When COVID rules kept humans home, wildlife roamed more freely, international study shows

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced humans to hunker down at home, wild animals took advantage of our absence, new research shows.

The study, authored by 175 researchers from around the world, examines how pandemic restrictions during the height of the global health crisis altered animal behaviour.

Researchers found that when human mobility was constrained by lockdown measures, wildlife soon took notice — moving closer to roads and moving more freely across the landscape. 

From elephants in Botswana to grizzlies roaming the Rockies, animals enjoyed the solitude when places became largely devoid of people.

"One of the biggest surprises was actually seeing animals respond and change their behaviour in such a short time," said Marlee Tucker, an ecologist at Radboud University in the Netherlands and the study's lead author.

The study, published this month in the journal Science, examined 43 species of terrestrial mammals, relying on data gathered from 2,300 individual animals fitted with radio collars or other GPS trackers.

Giving wildlife the space to remain wild can have an immediate impact on their movements, the study found. The findings may help inform future conservation efforts, Tucker said.

"This is quite a positive, optimistic finding because it shows that animals still retain this capacity to alter their behaviour," Tucker said.

"It suggests that maybe making small changes in our behaviour could actually reduce our impact." 

Researchers monitored changes in animal behaviour during the spring of 2020 compared with the same time period in the year before. Each data set was assigned a "lockdown start date" based on national government regulations at the time. 

Three trends emerged. 

When they were tracked over 10-day time spans, animals travelled on average 73 per cent farther as they migrated, hunted and foraged food.

Roadkill numbers were reduced even as animals moved 36 per cent closer to roads in densely populated areas. 

When tracked over short, one-hour time spans, animals in densely populated areas moved less — likely because humans weren't around to scare them off.