The influence of human activity on predator–prey spatiotemporal overlap

Abstract

Despite growing evidence of widespread impacts of humans on animal behaviour, our understanding of how humans reshape species interactions remains limited. Here, we present a framework that draws on key concepts from behavioural and community ecology to outline four primary pathways by which humans can alter predator–prey spatiotemporal overlap. We suggest that predator–prey dyads can exhibit similar or opposite responses to human activity with distinct outcomes for predator diet, predation rates, population demography and trophic cascades. We demonstrate how to assess these behavioural response pathways with hypothesis testing, using temporal activity data for 178 predator–prey dyads from published camera trap studies on terrestrial mammals. We found evidence for each of the proposed pathways, revealing multiple patterns of human influence on predator–prey activity and overlap. Our framework and case study highlight current challenges, gaps, and advances in linking human activity to animal behaviour change and predator–prey dynamics. By using a hypothesis-driven approach to estimate the potential for altered species interactions, researchers can anticipate the ecological consequences of human activities on whole communities.