The persistent presence of humans and their infrastructure in U.S. national parks has yielded dramatic changes in the behaviors of large animals who live there, a new study has found.

Even during the pandemic-era lockdowns that briefly closed parks to humans in 2020, large animals at most sites continued to avoid human-built roadways and facilities, according to the study, published on Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

This wasn’t true in all cases, as animals in more developed areas did switch from avoiding human infrastructure in 2019 to using it more in 2020, per the study. But across all parks and species — particularly in remote areas — the avoidance behavior generally persisted.

“Wildlife all around the world fear people and avoid areas of high human activity,” lead author Kaitlyn Gaynor, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia, said in a statement.

“But it was surprising to see that this holds true even in more remote........

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