Do green park characteristics influence human-wildlife distance in arboreal squirrels?

As an increasing number of wildlife are colonizing urban areas, how to control human-wildlife interactions has been a pivotal challenge in wildlife management and urban planning alike. Close human-wildlife proximity and associated behaviors such as flight initiation distance (FID; the distance at which animals initiate escape from approaching humans) is one of many important ecological elements underlying direct human-wildlife interaction. However, how habitat features in urban areas affect human-wildlife distance is still virtually unknown. Understanding the key factors of urban habitats that influence flight distance would provide important insights for improving both wildlife and park management. Using the Eurasian red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, we examined how urban green park characteristics influence variation of two flight distances: FID and vertical escape distance (VED; the height at which target animals stop climbing in the tree after escape) among parks. We found that park features such as the intensity of artificial feeding, the proportion of green space, tree density, and the density of recreational equipment influenced FID and VED. Particularly, high feeding intensity decreased FID and VED, while high green space, high tree density, and high density of recreational equipment increased FID and VED. Our results suggest that manipulating environmental characteristics is an effective method to control human-wildlife interactions, which could be implemented in park management.