title: Increased tolerance to humans among disturbed wildlife.
abstract: Human disturbance drives the decline of many species, both directly and indirectly. Nonetheless, some species do particularly well around humans. One mechanism that may explain coexistence is the degree to which a species tolerates human disturbance. Here we provide a comprehensive meta-analysis of birds, mammals and lizards to investigate species tolerance of human disturbance and explore the drivers of this tolerance in birds. We find that, overall, disturbed populations of the three major taxa are more tolerant of human disturbance than less disturbed populations. The best predictors of the direction and magnitude of bird tolerance of human disturbance are the type of disturbed area (urbanized birds are more tolerant than rural or suburban populations) and body mass (large birds are more tolerant than small birds). By identifying specific features associated with tolerance, these results guide evidence-based conservation strategies to predict and manage the impacts of increasing human disturbance on birds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Federal University of Goiás, CP. 131, 74001-970 Goiânia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Diogo S M
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Samia
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand.|Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7765-5182
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Federal University of Goiás, CP. 131, 74001-970 Goiânia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fausto
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Federal University of Goiás, CP. 131, 74001-970 Goiânia, Brazil.
authors.forename: Thiago F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Rangel
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, California 90095-1606, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel T
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5793-9244
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Blumstein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D000866:Antelopes; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001717:Birds; D001835:Body Weight; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003670:Deer; D017753:Ecosystem; D018397:Equidae; D006801:Humans; D007793:Lagomorpha; D008116:Lizards; D012424:Rural Population; D012589:Sciuridae; D012919:Social Behavior; D014505:Urban Population