4.5 Review

Effects of Human Disturbance on Terrestrial Apex Predators

Journal

DIVERSITY-BASEL
Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/d13020068

Keywords

carnivore recovery; ecological function; human disturbance; human-dominated landscapes; large carnivores; Northern hemisphere

Funding

  1. Norwegian Environment Agency
  2. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
  3. Norwegian Research Council
  4. Austrian Science Fund
  5. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
  6. Swedish Carnivore Association for Hunting andWildlife Management
  7. Swedish Carnivore Association
  8. WWF Sweden
  9. Carl Tryggers Foundation
  10. Marie-Claire Cronstedt Foundation
  11. Formas [2015-826]

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Human disturbance affects terrestrial apex predators in various ways, including reducing population numbers and triggering behavioral responses that can impact lower trophic levels. However, in some cases, apex predator populations are partially recovering, posing both conservation benefits and management challenges.
The effects of human disturbance spread over virtually all ecosystems and ecological communities on Earth. In this review, we focus on the effects of human disturbance on terrestrial apex predators. We summarize their ecological role in nature and how they respond to different sources of human disturbance. Apex predators control their prey and smaller predators numerically and via behavioral changes to avoid predation risk, which in turn can affect lower trophic levels. Crucially, reducing population numbers and triggering behavioral responses are also the effects that human disturbance causes to apex predators, which may in turn influence their ecological role. Some populations continue to be at the brink of extinction, but others are partially recovering former ranges, via natural recolonization and through reintroductions. Carnivore recovery is both good news for conservation and a challenge for management, particularly when recovery occurs in human-dominated landscapes. Therefore, we conclude by discussing several management considerations that, adapted to local contexts, may favor the recovery of apex predator populations and their ecological functions in nature.

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