We often think about how the construction of new buildings, parking lots, and industrial areas will impact the local wildlife. And, indeed, governments require environmental impact surveys and ongoing monitoring when vulnerable species are present. However, it wasn’t until I saw the paper “Music Festival Makes Hedgehogs Move: How Individuals Cope Behaviorally in Response to Human-Induced Stressors” by Wanja Rast et al. that I started to really contemplate the impact of short-term environmental disturbance.
Art and music festivals have become increasingly popular and act as a means for artists and vendors to promote themselves, generate buzz, and collect large sums of money. Coachella, a well-known music and arts festival held annually in Indio, California had 250,000 attendees in 2017 and took in over $114 million dollars. However, despite less than a week of programming, the 125,000 average daily attendees along with the building of stages, constant noise, and increased light at night undoubtedly leads to disturbances of wildlife.
In an effort to understand how festivals disrupt the behavior of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) Rast et al. outfitted hedgehogs with bio-loggers and recorded their movement during the Lollapalooza Music Festival in Treptower Park, Berlin, Germany in 2016. Treptower Park is a public park that has lawns, gravel paths, trees, shrubs, a playground, and a war memorial (Figure 2). Bio-loggers and very high frequency (VHF) transmitters were attached to hedgehogs before the festival, and movement was tracked before, during, and after Lollapalooza.
Figure 2: images of Treptower Park.
Rast et al. found that during the festival the nightly activity area decreased in six of the eight hedgehogs, the time spent immobile decreased in four hedgehogs, and five of the hedgehogs changed the amount of time they spent balled up. This decrease in nightly activity is consistent with other research that shows mammals decrease mobility in areas where the environment is disturbed. However, previous research has suggested that animals living in anthropogenic environments have smaller ranges due to limited movement capacity (i.e. they are confined to specific areas) yet this research found that despite movement limitations set by park boundaries there was still a decrease in nightly activity area during the music festival. This suggests that the limited movement is a result of anthropogenic disturbance (specifically, music and an increase in people) and not the result of confinement.
The researchers note that the different responses to anthropogenic disturbance might be due to behavioral plasticity. Great tits have also been shown to exhibit a variety of behavioral strategies to deal with anthropogenic stressors and behavioral plasticity can play an essential role in adaptation to urban environments. Moreover, this trait may be why hedgehogs are able to persist in urban environments; hedgehog populations with multiple coping mechanisms are likely able to better deal with the stress of city life.
If you’re interested in learning more about this research check out the full paper here:
Featured Image: “Lollapalooza 2016” by izillR is marked with CC0 1.0
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