The effect of human disturbance
Human disturbance had a positive association with badger encounter
rates, which was slightly stronger in winter (Figure 3). There was also
some evidence for a positive association between humans and red fox
encounter rates in summer, even though the CRI for the median overlapped
0, the probability of direction pd = 0.94 indicates a 94% chance
that the effect of humans on red fox encounter rates is positive (see
whole posterior distribution in Appendix 1). On the other hand, there
was some evidence for a negative association between human disturbance
and pine marten encounter rates, which was more certain in winter
(pd = 0.75 in summer and pd = 0.99 in winter), even though
the median CRI overlapped 0 (Appendix 1 and 3). Human disturbance had a
strong negative association with wolf encounter rates, which was
stronger in summer (Figure 3). There was also a high probability that
the association between humans and lynx would be negative, even though
the CRI for the median overlapped 0, only 18% of the posterior
distribution was in the ROPE and pd = 0.91 (Appendix 3).