Shawn Dsouza, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Kartik Shanker, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Maria Thaker, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Human-induced rapid environmental change poses a global threat to natural systems and the organisms that inhabit them. Human interactions with animals in natural spaces, both as predators (e.g., hunting, fishing) and through seemingly benign activities (e.g., tourism) can have significant impacts on animal behaviour. This synthesis examines the effects of lethal and non-lethal human interactions on foraging, vigilance, and movement behaviours of wild animals. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of literature from the past three decades to analyse how these interactions affect animals. Lethal interactions, such as hunting and fishing, had substantial behavioural impacts, causing targeted species to increase vigilance and reduce foraging activity. In contrast, non-lethal activities like tourism and roads showed limited empirical support for fear-driven changes. The intensity of human impact may vary with the trophic level of affected species or historical interaction dynamics. To better understand these effects, future studies across diverse species and regions are needed.

This repository is associated with a manuscript currently under review. If you use this code or data in your research, please cite the repository as follows:

Shawn Dsouza, Shanker, K., & Thaker, M. (2025). cheesesnakes/superpredator-or-superscary: under-review (0.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15099679