The unique spatial ecology of human hunters

Human hunters are described as ‘superpredators’ with a unique ecology. Chronic wasting disease among cervids and African swine fever among wild boar are emerging wildlife diseases in Europe, with huge economic and cultural repercussions. Understanding hunter movements at broad scales has implication...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature human behaviour 2020-07, Vol.4 (7), p.694-701
Main Authors: Mysterud, Atle, Rivrud, Inger M., Gundersen, Vegard, Rolandsen, Christer M., Viljugrein, Hildegunn
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/1469
631/158/856
Animal Diseases - epidemiology
Animal Diseases - transmission
Animals
Animals, Wild
Behavioral Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Deer
Density
Dogs
Ecology
Experimental Psychology
Humans
Life Sciences
Microeconomics
Neurosciences
Norway
Personality and Social Psychology
Population Density
Postindustrial societies
Predatory Behavior
Reindeer
Settlement patterns
Spatial Analysis
Spatial Behavior
Spatio-Temporal Analysis
Wildlife
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Summary:Human hunters are described as ‘superpredators’ with a unique ecology. Chronic wasting disease among cervids and African swine fever among wild boar are emerging wildlife diseases in Europe, with huge economic and cultural repercussions. Understanding hunter movements at broad scales has implications for how to control the spread of these diseases. Here we show, based on analysis of the settlement patterns and movements of hunters of reindeer ( n  = 9,685), red deer ( n  = 47,845), moose ( n  = 60,365) and roe deer ( n  = 42,530) from across Norway (2001–2017), that hunter density was more closely linked to human density than prey density and that hunters were largely migratory, aggregated with increasing regional prey densities and often used dogs. Hunter movements extended across Europe and to other continents. Our results provide extensive evidence that the broad-scale movements and residency patterns of postindustrial hunters relative to their prey differ from those of large carnivores. Hunter movements have implications for how to control emerging wildlife diseases. In northern Europe, hunter residential densities are more closely linked to human than prey density, hunters are largely migratory, and they aggregate with increasing regional prey densities.
ISSN:2397-3374
2397-3374
DOI:10.1038/s41562-020-0836-7