Impacts of human recreation on carnivores in protected areas

Baker, Angela; Leber, Paul

Mammalian carnivores can be particularly sensitive to human disturbance, even within protected areas (PAs). The study objective was to understand how human disturbance affects carnivore communities in southern Arizona, USA by studying habitat occupancy based on data collected using non-invasive methods in three PAs with different levels of human disturbance. Overall carnivore diversity was higher in PAs with low human disturbance and the presence of roads and trails, and not necessarily how much they are used, had a significant negative impact on the occupancy of most carnivore species. Increased visitation to PAs, expected with the region’s high level of population growth, is likely to cause shifts in the carnivore communities favoring species that are less sensitive to disturbance. In many parts of the world, protected areas (PAs) are the last available refuge for carnivore species and are essential to their persistence. Another recent study suggests that human recreation has relatively minor impacts on most wildlife distributions. However, that study was conducted in forested areas with much denser vegetation compared to the deserts and grasslands of southern Arizona. That the results of these studies differ suggests that there are regional and habitat differences in species’ susceptibility to human disturbance variables