Human-wildlife conflict is a shockingly common problem, often with enormous consequences for both individual animals and entire populations.
When human-wildlife conflict comes to mind, you may immediately think of wildlife crime instead - which isn't wrong, since many regions with wildlife crime problems like poaching are also areas where people may frequently deal with human-wildlife conflict, causing the two issues to go hand-in-hand. But human-wildlife conflict is a much broader issue encompassing many ways that human presence and interference can cause problems for us and animals alike. Human-wildlife conflict includes:
- Elephants trampling a farmer's crops, resulting in retaliation
- New real estate developments infringing on ecosystems where predator species live, leading to predators having less territory and less food, which in turn leads to predators attacking domestic animals and livestock
- Freeways dividing the territory of animals like mountain lions, leading to wildlife venturing into neighborhoods or being killed by cars
- Lead bullets used in hunting causing scavengers like condors to die of lead poisoning
These are just a few examples of how humans can negatively impact wildlife, and it's clear to see how many of these scenarios could escalate. Human-wildlife conflict solutions don't just include ways in which we can prevent these issues (for example, through tracking predators, monitoring populations' territories, or building barriers and wildlife crossings monitored by sensors), but also the ways in which we can help people connect with wildlife and care about learning to live alongside them.
If you're interested in solutions that can prevent human-wildlife conflict, join this group and get to know the people who are working to protect and save species around the world!
Header image: Casey Allen on Unsplash
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Ol Pejeta Conservancy
IT Engineer at The Conservation Tech Lab in Ol Pejeta Conservancy. |Endeavoring to implement tech solutions for conservation.
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- @heiabb02
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Early Career Wild Felid conservationist with BS in Biology & Zoology
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Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Behavioral Ecologist
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Rainforest Trust
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An environmentalist and biologist who has been working to inspire and prepare the next generation of conservationists through an inclusive and engaging learning environment.
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Wildlife Drones
Wildlife Drones has developed the world’s most innovative radio animal-tracking system using drones so you can track your radio-tagged animals like never before.
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- @emcandler
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- @affiliatepurna
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Purna Man Shrestha is a program coordinator of mountain spirit, Nepal. He has 6 years of working experience in human wildlife interaction focusing on wildcats, and conflicts. He has a good knowledge on wildlife survey techniques, field survey, stakeholder engagement
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- @csugarte
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I am a PhD student working on human-carnivore conflict and coexistence
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Wildlife Conservationist and Socio-ecology Researcher.
Passionate about preserving biodiversity in their natural homes, and studying the interactions between social systems and ecological environment
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Join us in celebrating this year’s Community Choice Award winners!
15 August 2024
ADAP is looking for a post-graduate Tanzanain that has just finished her/his studies and would like to gain experience by conducting a study on human-wildlife conflicts
8 August 2024
WILDLABS is partnering with FLIR to give away a FLIR ONE Edge Pro to 5 community members.
26 June 2024
Traditional log bomas, used to protect livestock, are being replaced by more resilient wire fences. Wire fences offer several advantages: they are more durable, and provide better security against predators. This...
15 June 2024
Wildlife Drones was deployed by Zoos Victoria in a trial project tracking captive-bred Eastern Barred Bandicoots that were tagged and released into the wild
14 June 2024
WildLabs will soon launch a 'Funding and Finance' group. What would be your wish list for such a group? Would you be interested in co-managing or otherwise helping out?
5 June 2024
Now accepting applications for two $15,000 grants to help protect wildlife through cutting-edge, technology-driven efforts
3 June 2024
The IEF's Elephant Conservation and Research Funding Support Program has opened a call for applications. Average grant size is $15K, whereas the IEF funds 20 to 25 projects per year.
22 May 2024
Do you have photos and videos of your conservation tech work? We want to include them in a conservation technology showcase video
17 May 2024
Article
Read in detail about how to use The Inventory, our new living directory of conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects.
1 May 2024
Article
The Inventory is your one-stop shop for conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects. Start contributing to it now!
1 May 2024
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $132 - $160k; Location: Seattle WA; 7+ years of experience in hardware product development and manufacturing; View post for full job description
1 May 2024
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24 Products
3 R&D Projects
29 Organisations
Recently updated products
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Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Hi everyone! I have just posted about my machine-vision based elephant-detection system which I am currently attempting to develop! https://www.wildlabs.net/... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 7 years 9 months ago | |
Hi all, I thought I'd alert you to this recent journal article, which looked at all published research on predator... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 7 years 11 months ago | |
Hi John, I have two good friends in Kenya who have some answers. I'll ask them to come here and tell you more... Marie |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 7 years 11 months ago | |
http://gizmodo.com/drawing-eyes-on-cow-butts-may-ward-off-hungry-lions-1783744270 Drawing Eyes on Cow Butts May Ward Off Hungry... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 8 years ago | |
Hello all, Another thought I had regarding human-wildlife conflict. Since wildlife migrations occur around similar times, every year,... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 8 years 3 months ago | |
Ho John, That's a great idea and thanks for sharing, but as you said, limitations on battery and speaker capacity abound. Might anyone else have any thoughts on how we... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 8 years 3 months ago |
The 59th Annual Meeting of Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society
12 April 2023 5:24am
Rhino horns in medicine
2 April 2023 2:22pm
Using acoustic monitoring to track infectious disease risk
8 March 2023 1:29pm
Moveapps: EMAC23 Coding Challenge
3 March 2023 7:58am
6 March 2023 7:53am
Thanks Lars! Look forward to any entries from you and your colleagues. If you have an questions or suggestions, let me know.
