| Description |
Wildlife are under ever-increasing pressure to adapt to new environments as the global human population increases. Habitat changes and increasing density of human populations in urban and suburban areas can have profound effects on wildlife behavior. Recent research has shown the mechanisms by which humans alter wildlife spatial distribution and behavior, but far less has been able to explain how species may restructure their temporal activity, or circadian rhythms, in response to human influence. How species use time is an integral component of how wildlife communities are structured. Coexistence between species can be facilitated by spreading out their activity across time or by concentrating it within windows not shared by competitors or predators. Little is known about the effects that humans might have on individual species or across communities in this regard. In this study, leveraging a large-scale camera trapping database from the Salt Lake Valley and Central Wasatch Mountain Range, we investigate the effects of human influence on wildlife temporal behavior, focusing on intraspecific differences within mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). Specifically, we conducted circular kernel density analysis and Bayesian hierarchical modeling on wildlife temporal activity data to elucidate whether human influence and urban development affect mule deer temporal behavior across different life stages, focusing on fawning (i.e., individuals actively raising young) vs. non-fawning populations. We found that fawning populations of mule deer were generally less active than their adult counterparts, and became increasingly diurnal. Urban deer were less diurnal than rural deer, and fawning deer in urban environments where coyotes were present greatly decreased nocturnal activity. |
