2024-03-29T01:52:18Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/2239532022-06-09T10:39:40Zcom_10261_88com_10261_8col_10261_341
00925njm 22002777a 4500
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Martínez-Abraín, Alejandro
author
Jiménez, Juan
author
Jiménez, Ignacio
author
Ferrer, X.
author
Llaneza, Luis
author
Ferrer, Miguel
author
Palomero, Guilermo
author
Ballesteros, Fernando
author
Galán, Pedro
author
Oro, Daniel
author
2020
The depopulation of rural areas by humans (or rural exodus) in southern Europe, and the associated abandonment
of cropland, had marked ecological consequences on wildlife, which became evident approximately fifteen
years ago. Shrub and tree encroachment, and the expansion of forest birds and the formerly persecuted
mammalian ungulates and carnivores, were highlighted as the major consequences of the rural exodus in Italy. In
this report, we provide a more integrative view, and show that a rural exodus also explains other ecological
phenomena that are usually treated independently. After reviewing the ecological consequences of the rural
exodus that has been affecting a large part of Spain during the last six decades, we suggest that this set of
ecological consequences also includes the movement of shy-selected predators and large, big game species out of
their former ecological refuges, as well as increased frequencies of individuals with bolder-behaviours in
recovering populations. We develop a tentative conceptual model linking the increasing approach of wildlife to
anthropogenic habitats and human depopulation of rural areas. These links are created by the increasing difficulty
to survive and reproduce in recovering, high-predation wild areas, due to mesopredator release and the loss
of fear to humans, among other factors. We acknowledge that the recovery of formerly persecuted wildlife in
depopulated landscapes has been helped by conservation policies, but we suggest that policies alone cannot
explain the observed changes. Finally, we propose that the processes we analyse on a national scale could be
taking place in Europe on a continental scale as well, and will most likely occur in the future in other regions of
the world, with the current growth in economies.
Biological Conservation 252 : 108860 (2020)
0006-3207
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/223953
Human depopulation
Wildlife recovery
Cropland abandonment
Range expansions
Changed human attitudes
Refuge abandonment
Approach to urban areas
Bold behaviour
Ecological consequences of human depopulation of rural areas on wildlife: A unifying perspective