Hunting by humans affects the navigation of two endangered mammals in Zimbabwe and Brazil

Human activities have significantly altered natural habitats, changing the behavior of many animals. As human encroachment on natural habitats increases, animals must adapt their behavior to couple with these rapid environmental changes. The landscape of fear (LOF) refers to prey perception of risk, which leads to behavioral adaptations throughout an animal's lifetime. Animals might choose habitats with lower potential energy intake and lower perceived risk over those with higher potential energy intake and higher perceived risk, thus trading off food quality for safety. Here, we investigate whether two endangered mammal species increase the frequency with which they use their travel routes as a navigation strategy to avoid human-influenced areas and traumatic-risk events. Thus, creating a habitual route system to avoid these events and human activities. Using GIS, primary movement data, and remote sensing, we demonstrated that two endangered species increase their use of habitual routes in landscapes where hunting by humans is present. This means using their LOF potentially to focus on signs of risky locations, and human activities, including hunting. These analytical approaches raise questions about whether some species opt for less demanding navigation strategies to balance their focus between navigation and monitoring for signals of risk.