The COVID19 confinement revealed negative anthropogenic effects of unsustainable tourism on endangered birds

Abstract

Increasing levels of tourism represent a risk to species susceptible to human-induced disturbance and habitat degradation. With the outbreak of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic (COVID-19), preventive health measures reduced human mobility worldwide. Using high-resolution telemetry, we assessed the influence of tourism on flight frequency and anthropogenic mortality in an endangered endemic island bird, the Canarian houbara bustard. We monitored 51 individuals equipped with GSM-GPRS loggers and accelerometer technology before, during and after the COVID-19 lockdown in Canary Islands. Our results showed a significant correlation between number of tourists and flight frequency of houbaras, which fly rarely, almost only when disturbed. During pre- and post-COVID periods, birds made a 325 % higher flight rate than during COVID confinement. When tourism declined, the number of rental vehicles on the islands also declined, and there was a decrease in houbara fatalities at overhead lines and roadkills. The fact that flights originated closer to roads and tracks than would be expected by chance supports the conclusion that many of these flights were caused by human or vehicle traffic. These results suggest that a high presence of tourists and vehicles in houbara areas was most likely a decisive factor responsible for the increase in anthropogenic houbara mortality. Our study represents a clear example of the negative effects of unsustainable tourism in a fragile and humanized island environment and urges to regulate tourism and vehicle traffic, implement corrective measures on overhead lines and roads, and establish restricted areas for outdoor recreation, especially where human-wildlife conflict involves endangered species.