marketing and media tools have been shown to successfully change human behaviours in conservation campaigns, flagging them as a potential tool that could be applied to human-wildlife feeding management. 
Here, we performed a 4-year study using a wild fallow deer population in a popular urban green s..., A key thing to note initially is that this data was collected over 4 key stages based on the management activities currently in action, aiming to reduce human-deer feeding within the site. These stages occurred across 4 years (2018-2021), with each stage representing a summer collection (i.e. June-July) for a consecutive year. These stages included pre-management (Stage 1), introduction of internal controls such as signage, posters, and ranger patrols (Stage 2), interruption of management by Covid-19 (Stage 3), and release of a targeted media campaign across both traditional and social media (Stage 4).
All areas of the Park that are open to the public were identified and divided into sectors. As fallow deer are naturally sexually segregated during the summer months, this was performed by splitting the Park into the area utilised by the males (eastern side of the Park) and the area utilised by the females (western side of the Park) as outlined by the Park rangers. Both the male and femal...,