ABOVE: SEBASTIAN KENNERKNECHT/PUMAPIX.COM
After SARS-CoV-2 was found to be spreading in the US early in 2020, local governments issued shelter-in-place orders to try to combat the virus. Around Santa Cruz, California, this resulted in a 50 percent reduction in local travel, according to a paper published June 23 in Current Biology. Local mountain lions, which typically steer clear of human-populated areas, took notice, expanding their ranges closer to urban areas, the study found.
The Scientist spoke with study author Chris Wilmers, a wildlife ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, about this work, and what the findings suggest about how ecosystem dynamics can shift in the face of widespread changes in human behavior.
Chris Wilmers: Immediately? Probably not. But a few days after the lockdown, I started venturing out into town occasionally to buy groceries or whatever, and noticed that there was a real dramatic decline in traffic on ...