6 March 2023 1:11pm
Hi Andrea! Although I am a keen user and observer of the Moveapps initiative, my R or Python coding skills are next to non- existing. I am therefore not likely to be contributing this time... Some day perhaps ;)
Moveapps EMAC23 Coding Challenge – Participate now!
3 March 2023 7:45am
Climate crisis drives a rise in human-wildlife conflicts
1 March 2023 10:51pm
New article about how climate change and human-wildlife conflict go hand-in-hand. Would be interesting to hear from our climate change and HWC groups about how climate scientists and community members who are innovating HWC tech solutions could work together collaboratively to understand and address this growing problem.
“Smelly” Elephant Repellent
24 February 2023 8:54am
Mobilising East African nature restoration professionals
21 February 2023 3:57pm
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
Hiring Full Stack Developer at Conservation X Labs
10 February 2023 5:35pm
Call for Proposals: 'Can Technology Save Biodiversity?'
10 February 2023 10:31am
Consultancy opportunity: Wildlife monitoring specialist
31 January 2023 11:26am
AI for Forest Elephants Challenge
25 January 2023 3:34pm
International Congress for Conservation Biology
16 January 2023 2:53pm
Help - Innovative ways to track elephant movement
28 October 2022 4:50pm
4 November 2022 5:24pm
Why would you want to avoid alerting the rangers ?
You don't need high tech for this; elephants leave very obvious tracks and sign.
7 November 2022 12:52am
Hi Tyler,
Would like to introduce you to Ceres Tags products
- Ceres Tags products come in boxes of 5, 10 and 24.
- There are some software partners such as Earthranger, Mapipedia and possibly CiboLabs that would be able to assist you with your mapping vegetation requirements
- Ceres Tag does not require any towers, base stations and infrastructure. This allows you to see any movements from the heard outside of their normal herd (boundary alerts), and you will not be disturbing any of the flora and fauna with infrastructure set up.
- For the timing you are looking at, Ceres Wild pings directly to satellite 24 times a day. For Ceres Trace and Ceres Ranch there are 4 within 24 hours. Taking into consideration, when you set up alert areas, you will get them directly to your phone/laptop via your software of choice
- Ceres Ranch is a reusable tag that has just been launched. Use it on this project, remove the tag and then use the tag on your next project
- The software you choose will assist with the history of your animal movements. Ceres Tag is integrated with 11 software partners and in-development with 18 software partners https://cerestag.com/pages/software-partners
- Understanding it is a short-term project, you would be able to use Ceres Tags products without the additional expense of setting up and removing infrastructure- towers, gateways
- With Ceres Tag, you are purchasing the box of tags and picking a suitable software to deliver the information you require. On average, a box of 10 Ceres Trace Tags, is the same as 1 LoRaWAN tower.
14 December 2022 10:49am
I just came across this interesting paper in which seismic monotoring of animals like elephants was mentioned.
This is the study refered to:
Cheers,
Lars
New: Satellites for Biodiversity Award
5 December 2022 2:08pm
Shark Lab Data Analyst
24 October 2022 7:12pm
Senior Conservation Technology Expert Position (Consultancy) with the Global Wildlife Program
22 September 2022 5:35pm
Mara Predators Hackathon
30 August 2022 1:28pm
Online Hackathon: Predators conservation in the Maasai Mara
22 August 2022 10:32am
Ceres Wild Rhino application
22 August 2022 1:29am
29 September 2022 4:05am
Human-wildlife conflict one of the greatest threats to wildlife species - WWF and UNEP report
29 July 2022 1:27pm
18 September 2022 3:55am
International Workshop on Animal Movement Ecology & Human Mobility
22 July 2022 7:25pm
30 August 2022 6:24pm
CERES TAG
22 July 2022 3:36am
Hello there
1 July 2022 5:00pm
Temporarily marking of polar bears entering villages
27 November 2019 1:49pm
3 June 2022 2:49pm
Hi Femke, did you get any responses to this question? If so I would be interested in hearing what came up.
