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
GreenLab
- 0 Resources
- 12 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @Merin_Joji1297
- | She/her
Curently doing PhD at the University of Copenhagen on Effects of Shell asymmetry in Indian freshwater turtles using Geomteric morphometrics.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
- @carlybatist
- | she/her
Science Outreach Lead-Rainforest Connection (RFCx) & Arbimon
Ecoacoustics, biodiversity monitoring, primates, lemurs
- 65 Resources
- 241 Discussions
- 18 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
- @KimLane
- | She/Her
Sustainability Manager for CERES Tag LTD. An animal health company; animal monitoring, conservation, & anti-poaching/ rural crime. Wildlife, livestock, equine & companion. #CeresTrace #CeresWild #CeresRanch #SalusPet
- 2 Resources
- 17 Discussions
- 22 Groups
- @TaliaSpeaker
- | She/her
WILDLABS
I'm the WILDLABS Research Specialist at WWF-US
- 7 Resources
- 52 Discussions
- 24 Groups
- @MarissaMilstein
- | she/her
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Technologist and Visual storyteller focusing on social, conservations issues.
- 0 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 16 Groups
- @viquilassaga
- | She/her
Im a biologist at the National University of Cordoba and I did my final thesis on mammals in a reserve in my province. Also, I´m PM4R Master certificated for BID and I work as a Project Manager at Natura International, an NGO dedicated to the creation of protected areas.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @billardball8
- | She/Her
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @GalZanir
- | he, him
Wildlife Entrepreneur | Innovation for Nature Conservation | Systems-thinking | Web3.0 | DAOs | Rewilding & more
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 8 Groups
Sensing Clues Foundation
- 0 Resources
- 44 Discussions
- 9 Groups
Article
Five #tech4wildlife people, projects and updates that caught our attention this month. An AI supported bear early warning system, a project that's connecting indigenous communities with high speed internet, exploring...
12 September 2023
The WCS team in Uganda is working with impacted communities, district leaders and wildlife authorities to come up with innovative solutions to Human Wildlife Conflicts and curb wildlife crimes in our time. Check out...
5 September 2023
Read our interview with Sandra Maryanne, a young conservation tech innovator raised in Taita, Ivarenyi with first-hand experience on the challenges of human-elephant conflict within her community. To address this, she...
7 August 2023
Human-Wildlife Conflict is a pressing conservation challenge affecting natural ecosystems, biodiversity and local communities across East Africa. This has led to the development and adoption of diverse conservation...
1 August 2023
JICA, Japan’s International Cooperation Agency is seeking a digital partner with a proven track record in conservation technology as we launch a pilot project to test technologies to mitigate human-elephant conflict in...
19 June 2023
In this Conservation Tech Showcase case study from Big Life Foundation, you’ll learn about their successes using EarthRanger and LoRaWAN Smart Parks Solution technologies to monitor wildlife in East Africa.
8 June 2023
Are you using or creating tech to protect wildlife? We want to support your organization through two $15,000 grants!
15 May 2023
New paper in Trends in Parasitology discusses how acoustic monitoring can be used to assess presence and overlap of host or reservoir species, disease vectors and human activity.
8 March 2023
Article
Assessing the Efficacy of a Novel Olfactory Approach to Mitigating Elephant Crop Raiding in Uganda and Kenya
24 February 2023
Scholarships available for training courses focussing on nature restoration in East Africa
21 February 2023
Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $104k-144K; Location: Washington DC or Seattle WA, potential hybrid; 5+ years of Full stack development experience; Deadline March 15th - view post for full job...
10 February 2023
Frontiers in Conservation Science is calling for submissions for a Research Topic that aims at examining the paradoxical relationship that has been established in recent years between the flagships of new technology...
