The influence of human disturbance on wildlife nocturnality

2018/06/14 by Kaitlyn M. Gaynor, Cheryl E. Hojnowski, Neil Carter +1 · 8 citations
Environmental Science · #Impact of Light on Environment and Health #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #Urban Green Space and Health

paper · doi:10.1126/science.aar7121

openalex publication_date 2018/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Rapid expansion of human activity has driven well-documented shifts in the spatial distribution of wildlife, but the cumulative effect of human disturbance on the temporal dynamics of animals has not been quantified. We examined anthropogenic effects on mammal diel activity patterns, conducting a meta-analysis of 76 studies of 62 species from six continents. Our global study revealed a strong effect of humans on daily patterns of wildlife activity. Animals increased their nocturnality by an average factor of 1.36 in response to human disturbance. This finding was consistent across continents, habitats, taxa, and human activities. As the global human footprint expands, temporal avoidance of humans may facilitate human-wildlife coexistence. However, such responses can result in marked shifts away from natural patterns of activity, with consequences for fitness, population persistence, community interactions, and evolution.

Citations

• Spatial and temporal structure of a mesocarnivore guild in midwestern north America
• The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results.
• Spatiotemporal behavioral plasticity of wild boar (Sus scrofa) under contrasting conditions of human pressure: primeval forest and metropolitan area
• Saving large carnivores, but losing the apex predator?
• A Comparison of Gray Fox Ecology between Residential and Undeveloped Rural Landscapes
• Fear of the human “super predator” far exceeds the fear of large carnivores in a model mesocarnivore
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Cited by

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• Ecology and Neurobiology of Fear in Free-Living Wildlife
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• Conservation Evolutionary Biology: A Unified Framework Connecting the Past, Present, and Future of Biodiversity Conservation
• Risky behavior of Asian black bears differs between sex and season in a landscape fragmented by roads
• How do we achieve nature positive? A vision and targets for the UK residential and commercial development sector
• Anthropocene [wikipedia]
• Coyote [wikipedia]

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