Long ago I was trapping small mammals and we would use picric acid (fluorescent yellow) to dye the hair on the bellies of mice and voles. It is a bit explosive esp if it drys out but we never had any issues of that sort. Maybe there is a safe and stable form that could be deployed via paint gun - I seem to recall that the Polar Bear Alert Team in Churchill Manitoba tested paintballs on polar bears but not sure of the results.
Stephen
17 June 2022 8:09pm
Hi @Femke_Hilderink , long time no speak!
What an interesting problem/project!
Does it have to be paint, as there was this project a while back:
I don't know how it's going, but am really interested to hear anything...
If something like paint is preferable, maybe drones delivering it could work? I am super interested in using drones to drop tracking tags onto animals, and polar bears are big enough targets to give this a rip snorting go! Happy to discuss.
I had a colleague that used food dye to temporarily colour Australian ibis at refuse sites. If memory serves they trialled sprinklers and super soakers for delivery with some success. I can try and dig up more information if you like?
Or could their foot pads be painted, as maybe they could 'pick up the paint' by walking over an area with paint on the ground? That way their coats are left relatively untouched...
Looking forward to hearing other ideas!
Cheers,
Rob
International Platform to exchange knowledge and experiences about solutions/initiatives on Human-Wildlife conflict issues
31 January 2022 11:31am
31 January 2022 11:32am
Why this collaboration platform? What entails to become ENCOSH member?
Tackling human-wildlife coexistence issues requires an holistic approach with various initiatives/measures/strategies. Many of these have been tested in various places over the world by various stakeholders. But there is a lack of sharing these initiatives across the world. Besides, many could be adapted in various context and for different animal species. It is like a big puzzle with all pieces out there but spread out.
This is why this collaborative platform was created to gather all extant initiatives/measures/strategies and multi-stakeholders involved in these "solutions" to share their knowledge and experiences so that everyone can learn from each other and better tackling such issues locally.
Any user who registers on the platform becomes members, the only engagement is to accept the privacy policy and terms & conditions. Members can have access to all the platform features. They can also share their own initiatives/measures (not a whole project) if they want to contribute. This will create technical sheets that our team will first review before sharing on the platform and will be then available to all and downloadable in many languages for use in different countries and on the field.
Tech, Evidence and Financial Compensation for livestock losses due to predators
13 November 2020 4:03pm
20 November 2020 7:47pm
Chavoux....
BRILLIANT!
Regarding collaring, I am developing collars for livestock, not for Jaguars. BCB detects Jaguars using Smart Cameras (smart fences are on the plans as well) and that information is inside livestock collars, so you can get early alerts if domestic animals are in dangerous zones (people here release their animals for feeding, etc). If no Smart cameras are present, you can tag the areas manually if you have the evidence from camera trapping or inhabitants (I developed simple panic buttons as a way to engage local inhabitants). I was about to test all this however the pandemic imposed trip restrictions since the early days of March!
That's regarding tech. Your views on the human side are really interesting, I will talk about this soon with Conicet Researchers, I guess more synchronization with NGOs are needed, there are a lot of political things in the middle however, this sounds quite good to me: "predator friendly meat" brand, if you want, please drop me an email at [email protected] so I can get yours or subscribe to the BCB's site (The site is to try to encourage other people to use tech and talk about the Jaguar situation here, it is not for fundraising)
There are some simple things that can be done to make a huge difference, tech is only an enabler in my opinion. I collected a few tips also here (not mine, I'm a tech guy but I liked the drawings, they were made with love for Jaguars!)
www.wildedge.info/jaguarcampaigni
Warm regards Chavoux! I hope other people will read your words as well!
10 November 2021 2:02pm
Hello Carlos and Chavoux,
Interesting exchange, thank you! Working on HWC, boh locally on Human-Jaguar coexistence in French Guyana and globally through the ENCOSH platform, it would great to learn more from your initiatives and experiences!
An opportunity to do so is to join us and contribute to the ENCOSH platform: https://encosh.org/en/
It is a recent international collaborative platform to promote the exchange of knowledge, experiences and ideas among all stakeholders worldwide to better tackling Human-Wildlife coexistence issues. A forum will be very soon included also.
Your contribution would be meaningful by submitting some of your initiatives to this community. Besides, you could find and make comments on a list of almost 100 extant initiatives used to enhance Human-Wildlife interactions worldwide.
I remain available if you need further information or guidance.
All the best
Tommy Gaillard
3 December 2021 5:12pm
This is an awesome thread and very enlightening. Thank you! I started reading this as Oregon recently had an entire pack of wolves poisoned, and I wanted to understand the viewpoints that go into these conversations. Thank you!
Technical Difficulties: The Death of Giants
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3 November 2021 12:00am
EarthRanger Announces Inaugural Conservation Tech Award Recipients
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3 November 2021 12:00am
3 March 2023 3:12pm
Super initiative! I hope you get a lot of entries to this coding challenge!