A disrupted human shield: the COVID lockdown alters carnivore dynamics in favour of a dominant competitor

Abstract A ‘human shield’ effect occurs when a species associates with humans to avoid predators or competitors. Understanding how this effect shapes species interactions is critical as anthropogenic pressures increase globally. Despite broad theoretical support for this effect, its context-dependency remains unclear, especially in urban systems. We used the COVID-19 lockdowns as a natural experiment to separate the effects of the (static) human footprint and (dynamic) human recreational activit