10 February 2023
November 2023
event
event
September 2023
event
July 2023
event
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
---|---|---|---|---|
That's cool, that looks to be a yolov8 based model with a python interface. This means that in theory it should be not so hard (Within a day) to make a websocket wrapper around it... |
+9
|
Human-Wildlife Conflict | 4 days 1 hour ago | |
I would be interested how you setted up this system. Which model do yu use and how are they connected? |
|
Human-Wildlife Conflict, Camera Traps, Sensors | 4 days 2 hours ago | |
Ah! It's great to find out about your tags - great video, thanks for sharing. We'd love to hear from some of your users about their experiences with your tags! Would you be able... |
|
Biologging, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Protected Area Management Tools | 2 weeks 5 days ago | |
@richardturere Hello :) and a warm welcome to WILDLABS! Here is the link to @Lekato Samuel Lekato - Founder and Chairman, Enduata Emaa CBO. Sam is interested in conservation... |
|
Citizen Science, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Conservation Tech Training and Education, East Africa Community, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 2 months ago | |
Super, nice to hear. BTW, this project appears new, but it's been in operation b yseveral parties for more than 10 years, so it's mature.No one is playing with it yet as I only... |
|
Human-Wildlife Conflict | 2 months ago | |
Hi all! I am a mechanical engineer working in the Aerospace Engineering department at a University, and I have the opportunity to take over... |
|
Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Marine Conservation, Open Source Solutions, Sensors | 2 months 2 weeks ago | |
Thank you |
|
Human-Wildlife Conflict | 3 months ago | |
What's the definition of low cost really? Using various cnn models for objection detection the results can be very accurate. The costs would vary. The cheapest Jetson Nano (Old... |
+26
|
Human-Wildlife Conflict | 3 months ago | |
Hi WildLabs,ZSL is looking for Beta testers for Instant Detect 2.0. If you are a conservationist, scientist or wildlife ranger with... |
|
Camera Traps, Climate Change, Community Base, Connectivity, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Sensors, Wildlife Crime | 4 months 2 weeks ago | |
Hi everybody 👋🏽,I'm a UX designer, and I design interfaces and improve user experiences/flows. I would love to contribute to conservation... |
|
AI for Conservation, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict | 4 months 4 weeks ago | |
Hi everyone,I'm new here :)I'm doing my thesis of biology bachelor about Rhino poaching. I wanted to ask here if yu have some articles... |
|
AI for Conservation, Ending Wildlife Trafficking Online, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife Crime | 5 months 3 weeks ago | |
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... |
|
Biologging, Conservation Tech Training and Education, Data management and processing tools, Emerging Tech, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Open Source Solutions, Software and Mobile Apps | 6 months 2 weeks ago |
Human - Non-human Primate Conflict Mitigation Approaches: Lessons from Olive Baboons - YouTube
26 September 2023 12:11pm
Hear about the ways Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project (UNBP) works with Laikipia's local communities to improve relationships between humans and baboons through this talk by Co-Director - Dr. Corinna Most on human-baboon conflict and mitigation strategies.
Ai monitoring of wolves in the Netherlands
7 September 2023 9:45am
22 September 2023 12:21pm
Okay.. Thanks!
22 September 2023 12:28pm
That's cool, that looks to be a yolov8 based model with a python interface. This means that in theory it should be not so hard (Within a day) to make a websocket wrapper around it and then it can be easily integrated into my state management and alerting system.
I'll take a look at that this weekend
Thermal cameras for monitoring visitors in highly vulnerable conservation areas
21 June 2022 3:44pm
23 June 2022 1:41pm
At Ol Pejeta, through the Kifaru Rising project, we have 19 FLIR thermal cameras that we use to address poaching as a conservation challenge.
The cameras have been deployed along a key fence line and are monitored 24/7 by a dedicated team.
The cameras have inbuilt analytics capabilities which allow us to design virtual fences/boundaries.
An Alert is generated whenever a human or vehicles crosses the virtual fence. Following an alert, appropriate ranger action is undertaken depending on the video content recorded with each alert.
I think the Alert feature available with these cameras could be leveraged to monitor the wildlife visitor interaction, seeing as a video clip is recorded with each alert, the thermal video clips could be reviewed to assess the wildlife-human interaction effects.
20 June 2023 12:57pm
Hi,
I have been involved in people detection tech for more than 10 years and have an open source project that uses CNN computer vision for object detection and alerting, including people (
GitHub - hcfman/sbts-install: Installs StalkedByTheState over the sbts-base system to build a home and business security appliance on NVIDIA Jetson series computers.
Installs StalkedByTheState over the sbts-base system to build a home and business security appliance on NVIDIA Jetson series computers. - GitHub - hcfman/sbts-install: Installs StalkedByTheState ov...

