How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Way We Access and Interact with the Countryside and the Animals within It?

Abstract

There is growing evidence that the changes in human behaviour resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have had positive and negative impacts on the natural world. This study used an online survey to explore how the first UK lockdown affected human exercising behaviour, with particular focus on the role of wild and domestic animals. The survey was completed by 308 respondents. There was a significant increase in the frequency that respondents went for walks outdoors during lockdown, in comparison to pre-lockdown levels (p ≤ 0.001), and this was sustained (albeit to a lesser extent) once lockdown ended (p = 0.005). Engaging with the natural world was an important feature of walks outside for 81% of respondents. A small proportion of respondents reported physically interacting with the animals they encountered and/or feeding them, which may have implications for their welfare. The findings suggest that those who value animal encounters during their time outside always seek these interactions, while those who do not, did not tend to change this behaviour following lockdown. Should the changes in human exercising behaviour be sustained, it is important to balance the benefits of walking outdoors for human health and wellbeing with the health and welfare of the animals they encounter.

COVID-19 Changed Human-Nature Interactions across Green Space Types: Evidence of Change in Multiple Types of Activities from the West Bank, Palestine

“…Second, the shops and amusement activities present in urban parks were closed, removing a major opportunity for people to visit and relax in these spaces. In natural areas, our results match the lower interest and visitation rates seen in national parks globally [12,45], but not the increased rate of use of the countryside for walks, hikes, and other activities [38,39,43]. Souza et al (2021) found a significant difference between countries with increasing visitation like Finland, where national parks are largely visited by citizens, and countries with decreasing visitation like South Africa, where national parks largely attract international visitors.…”

“…Online surveys have been extensively used as a tool to collect data related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, as they comply with distancing regulations and facilitate collecting data from more people easily and quickly [22,[37][38][39][40][41]43,51,52].…”

“…New groups of nature and green space visitors appeared during the pandemic, including non-locals, families with children, and young people [30]. However, residents' activities shifted during the pandemic, with foraging, gardening, hiking, jogging, relaxing alone, walking, interacting with wildlife, and photography and other art-related activities increasing [39,43] and camping and relaxing with others decreasing [39].…”

How the COVID-19 pandemic changed patterns of green infrastructure use: A scoping review

“…As a result, Moscow reported that the majority of residents decreased their GI use, while the majority of residents in Perth maintained their frequency of use. In addition, the included articles differed as to the effect of lockdown restrictions on visitation, with ten reporting both increases and decreases ( [17] , [19] , [30] , [36] , [37] , [47] , [57] , [60] , [89] , [91] ). Seven studies reported that GI use decreased during lockdown ( [7] , [13] , [31] , [40] , [41] , [48] , [49] ) while three studies reported that use increased during lockdown but decreased as restrictions were eased ( [13] , [20] , [29] ), or that GI use increased during school, gym, and entertainment venue closures ( Curtis et al, 2021 ), suggesting that GI was used as a stopgap to replace other activities that resumed as lockdowns eased.…”

It Is a Wild World in the City: Urban Wildlife Conservation and Communication in the Age of COVID-19

“…The ongoing course of the disease, and the ever-evolving policy response to it, will likely determine how long-lasting these effects are. The enforced isolation of people during lockdowns has led to increases in pet ownership and activities related to wildlife, such as gardening, hiking, and creating backyard bird feeders [131]. Whether these will enhance the long-term interest in biodiversity among urbanites [132] remains to be seen.…”