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Human-Wildlife Conflict / Feed

Human-wildlife conflict is a significant challenge that only grows as habitats shrink and other issues like climate change alter the natural world. Technologies like biologging gear have become essential for proactively addressing human-wildlife conflict before it escalates, and tech projects that seek to understand population ranges and behaviour can help people learn to live with wildlife as part of our own environments. If you're interested in using technology to prevent human-wildlife conflict, this group is the place for you!

discussion

Foxlights predator deterrant

You probably all heard about Richard Turere's lion lights project. A Australian sheep herder created a similar device called Foxlights. It has some advantages in that it...

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Personally, I'd order a few of the $10 radios from eBay and see how they work. They are cheap enough that if they don't work out, you wouldn't be out much money. 

For $27, you could try one of these which is rated Waterproof Level IPX3; it can be used during rainy weather.

From my brief search, I think you are going to have a tough time finding something solar, waterproof, and inexpensive. But do let us know what you turn up!

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discussion

Infrastructure impacts

Hi everyone, Is anyone aware of detection tools to prevent wildlife collisions on highways or railways? I'm particularly interested in finding out if there may be any...

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Hi Nilanga,

 This is a topic of my interest too. I have been doing some work on getting some mitigations implemented on some highways in central India. So what excatly do you mean by tools? Some gadget to detect physical presence on large mammals around highways and railway tracks ? Or some software tools to predict animals crossings along them.

Regards

Udayan

Hi Udayan,

Many thanks for following up and it's great to hear that it's an area of interest for you as well. I'm certainly interested to hear more about the work you've been doing on mitigation actions implemented or being tested to prevent wildlife collisions on highways in central India. Are they early detection tools? By tools, I mean either technology to detect presence and provide warnings to drivers or railway operators, or even tools to predict based on movement patterns. I'm interested in learning about any such measure that is being developed. You may be aware that in the last month alone, around 11 elephants have died from train collisions in northeast India. If there are means being developed to detect presence and prevent such deaths, it would be wonderful to know more about them and how we could test and implement such measures. Look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Nilanga

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discussion

Wolf protection vests for dogs

Hi all,   Just saw this on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-38288999 Dogs in one town in Finland are to be kitted out in...

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discussion

WildLabs success! E-shepherd predator deterrent trials in USA

@Chavoux , I mention E-shepherd to a colleague recently who is connected with several predator organizations in the USA (including the government's Department...

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Thanks, @Suzanne.Stone ! It would be wonderful if the community could track your progress in this thread. Also looking forward to reading your Journal of Mammology paper.

- Rachel

@Rachel , the last time I checked (2015), it was about R1200-00 per collar. In South Africa that can be approximated as the price of one sheep. To my mind, that only makes it viable and affordable if the predation (or theft?) levels are very high (more than 10% losses/year?). 

I have to add two additional observations:

  1. Sheep breeds differ in the extend to which they flock together in a single herd (e.g. African indigenous breeds graze together in larger herds than the most popular breeds in South Africa (Merino or Dorper). In these breeds it might be possible to have less collars per sheep.
  2. My greatest fear is that it will work wel for a year or two. Jackals (and I assume coyotes as well) are extremely intelligent. And methods which worked at first (e.g. bell collars) soon became useless. With jackals we also have the issue that many of the jackals on farms are now starting to hunt in packs instead of the typical territorial pairs (with helpers). So a commonly solitary hunter (the pairs would often hunt separately) is now turning into a pack hunter. However, I do think that it might remain fairly effective against solitary cats. I would be interested in the results of the tests in America, but I think it should be for at least a 3 year period (I know funding etc. might be an issue). 

@Suzanne.Stone have you had any success with your trials in Idaho?

 

 

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discussion

Camera Trap based Alarm Systems

Hi, I am looking at using camera-trap based alarm systems for managing Human Elephant Conflict in a specific area in India. Has anybody worked on developing something along...

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This might be a silly question, but why do you need a camera trap for either purpose - unless you want a record of specific individuals?

If the aim is to provide an alarm to scare off elephants then a system that uses a simple motion sensor wired to an alarm would do the same thing at a much lower cost without the risk of damage or theft that all camera traps suffer from.

If the aim is to alert locals then the Indian Nature Conservation Foundations Elephant Early Warning System is worth exploring http://ncf-india.org/projects/in-the-elephant-hills 

Hi James,

Thanks for sharing information on NCF's early warning system. NCF's tool is great and works well for the context in Valparai where it's being used. We work closely with them as well. As you are aware, the context for each conflict situation is different. These are open plantation areas where elephants can be seen if present in any patch, while in other areas, it's harder to tell when they come out of forested protected areas and into adjacent habitation in order to warn people. And for a number of the landscapes where we work, that particular approach may not be as effective, we are trying to test other forms of early detection. Do let us know if you learn of any results from camera-trapping early warning systems as well using a tool that could potentially serve multiple purposes. Many thanks.

Nilanga

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article

Internet Cats Just Got Bigger

The internet has a long love affair with cat pictures, but these aren’t your mom’s internet cats. Now internet cats are getting even bigger and wilder. In this article, Dr. Lisa Feldkamp talks about the work Panthera is...

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event

Perspectives from the World Ranger Congress

John Probert
The 8th annual World Ranger Congress was held in Colorado, USA from May 21-27th 2016. John H. Probert attended the conference as a representative of WILDLABS.NET. In this report he shares his experiences at the congress...

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article

Camera traps reveal mysteries of nature

Roland Kays
Sharing personal 'best of' animal pictures is a favorite pastime of many camera trappers. A prolific camera trapper himself, Roland Kays has pulled together more than 600 images collected by 152 researchers from 54...

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article

Can Drones Live up to the Hype?

Paul Glover-Kapfer
Drones are being explored for a spectrum of applications in conservation that include mapping, biodiversity inventories, antipoaching patrols, wildlife tracking and fire monitoring. However, questions remain about...

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article

TEAM Network and Wildlife Insights

Eric Fegraus
Operating the largest tropical forest camera trap network globally, TEAM Network has accumulated over 2.6 million images. How can large datasets coupled with new techniques for data management and analysis provide...

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discussion

Migration monitoring app

Hello all, Another thought I had regarding human-wildlife conflict. Since wildlife migrations occur around similar times, every year, what about an app to make people aware of...

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discussion

Deterring bears while backpacking

I like to go hiking and in many places of the US you often run into bears. It is common practice to attach a bell to your bag so that a bear can hear you coming and stay out of...

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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 could use apps to prevent HWC? There are apps that provide the ability to track wildlife through satellite collars for monitoring purposes. Is anyone aware of whether this type of app is being used also for HWC prevention using geo-fencing through collars or other means? Thanks.

Nilanga

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