I also have several thermal cameras here. note, the people detection can also work fine on thermal images. Mostly I've stopped using thermal cameras because normal cameras work so well with modern models that they no longer have an advantage perse. If you really need to detect people in pitch darkness though, using a thermal camera in combination with image detection would be better than just thermal movement detection.
Let me know if I can help in any way. I know this is quite an old post though.
22 September 2023 12:00pm
I would be interested how you setted up this system. Which model do yu use and how are they connected?
Predator Monitoring & Community Conservation within the Greater Mara Ecosystem
13 September 2023 10:22am
In case you missed it...
12 September 2023 11:49am
13 September 2023 6:23am
The Maasai Mara: Conservation, Communities & Cattle
11 September 2023 2:12pm
What Biologgers are you using?
30 August 2023 10:44am
7 September 2023 10:51am
Hello,
Thanks a lot for putting together this survey!
Just introducing our company, Nix, french based and most recent on the market as we conceived and produced IoT biologging trackers working on GPS/LTE-M/LPWAN networks with super high autonomy and lightweight for terrestrial animals. Already working on a nanosat version for next year, to cover territories without network at all.
Our trackers have been used primarily in the EU to study species behavior in mixed enclosures and for land use management at the animal park of Auvergne, home to 65 endangered species.
Take a look at the video and let me know if you'd like to discuss your own needs!
7 September 2023 10:57am
Interesting. interesting. I'm probably jumping the gun here but I'm curious - are you getting any trends on types of biologgers or specific manufacturers people are talking about? Or is everyone using different tags/manufacturers?
7 September 2023 11:00am
Ah! It's great to find out about your tags - great video, thanks for sharing. We'd love to hear from some of your users about their experiences with your tags! Would you be able to share the poll with your user community?
Video: WCS Uganda innovating Human-Wildlife Conflict solutions
5 September 2023 12:04pm
Alibaba Cloud's Geo Fencing System in the Mara
1 September 2023 12:27pm
Wilson Sairowua, Tracking Manager at Mara Elephant Project (MEP) narrates how tech4change, Alibaba Cloud's Geo Fencing System paired with collaring has helped to mitigate human-elephant conflict across Maasai Mara and has facilitated a 72% increase in elephants in the Mara region
Born Free Uses Smart Maps to Save Lions, Solve Human-Wildlife Conflict
17 August 2023 2:35pm
Location intelligence helps Born Free Kenya understand where communities and lions are in conflict. Outreach to fortify cattle corrals is guided by smart maps and spatial analysis.
Human-Elephant Conflict Tech Solution in Tsavo: NdovuCare
7 August 2023 1:36pm
What Technologies are you using to Mitigate Human-Wildlife Conflict across East Africa?
1 August 2023 8:29am
Interested in being part of the Enduata Emaa CBO's Green Planet Ambassadors Project in Amboseli?
5 July 2023 10:28am
25 July 2023 1:14pm
@richardturere Hello :) and a warm welcome to WILDLABS! Here is the link to @Lekato Samuel Lekato - Founder and Chairman, Enduata Emaa CBO. Sam is interested in conservation technology focused on how to keep wild animals away from community homesteads in Amboseli and I reckon your Lion Lights could help. I'll let you two take on the conversation from here. Thanks!
Human/animal detection/alerting
20 June 2023 12:07pm
30 June 2023 12:53pm
Hi Kim!
Welcome to Wildlabs!
This looks like an amazing project! I see multiple uses for our ecosystem monitoring in Greenland - both for the research/monitoring part but also for safety - polar bears roaming around camp!
I will look into your github and may get back to you!
Cheers,
Lars
21 July 2023 9:57am
Super, nice to hear. BTW, this project appears new, but it's been in operation b yseveral parties for more than 10 years, so it's mature.
No one is playing with it yet as I only just released it to open source last year. However, it was evolved since 2008 and the main state machine was almost the same as it is now in 2011. I added the the AI computer vision in 2019.
I believe it has a lot of features that make it practical to use, particularly as I'm using the best available object detectors for example, but also they way I make the state control very flexible. Just waiting for some people to try it :)
BTW, I've been adding support for the latest Orin Jetson series SBCs but still have to come back to finishing this release off. I've been somewhat distracted with my audio localization project which I want to finish to the point of releasing and and writing it up before finishing the Jetson Orin release of the security project.
pneumatic artificial muscle applications in conservation tech?
