SynthesisEcology letters2025
The Human Shield Hypothesis: Does Predator Avoidance of Humans Create Refuges for Prey?
Synthesis in Ecology letters, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Predator-prey temporal niche partitioning under human disturbance: a meta-analysis.Nature communications · 2026Pooled it
- Are Human Super-Predators Always Super-Scary? A Meta-Analysis of Wild Animal Behavioural Responses to Human Interactions.Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- The Human Shield Hypothesis: Does Predator Avoidance of Humans Create Refuges for Prey?Ecology letters · 2025Pooled it
- Low Nest Success of Black-Legged Kittiwakes (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Hunting by humans affects the navigation of two endangered mammals in Zimbabwe and Brazil.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mammal Community Responses to Increasing Puma Activity in a Suburban Preserve.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Integrating Molt Migration Into Physiological Assessments of Inter-Population Stress in a Globally Endangered Species.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Anthropogenic Infrastructures Shape Brown Bear Movements in Human-Modified Landscapes.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes Jointly Explain Mesopredator Movement and Foraging Ecology.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Of shared homes and pathways: free-ranging dog movement and habitat use in a human-wildlife landscape in India.Movement ecology · 2026Article
- Hunting and Outdoor Recreation Affect Large Herbivore Activity Patterns More Than Natural Predators in a Human-Dominated Landscape.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Resource use and associated energy expenditure of African crowned eagles (Conservation physiology · 2026Article
- Coyote family activity in a landscape of fear.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Human Shield in Time but Not in Space: Scale-Dependent Responses of Small Indian Civet-Prey Interactions to Anthropogenic Disturbance.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- When humans shield predators from danger.Trends in ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- The influence of human presence and footprint on animal space use in US national parks.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
As anthropogenic disturbance restructures ecological communities worldwide, ecologists have developed and tested hypotheses about which species "win" and "lose" in the face of human impacts. One heavily invoked paradigm is that of the human shield, which posits that predators avoid areas of human disturbance due to perceived risk from humans, and prey therefore seek refuge in these areas of perceived safety. Since its introduction in 2007, the human shield hypothesis (HSH) has gained popularity in the ecological literature, although there are more passing mentions of human shields than there are robust tests of the HSH. Here, we systematically review evidence for the HSH and evaluate how it is commonly discussed and tested. While there are several clear-cut cases of human shields, the emergence of human shields is highly context-dependent. By formally outlining the assumptions of the HSH, we derive predictions about what ecological and anthropogenic contexts are most likely to be conducive to human shields. Further robust studies that compete the HSH against alternative hypotheses and account for confounding factors can shed light on the role of human shields in human-modified ecosystems and inform the conservation and management of wildlife in a changing world.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.