Look Out: There's a Human About!

Dr Tim Docherty, a wildlife ecologist, selected (with assistance), more than 200 papers, detailing the impact of human activities on the distances animals needed to move to successfully feed and breed (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/02/human-activity-forces-animals-to-move-further-to-survive-study-finds). Docherty's eventual analysis looked at 160 species on 6 continents. The data clearly showed that use of aircraft, hunting and recreation had more powerful impacts than urbanisation and logging on the distances animals had to move (with energy costs) to survive. All animals essentially have use use their energy (gained from food), efficiently. Every behaviour they perform is essentially a costs versus benefits 'calculation'. This impact of human activities has energetic costs for animals. We don't need to physically kill animals (by hunting them), as other forms of disturbance (even recreation), can make the energetics of survival more difficult. Human activities must consequently make some species non-viable in certain locations.