Animal Behaviour, Welfare, and Interactions in Sports and Recreational Environments

Human-animal interactions are often a significant part of our experience in sport and recreational settings. Animals contribute to the quality of these environments as well as our subjective leisure experience, but coexistence can also provide challenges. Starting from the smallest nematode and working up to bears and alligators, this book explores the impact of animals in this arena, discussing how animal behaviour impacts sport and recreation, often positively and sometimes negatively, and, in turn, how humans impact animals in these spaces.

Sports and leisure facilities around the world invest significantly in managing interactions with animals to support the quality of recreational experience and the health of both human and non-human animals. Bringing together the expertise of the authors in biology, animal behaviour, anthrozoology, and psychology, this book discusses ways to encourage, or discourage, animals in sports and leisure settings, whilst always observing best possible welfare and conservation practice. The text is supported by reference to news and media outlets as well as scientific literature.

In exploring our relationships with animals in areas highly managed by humans, this book aims to progress how facilities can be improved. It also adopts a One World lens encouraging us to interrogate our preconceived ideas about the animals with which we share these spaces and ultimately hopes that, with better understanding, animals will be treated with respect and wonder rather than seen as a source of conflict.