Pax Romana: ‘refuge abandonment’ and spread of fearless behavior in a reconciling world

Abstract

Intense human persecution of wildlife in the past selected for shy individuals that survived in suboptimal refuge habitats. It appears that this long-term conflict is coming to an end in southern Europe, where direct persecution of wildlife has dramatically decreased due to human abandonment of the rural world and an increase in respectful attitudes toward wildlife. We provide a number of empirical examples of ongoing 'refuge abandonment' and the expansion of fearless behavior among southern European wildlife, including island and mainland case studies as well as predator and prey examples. We predict that many ecological refugees will increasingly abandon their historical refuges (of which many currently coincide with protected areas), and that the frequency of fearless behaviors will increase via cultural habituation and natural selection in populations of mammals and birds that were formerly persecuted. We also suggest that this has been a nonlinear process, which began considerably earlier than it became evident, with a long latent inertial regime, and a relatively rapid transition to a state of refuge abandonment and occupation of new, more anthropogenic habitats. The process of refuge abandonment and expansion of fearless behaviors will bring a new paradigm regarding humanwildlife relationships. It will also force changes in policies to protect high-quality sites that are currently unoccupied and unprotected. Refuge abandonment may form a completely new research agenda and should be taken into account when studying patterns of wildlife dispersal or dynamics of spatially structured populations, among other relevant topics.

Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe

“…Another possible interacting factor is the change in land use, which follows different temporal trajectories in different European regions, and thus could concur in explaining regional differences in biodiversity trends 46 . Future research should clarify to what extent the increasing taxon turnover is led by the spread of generalist and invasive species compared to declines in rare species, and whether the observed changes are due to direct human impact, indirect effects (see e.g., Didham et al 47 , in the context of biological invasions) or recovery processes 48 .…”

Human–Cougar interactions in the wildland–urban interface of Colorado's front range

“…Similar phenomena of increased boldness have been documented for other carnivore species in urban settings, such as brown bears ( Ursus arctos ; Fernandez‐Gil, ) and coyotes (Baker & Timm, ; Timm, Baker, Bennett, & Coolahan, ), including coyotes in Colorado (Breck et al, ). It has been postulated that historically intense human persecution of some species selected against bolder individuals and that there has been a recent release from this selective pressure in human‐dominated landscapes that reduce hunting opportunities, thus allowing bolder, more aggressive individuals to thrive in these riskier urban environments (Martinez‐Abrain, Jimenez, & Oro, ). There is some question whether such differences in behavioral traits are a result of phenotypic plasticity or of intrinsic differences (Miranda, Schielzeth, Sonntag, & Partecke, ).…”

Decrease in social cohesion in a colonial seabird under a perturbation regime

“…However, the Punta de la Banya colony is now collapsing and even if the species is colonizing new sites, the global population is decreasing at a 5% annual rate 43 . In 1997, first carnivores (mainly foxes, but also badgers, beech martens, and least weasels) arrived at Punta de la Banya, likely due to their increasing densities in recent decades 68 and the attractiveness of the site in terms of food availability and lack of competition. Since then the site has been perturbed by the presence of carnivores.…”