COVID-19 could accelerate the decline in recreational hunting: A natural experiment from Northern Italy

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309017
• Publication Date: 2024-08-16T17:24:17Z
• Authors: Jacopo Cerri; Carmela Musto; Marco Ferretti; Mauro Delogu; Sandro Bertolino; Adriano Martinoli; Francesco Bisi; Damiano Giovanni ...; Clara Tattoni; Marco Apollonio
• Keywords: Pandemic

Although many studies highlighted the potential of COVID-19 to reshape existing models wildlife management, empirical research on this topic has been scarce, particularly in Europe. We investigated pandemic accelerate ongoing decline an aging population recreational hunters Italy. Namely, we modelled spatiotemporal trends between 2011 and 2021 number 50 Italian provinces with a varying incidence COVID-19, temporally delayed waves infection. Compared projections from 2011–2019 data, detected lower who enrolled for hunting season, both 2020 (14 provinces) (15 provinces). The highest Lombardy Emilia-Romagna regions were also those experiencing most marked decrease participation. Our findings revealed that management system based can be rapidly destabilized by epidemics their associated public health measures, when average age is high, like Considered high attained European countries, where are pivotal large ungulates they already declining before pandemic, our call further large-scale about impact