Quiet outings linked to more frequent dangerous wildlife encounters Stephanie Baum Scientific Editor Robert Egan Senior Editor The more people expand into previously natural areas, the more wildlife and humans step on each other's toes, leading to more interactions that may result in conflict. This includes national parks, where people flock to recuperate and enjoy the outdoors. Writing in Frontiers in Conservation Science, researchers in the U.K.

have examined which animals are most likely to be involved in aggressive encounters—defined as potentially dangerous situations between humans and animals—during which activities they're most likely to happen, and which activity-animal pairs hold particular risk. "We found low-impact activities were associated with the highest frequency of aggressive encounters, regardless of species," said first author Holly Landles, a researcher at the University of York. "Now we can point to precise high-risk pairings, such as elk visiting townsite areas or mule deer encountered during dog walking," added senior author Dr.

Shashank Balakrishna, a biologist at the University of York. "This allows park managers to focus resources, signage and education where they are most needed." Interactions vary by activity The researchers drew on a database of almost 3,500 reported incidents between 2010 and 2023 recorded by Parks Canada, selecting incidents involving humans and elk, black bears, grizzlies, coyotes and mule deer. These species were chosen because they were involved in aggressive encounters most often in the data set the team worked with.

Seven types of activities park visitors were engaging in were included in the risk analysis: low-impact activities (hiking, wildlife observation), extreme sports (kayaking, climbing), animal-involved activities (dog-walking, horseback-riding), camping, transport-related activities (road cycling), townsite activities (golfing) and park operations. Results showed that species mattered, but so did the type of activity and animal-activity combinations. Elk were involved in about 62% of all aggressive encounters, followed by grizzly bears (14%), black bears (13%), mule deer (7%) and coyotes (3%).

"Each species occupies a different ecological role, so they perceive human threat differently," Balakrishna pointed out. "Elk sometimes avoid humans, but at other times use human presence as a refuge from predators. This unpredictability may explain why they top the list for aggressive encounters." On the activity side, low-impact activities were most associated with aggressive encounters, making up about 25% of incidents, followed by townsite activities at 22%, which may be particularly risky because of the unfamiliar stress wildlife faces in more urban environments.

Adventure sports accounted for just more than 4%. When combining activity type with species, the researchers found certain animals were more likely to be encountered during certain activities. Elk, for example, were involved in more than 73% of run-ins happening at townsites and in 57% of incidents recorded during adventure sports.

Grizzly and black bears were most often encountered during low-impact activities, making up 45% and 43% of these encounters, respectively.