Anti-predator behaviour is powerful enough to impact animal behaviour (‘ecology of fear’). Thus, the sounds of animals can serve as a non-lethal method to mitigate human–wildlife conflicts. We tested the reactions of moose, wild boar, roe deer, and red deer to natural sounds used in UOZ-1 devices (i.e. alarm calls of a jay and a roe deer, barking of a dog, howl of a wolf) emitted in natural conditions. The data was collected between April 2015 and October 2020. We defined two types of reaction to emitted sounds – no reaction and reaction (being alarmed/escaping). There was not a single sound to which all species reacted the fastest, and reaction to emitted sounds varied for studied species. The time of day, habitat, behaviour of an animal before the sound emission, and distance to the observer affected the time of reaction. Animals reacted faster during day and night than at dawn/dusk, in the forest than in the open space, and while walking. Moreover, the closer the animal stood to the observer (who emitted the sound), the faster it reacted. To conclude, the ‘ecology of fear’ might be used to mitigate human–wildlife conflicts; factors affecting animals’ reactions may be easily controlled.
Human–wildlife interactions, mitigation measures, moose, red deer, roe deer, wild boar