This story was originally appear in Upland News and is part of Climate table cooperation.
The first grainy footage shows a black bear darting out of the trail camera’s frame. In another scene, a mule deer stops chewing on wildflowers, steps back, and runs in the opposite direction. In season three, a moose doesn’t move at all but stands there, alert.
All three animals responded to the sounds of boom boxes in the woods, part of a study measuring the impact of outdoor entertainers’ noise on wildlife. Sound includes people chatting, mountain bikers twirling the trails — even just quiet footsteps. Each clip lasts less than 90 seconds.
New research, currently underway in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, adds to the growing evidence that the mere presence of human sounds, whether loud or soft, fast or slow, changes animal behavior.
However, don’t start to feel guilty about hiking. Researchers are also trying to make sense of those responses. For some species, hikers and cyclists can be just a side show in a forest full of natural disturbances. For others, recreationalists can have an effect similar to that of fearsome predators, invading habitats where food can be found, resulting in low birth rates. and even increase the number of deaths.
Mark Ditmer, a research ecologist at the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station and one of the study’s co-leaders, said: entertainer. “It’s to understand where and when we cause the most disturbance.”
Opinion that we must know and love the outdoors to protect it has existed for more than a century. Recreation has built a constituency that helps protect wild places. But even decades ago, there was evidence that the use of wilderness – officially designated or not – as a human playground caused most of the collateral damage. Trails through the woods without rhyme or reason; Used toilet paper clings to bushes in the outback. Groups like Leave No Trace started reminding people to take their trash out, leave wildlife alone, and poop responsibly.
However, “non-consumable recreation,” a quirky term for enjoying the outdoors without hunting or fishing, is generally considered a good commodity. At best, outdoor recreation connects people to the land and sometimes inspires them to defend it—write for legislators, attend land-use meetings, support advocacy groups, and more. policy action, which can remind others to go in the right direction. At worst, it seems harmless.
But recent studies suggest otherwise. Have one in Vail, Colorado, showing increased trail use by hikers and mountain bikers The elk is so disturbed that cows give birth to fewer calves. Somewhere Other than Grand Teton . National Park shows that skiers in remote areas scare off big-horned sheep during the winter when food is scarce, with potentially deadly consequences. A 2016 review of 274 articles on how outdoor recreation affects wildlife revealed that 59 percent of interactions were negative.
But most studies have looked at the effects of random encounters with hikers, remote skiers, and others. Few people question what exactly is in humans that makes wildlife so irritating, whether it’s the way we look, the way we smell or the sounds we make.
