Authors: Zahabian, Einat; Saltz, David;Berger-Tal, Oded;

In desert ecosystems, water is a critically limiting factor for both wildlife and humans, which can result in human-wildlife conflict. We examined the effects of human disturbance at desert water sources on medium-large mammals and birds. We placed motion-activated camera traps around ten natural water sources along a gradient of desert tourism from high to low pressure. We found that human disturbance reduced both species richness and abundance at the water sources. Furthermore, next to the highly disturbed water sources there was little overlap between the activity times of humans and other mammals, with mammals arriving before or after humans' activity hours. Interestingly, the mammal's activity at a distance of ~500 m from the water source showed a similar pattern, even though there were no humans at these sites. At sites where human disturbance was low, there was a much greater overlap between humans' and mammals' activity times. This suggests that the impact of high disturbance next to desert water sources on mammals' behavior extends way beyond the water-source itself.