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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- @samarmstrong
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International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Invasive species/law enforcement/project management/Asia/Australia
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- @brittanypalmer
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Entrepreneur and environmental attorney with a passion for wildlife conservation.
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- @Charlotte_Christensen
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University of Zurich
Behavioural ecologist working on integrating animal behaviour into conservation solutions
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- @magali
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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Postdoctoral researcher at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
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- @Doniham
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Machine Learning Developer willing to contribute to AI for the planet projects
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- @cjturner
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Computational Ecologist working on camera traps, audio, tracking and remote sensing.
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- @Aoife_Göppert
- | She/ Her
PhD research student at Queen's University Belfast, a QUADRAT DTP funded project.
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Entrepreneur building AI-driven acoustic monitoring technology for comprehensive wildlife conservation, protection and ecosystem health monitoring.
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- @ChrisThouless
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Director of Elephant Crisis Fund, Research Director of Save the Elephants
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- @Aurora
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I'm a PhD student and the main topic of my research project is large carnivores' activity rhythms. I am passionate about statistical modeling, specifically through a Bayesian approach.
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| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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| Hi @Tim+Vedanayagam Thank you for posting this. I'd be happy to contribute to the thermal sensing work under way. Can you confirm - have you built a thermal AI model... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 5 years 2 months ago | |
| A neoteric solution:- ADSMO(HWC): https://youtu.be/yG0Z5HaL_tc |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 5 years 6 months ago | |
| Hi everybody! The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force, the Global Environment Facility-funded and... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 5 years 6 months ago | |
| Thanks Drue for your valuable input. This is certainly not to encourage killing venomouse snakes. We can actually incorporate the featurs you pointed out to save venomouse... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 5 years 7 months ago | |
| Tusk are illegally traded by the poachers for earning profit out of it. This needs to be stopped. |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 5 years 9 months ago | |
| Hi Aditya, If you haven't already found it, you should check out our last virtual meetup, it was all about tools and spaces for collaboration and we featured a number... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 5 years 11 months ago | |
| Cool idea Ashwan. Looks similar to the virtual parks idea that Laurens is leading. Have you seen it? Also check out rewilding.io and get an entry in to the contest! |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 6 years 2 months ago | |
| A very good summary all-round Nilanga. Only a wholistic approach can truly resolve conflict. |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 6 years 3 months ago | |
| Hi all, We often think about complicated tools when people refer to the use of tech in conservation. But mobile phones can be highly... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 6 years 3 months ago | |
| Thanks both for your comments, very interesting indeed! Also great to hear that so many people are eager to get involved in this kind of research and will participate with great... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 6 years 3 months ago | |
| Dear Femke, I am actually looking for studying the crop damages using drones and also tracking the movements, may be using GPS collars. But I do not actually know about these... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 6 years 4 months ago | |
| Dear Femke, Thank you for your email. I hope I can hear from Mohan Raj. Electric fencing is one area where it can play very important role in human wildlife conflict management... |
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Human-Wildlife Conflict | 6 years 4 months ago |
