WildEuro · Quantifying the landscape of fear: Collaborative camera trap networks to assess wildlife responses to activities of humans and free-ranging domestic species across Europe

Quantifying the landscape of fear: Collaborative camera trap networks to assess wildlife responses to activities of humans and free-ranging domestic species across Europe

The WildEuro project — Quantifying the landscape of fear: Collaborative camera trap networks to assess wildlife responses to activities of humans and free-ranging domestic species across Europe — addresses one of Europe’s most pressing environmental challenges: understanding how human activities and domestic animals influence wildlife behaviour, distribution, and coexistence. In an era of rapid environmental change and biodiversity loss, European wildlife is increasingly affected by expanding urbanization, human recreation, and interactions with domestic species such as dogs, cats, and livestock. At the same time, proximity to wildlife might led to human-wildlife negative interactions and increase the risk of disease transmission between wildlife and livestock, with potential huge economic impacts on livestock production and trade. Yet, data on how wild animals adapt or decline under such pressures exists but it is difficult to mobilize, especially when the aim is to explore responses at large spatial and temporal scales. WildEuro responds to this need by promoting coordination and collaboration among existing European camera trap initiatives currently collecting information on terrestrial wildlife for research and monitoring purposes. The project pursues three main objectives: 1. Quantify the effects of human presence on mammals’ occupancy and activity. 2. Assess the distribution and co-occurrence of free-ranging domestic animals and wildlife populations. 3. Quantify the effects of free-ranging domestic cats on urban and suburban mammal and bird communities. Through these objectives, WildEuro aims to strengthen and reinforce the connections within the European camera trap community, thus promoting collaboration and coordination in the upcoming years. Increased exchange will promote data mobilization and re-use and support European biodiversity strategies, including the EU Green Deal and the Nature Restoration Law. The expected impact lies in showcasing how collaborative efforts and harmonized biodiversity monitoring tools and datasets can inform conservation policy and wildlife management across Europe.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union