Variation in Nubian ibex's tolerance to humans is shaped by urban environmental conditions and social groups

The expanding human population has increased spatiotemporal overlap with wildlife, thereby promoting tolerance towards humans in some species. Although such tolerance can facilitate coexistence in urban habitats, it may heighten the risk of human–wildlife conflict. To comprehensively understand the proximate drivers of tolerance to humans and other threats associated with human presence, the tolerance behaviour of two populations of the threatened Nubian ibex, Capra nubiana , within human settlements in the Negev Desert, Israel, was examined in this study. These settlements differ in size and local attitudes towards ibex, with one featuring more frequent interactions, including approaches and feeding by people. In addition, individual-level variation in tolerance behaviour, linking it to social interactions and microhabitat use within each population, was investigated by repeatedly measuring flight initiation distance in response to human and human–dog approaches in 29 tagged female ibex. We also performed social network analyses and calculated the spatial overlap of individual home ranges within the settlements. The two ibex populations differed in average flight responses and in the degree of interindividual variation, which refers to patterns that aligned with differences in their social structures. In one population, a strong individual variation and a negative correlation between responses to humans and dogs reflected three distinct social groups using separate urban areas with varying levels of exposure to humans. By contrast, ibex in the second population formed a single social group, inhabited the same area and showed no signs of interindividual differences in tolerance. Results indicated that the high intensity of human–ibex interaction in one settlement, which is characterized by behaviours such as petting and feeding, can increase tolerance to humans and influence ibex social dynamics. The findings of this study highlight the mechanism by which human behaviour shapes the level of human–wildlife interactions, which in turn shapes wildlife tolerance behaviour. This study has important implications for the mitigation of human–wildlife conflicts in urban environments.