Covid-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify the effects of human activity on wildlife

In this review article, Christian Rutz and colleagues highlight how the international research community can use reduced human mobility — which they suggest be coined ‘anthropause’ to gain unprecedented mechanistic insight into how human activity affects wildlife.

Scientific knowledge gained during this devastating crisis will allow researchers to develop innovative strategies for sharing space on this increasingly crowded planet, with benefits for both wildlife and humans.

As expanding human populations are transforming environments at unprecedented rates, understanding the linkages between human and animal behaviour is of critical importance. It is key to preserving global biodiversity, to maintaining the integrity of ecosystems, and to predicting global zoonoses and environmental change. This knowledge is not only worth billions of dollars, but it is also vital for shaping a sustainable future. So far, however, researchers have had to rely predominantly on purely observational approaches.