Knowledge about how wildlife respond to human-caused environmental change, particularly human infrastructure and activity, is critical for understanding how to conserve wildlife during the Anthropocene. The lockdowns and reduced human activity that occurred during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic provided a large-scale natural experiment, albeit tragic and unfortunate, that may allow us to gain new and important insights about the rules that dictate human–wildlife interactions. Such newfound knowledge will be useful for policy aimed at creating human-modified environments that promote sustainable human–wildlife coexistence. The WERC Lab is a steering committee member of the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative and co-leader of the North American bird and mammal sub-project along with members of the Max-Planck Yale Center for Biodiversity Movement and Global Change.