5 July 2023 6:59pm
"FISH BANK PROGRAM"(Transforming fishing cat and fish farmer conflict into conservation)
21 June 2023 2:15pm
22 June 2023 12:57pm
Beautiful solution!
22 June 2023 4:42pm
Thank you
Automated Elephant-detection system
27 October 2016 10:14pm
12 June 2020 5:53am
Hi,
This is rakesh kalva from India. I have been working on human-elephant conflict in the state of Andhra Pradesh for the past 5 years. This is a cool idea. I have used camera traps to identify movement and individual elephants for demographic data.
Some field based observations of using camera traps for elephants:
1. I usually place the camera traps on forest paths and many of the images we captured wernt of the complete elephant. Its just the legs and trunk. Wont that effect the detection by the software as to wether its an elephant or not?
2. In case of flash cameras , quite a lot of our cameras got damaged by elephants. So we were going for IR cameras. WIll it work for IR cameras as well?
3. Another issue is with the cameras being stolen by locals or poachers.
4. So we gave up all this and are using a simple trip technology with a switch attached to a door bell attached to a rope placed at a height of 7-8 feet. In this landscape no other animal is at this heigh so when the alarm is triggered we know its an elephant.
5. Elephants operate in a large territor, so will it be feasable to use this technology?
But there are some interesting research questions that can be answered with this technology you are developing. Kindly let me know if i can be of any help on field.
Regards,
Rakesh Kalva
Wildlife Biologist
18 May 2022 3:48am
Hi Neil,
I am a project manager for Zoological Society of London's Thailand Programme. We work in the southern Western Forest Complex of Thailand, which is a large landscape of relatively contiguous forest surrounded by development and agriculture and thus rife with human-elephant conflict. We are currently looking to co-develop or pilot low-cost cameras or acoustic sensors for real-time detection of elephants at HEC hotspots within the landscape. Current issues we've been facing are high rates of non-target stimuli triggers which clog up the cloud (so the automated classification of elephants would be useful to limit notifications) and the high cost of conventional cellular camera systems. I am curious to know the current status of your Elephant AI system. The most recent update I've found on your hackaday is of the combination with a deterrence system, which is very promising. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or reply to this message.
Cheers,
Juliana
20 June 2023 1:32pm
What's the definition of low cost really? Using various cnn models for objection detection the results can be very accurate. The costs would vary. The cheapest Jetson Nano (Old model) is about 150 euros but case, SSD and camera and it can run yolov4 full model, 416x416 image size.
However, if you go the next step, the jetson Nano orin, then you start about 500-700 euros for the board, but the model can run a full size yolov6 model which is extremely good. Elephants are so unique looking, you could likely eliminate all false positives.
You would need to attach cellular modems or something like that I expect but these sound like a different thing to a cellular camera system that you mention and thus likely a lot cheaper.
The Jetson SBC's do use quite a lot of power.
Information Session: Technology Testing to Mitigate Human-Elephant Conflict in West Bengal
19 June 2023 11:07pm
Innovation wanted: Technology Testing to Mitigate Human-Elephant Conflict in West Bengal
19 June 2023 10:54pm
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
Big Life Foundation: Improving Connectivity to Fight Wildlife Crime

8 June 2023 10:00am
How lights help keep lions and livestock alive in Kenya
31 May 2023 3:31pm
Richard Turere from Kitengela, invents flashing lights to mitigate human wildlife conflict. He came up with “Lion Lights,” a system that deters predators such as lions from attacking livestock using flashing lights. Operating predominantly on solar energy, with the ability to harness wind power during cloudy weather or low sunlight, Turere’s invention provides a sustainable eco-friendly approach to conservation.
Deadline Approaching: Conservation Tech Award
15 May 2023 10:21pm
Apply to Beta test Instant Detect 2.0
11 May 2023 10:55am
EarthRanger User Conference
27 April 2023 5:52am
Looking to contribute
27 April 2023 2:41am
Video: Virginia Tech tracking bobcats to preserve wildlife
26 April 2023 2:45pm
Quick feature of Virgina Tech project using camera traps and biologgers to track bobcats, collecting data to inform human-wildlife coexistance efforts
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
22 September 2023 11:33am
if you are looking to a model detecting wolves try this one:
DeepFaune (cnrs.fr)