(2022) Guest Editor with Dr. Joanna E. Lambert, Dr. Amanda Ellwanger, and Dr. Joel Berger

Though human–wildlife conflict has recently received considerable attention, the reality is that we have shared landscapes with wild animals throughout our evolutionary history, suggesting that at no time have we not interacted with sympatric species. Our patterns of interaction with other species are by no means static, however, with significant spatiotemporal shifts in our ecological impact on animal communities and species populations. Salient examples of these ecological interactions include globally documented top-down effects during Pleistocene megafaunal extinction events and wide-reaching bottom-up effects as a consequence of habitat conversion. Most recently, unabated human population growth has exacerbated the intensity and gravity of these human–wildlife ecological interactions and frequency of encounters, with significant conservation and management implications. Some animal species flourish in emerging anthropogenic landscapes and in human proximity, others are declining rapidly in number.

In this Special Issue, we will explore the long history that humans have had with wild animals, with three overarching themes: (1) the changing patterns of human interactions with wild animals over our 200,000+ year history, (2) the circumstances that result in human–wildlife conflict versus coexistence, and (3) the conservation and management implications of human–wildlife interactions. We will consider including articles that address topics such as the ecology and evolution of species coexistence, changing human attitudes towards wild animals, human–animal ecological relationships (predator–prey, competitive, mutualisms, commensalism, amensalism), sources of conflict between humans and animals, competition between humans and animals for resources and space, urban animals and biodiversity in cities, animals as ecotourism subjects, the role of protected space, and implications for wildlife managers.

Link here.

(2023) Golden Beam, Berger, Breck, Schell, and Lambert. Wildlife Letters.

Abstract

The behavioral mechanisms by which urban wildlife adapt to urban landscapes and disturbances within these environments are poorly understood. Such understanding can be important for wildlife managers, especially if the species is of concern to human and pet safety, such as the coyote (Canis latrans). Here, we evaluate coyote tolerance to the presence of humans, pets, and anthropogenic landscapes, to better understand how coyotes are conditioned to live in urbanizing landscapes. Using continuous focal follow and instantaneous scan sampling, we collected data on metrics of anthropogenic development and coyote flight response. We used cumulative link mixed models to determine that intensity of behavioral response to observation was impacted by habitat, human visitation to sites, and coyote group composition. These data may be useful to managers for profiling potentially problematic individual animals and identifying strategies for human–coyote coexistence.