Implications for conservation
As daytime “super predators”, humans control 75% of Earth’s land
surface and are driving in rise in nocturnal activity in medium- and
large-bodied mammals (Clinchy et al., 2016). A recent meta-analysis of
studies of 62 mammalian species on six continents (Gaynor et al., 2018),
exposed a robust influence of human existence on the temporal activity
of wildlife, with an average 36% increase in nocturnal activity in
reaction to human stimuli. Specifically, nocturnal activity increased in
response to an extensive range of human effects, lethal and nonlethal,
including hunting, farming, and hiking; this proposes that wild animals
recognize humans as dangers whether or not they pose a lethal risk
(Gaynor et al., 2018). Free-roaming dogs also cause both lethal and
non-lethal effects (Zaman et al., 2019). Even agricultural farming
activities may cause mammals to shift to greater nocturnal behavior and
reduced diurnal activity (Shamoon et al., 2018), and depredation on
domestic livestock, which commonly occur at night, can bring about
negative perceptions and conservation issues (Mishra, 1997). While the
present study has achieved its goals to better understand lunar effects
on animal behavior (Beale and Monaghan, 2004).
Using a variety of computational tools to analyze our vigorous dataset,
this study has achieved two principal results which progress our
understanding of the nocturnal and diurnal behavior of wild mammals in
relation to moon phase, including predator-prey interactions and effects
of habitat factors. In particular, the study has revealed that wild
animal patterns of activity across the study session, display temporal
flexibility in response to lunar illumination (as altered by moon phase,
moonrise/set, cloud cover, night vision acuity (due to the tapetum
lucidum, but not measured here), predation risk (as affected by the
landscape factors plus the temporal overlap of a single predator), food
availability, and potential competitive interference. Finally,
recognizing that the North China leopard is a critically endangered
species, to aid the conservation and management of this predator and its
prey, we highly recommend further, deeper research on these focal
species with a more integrated approach to understanding spatio-temporal
patterns in response to natural and anthropogenic factors, aided by a
live animal capture, collaring and tracking protocol in combination with
scientific evaluations of the top-down and bottom-up effects of human
activities and land use, including roads, villages and livestock farming
. The results obtained from doing this research would likely help to
scientifically – and optimally – manage the landscape for
human-wildlife coexistence, restore wild animal communities and natural
habitat, and increase landscape permeability and connectivity, enabling
the flow of genetic material and long-term population sustainability.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(NSFC 31872241), Biodiversity Survey, Monitoring and Assessment Project
of Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China (2019HB2096001006). We
thank Dr. M. S. Farhadinia for initial language editing as well as
constructive and other colleagues in our lab for data collection in the
field and MZ also thank to Chines Government Scholarship program for
provided financial supports.