COVID lockdowns led to increased animal mobility and human absence.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for researchers to study how human activities impact the behavior of wildlife. The COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative, a group of animal movement researchers, used bio-logging devices to record animal movements during lockdowns. By pooling data from over 2,300 individual tracked mammals, the researchers found that mammals were 36% closer to roads during lockdown, and their movement distances over ten days were 73% longer compared to the same period one year earlier. The findings suggest that humans moving in the environment directly influence animal movements and behavior, in addition to the effects of the built environment.