Covid-19 bio-logging initiative

In 2020, the International Bio-Logging Society, together with several partner organizations, launched the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative, to investigate how wildlife responded to altered levels of human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the Initiative is to use bio-logging data collected before, during, and after lockdowns to advance our understanding of human–wildlife interactions and inform global conservation efforts. We outlined our vision for making a positive contribution during this period of crisis in an open-access comment article, which also introduced the now widely-used term ‘anthropause’.

Following an open call for collaboration, we built a global research consortium of >600 partners, who have contributed >1 billion location fixes for ~13,000 tagged animals across ~200 terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic species – hosted, where possible, in shared bio-logging data platforms, such as Movebank. This remarkable community effort enabled the launch of a portfolio of coordinated sub-projects, pursuing a wide range of complementary research objectives. Using an inclusive collaboration model, sub-projects are led by different teams and always involve data providers in the research process, offering co-authorship on any resulting publication outputs. The Initiative is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF9881) and the National Geographic Society (NGS-82515R-20), and endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

The current chair of the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative is Christian Rutz (University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK). With many of the sub-projects concluding their planned analyses, we are currently discussing ideas for future work and are in the process of restructuring the Steering Committee. To get in touch, please contact covid19.biologging.initiative AT gmail.com.

The COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative has published the following articles to date, with many additional outputs currently in preparation:

Vision and conceptual framing

Rutz C, Loretto M-C, Bates AE, Davidson SC, Duarte CM, Jetz W, Johnson M, Kato A, Kays R, Mueller T, Primack RB, Ropert-Coudert Y, Tucker MA, Wikelski M, and Cagnacci F (2020) COVID-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify the effects of human activity on wildlife. Nature Ecology and Evolution 4, 1156–1159. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1237-z

Rutz C (2022) Studying pauses and pulses in human mobility and their environmental impacts. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment 3, 157–159. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00276-x

Sub-project outputs

Ellis-Soto D, Oliver RY, Brum-Bastos V, Demšar U, Jesmer B, Long JA, Cagnacci F, Ossi F, Queiroz N, Hindell M, Kays R, Loretto M-C, Mueller T, Patchett R, Sims DW, Tucker MA, Ropert-Coudert Y, Rutz C, and Jetz W (2023) A vision for incorporating human mobility in the study of human–wildlife interactions. Nature Ecology and Evolution 7, 1362–1372. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02125-6

Loveridge A, Elvidge CD, Kroodsma DA, White TD, Evans K, Kato A, Ropert-Coudert Y, Sommerfeld J, Takahashi A, Patchett R, Robira B, Rutz C, and Sims DW (2024) Context-dependent changes in maritime traffic activity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Global Environmental Change 84, 102773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102773

Oliver RY, Chapman M, Ellis-Soto D, Brum-Bastos V, Cagnacci F, Long J, Loretto M-C, Patchett R, and Rutz C (2024) Access to human mobility data is essential for building a sustainable future. Cell Reports Sustainability 1, 100077. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100077

Tucker MA et al. (2023) Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns. Science 380, 1059–1064. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo6499

Associated work

Burton AC et al. (2024) Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape. Nature Ecology and Evolution 8, 924–935. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02363-2

Davidson SC et al. (2025) Establishing bio-logging data collections as dynamic archives of animal life on Earth. Nature Ecology and Evolution 9, 204–213. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02585-4
Rutz C (2022) Register animal-tracking tags to boost conservation. Nature 609, 221. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02821-6