The good, the bad and the ugly of COVID-19 lockdown effects on wildlife conservation: Insights from the first European locked down country

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic zoonosis has determined extensive lockdowns worldwide that provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand how large-scale shifts of human activities can impact wildlife. We addressed the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on wildlife in Italy, the first European country that performed a countrywide lockdown, and identified potentially beneficial and negative consequences for wildlife conservation and management. We combined a qualitative analysis of social media information with field data from multiple taxa, data from citizen science projects, and questionnaires addressed to managers of protected areas. Both social media information and field data suggest that a reduction of human disturbance allowed wildlife to exploit new habitats and increase daily activity. The field data confirmed some positive effects on wildlife conservation, such as an increase in species richness in temporarily less-disturbed habitats, a higher breeding success of an aerial insectivorous bird, and reduction of road-killing of both amphibians and reptiles. Despite some positive effects, our data also highlighted several negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on wildlife. The lower human disturbance linked to lockdown was in fact beneficial for invasive alien species. Results from questionnaires addressed to managers of protected areas highlighted that the COVID-19 lockdown interrupted actions for the control of invasive alien species, and hampered conservation activities targeting threatened taxa. Furthermore, the reduction of enforcement could cause a surge of illegal killing of wildlife. The COVID-19 crisis, besides having deep socio-economic impacts, might profoundly affect wildlife conservation, with potentially long-lasting effects.

Keywords: Conservation; Coronavirus; Crisis; Fauna; Pandemic; Wildlife.

Fig. 1

The main effects of COVID-19 lockdown on wildlife, and the perspectives for its management. The assessment of the effects COVID-19 lockdown was performed using multiple tools (analysis of media news, field records and questionnaires sent to managers of protected areas).

Fig. 2

Overview of 83 wildlife observations in Italy reported by online news/posts. A: Novelty of the observations; comparison between online observations that have been published exclusively during COVID-19 lockdown in Italy and observations that have been reported online by news and social posts before 2020. B: Proportion of observations related to the occurrence of wildlife in unusual habitats, unusual time of day or in habitats usually known to be exploited by the species to which the observation is referred. C: Proportion of observations reporting alien species vs. sightings of native species.

Fig. 3

Changes in activity, distribution and breeding success of some vertebrate species during the Italy 2020 COVID-19 lockdown compared to previous years. A: Map of Italy showing the geographic locations where quantitative data used to assess lockdown effects have been collected; symbols refer to the different taxa. B: Citizen-science records of crested porcupines between March and April 2011–2020 in Italy; bars represent records in non-urban areas, dotted lines show the number of urban records. C: Position of Kentish plover nests (open red circles) along the Cavallino-Treporti peninsula (Venice, northern Italy) during March–April 2019 (upper panel) and 2020 (lower panel) (n = 9 nests in both years); the data collected in 2020 show a spread toward the highly touristic and normally unsuitable Punta Sabbioni area (on the south-west of the peninsula), which was never occupied in previous years of monitoring (2016–2019). D: Maximum number of individuals of 10 waterbird species counted during April 2019 and 2020 at an artificial lake that is normally subjected to recreational disturbance (near Mantua, northern Italy). E: Number of clutches of the common swift during 2017–2020 at a colony site near Brescia (northern Italy), showing an increase of the frequency of 4-egg clutches in 2020 (45%) compared to previous years (2017–2019, 15–27%). F: Number of cottontail records at the Lingotto railway station (Turin, Northern Italy) in March–April, showing an increase of diurnal records in 2020 compared to previous years. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 4

Answers to the questionnaire submitted to the managers of Italian protected areas (n = 26 answers). A: Percentage of protected areas where alien species eradication actions have been stopped, delayed or unaffected during the COVID-19 lockdown (some protected areas had both delayed and stopped actions). B: Percentage of protected areas where wildlife conservation actions have been stopped, delayed or unaffected during COVID-19 lockdown (some protected areas had both delayed and stopped actions). C: Percentage of protected areas with ongoing eradication actions risking or not risking failure as a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown. D: Percentage of protected areas with ongoing wildlife conservation actions risking or not risking failure as a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown.