Unlocking Urban Animal Response to Reduced Human Activity during COVID-19 Lockdown (preprint)

The interrelations between human activity and animal populations are of increasing interest due to the emergence of the novel COVID-19 across the world. Anthropogenic impacts of the pandemic on animals in urban-suburban environments, at this stage, are largely unknown. In this study, temporal and spatial aspects of urban animal response to the COVID-19 lockdown were assessed using animal-vehicle collisions (AVC) data. We used AVC and traffic data over two six-month periods in 2019 and 2020 (January to June) from southern Poland, which included lockdown months. Our analysis of 1741 AVC incidents involving 21 animal species revealed that COVID-19 related lockdown did not significantly impact AVC rates even though traffic levels were reduced, suggesting that animals increased utilisation of urban-suburban interfaces in response to reduced human activity. Given the high incidence and diversity of species involved in AVC in this study, we emphasise the importance of data integrity and mitigation measures to minimise this human wildlife conflict.