Moving in the Anthropocene: global reductions in mammalian movement

Using GPS-tracking data from many mammal species worldwide, this study found that animals in areas with high human footprint moved substantially shorter distances than those in wilder areas, indicating that human modification of landscapes constrains animal movement. The compression of ranging behaviour has consequences for dispersal, gene flow, predation and ecosystem processes, and it provides a global frame for the small home ranges repeatedly documented in urban felids hemmed in by roads and development. The work quantified at a planetary scale how the built environment shrinks the movements of wide-ranging animals, contextualising city-bound cats within a broad Anthropocene pattern.