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
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
I am a devoted conservationist, natural resource management enthusiast interested in Elephant and Pangolin species and passionate about linking communities with environmental conservation
- 1 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 13 Groups
- @rowan
- | they / them
Octophin Digital
Jack of all Trades. I've been a zoo keeper, a conservation geneticist and a web developer who specialises in conservation projects and orgs.
- 1 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 15 Groups
Technologist and Visual storyteller focusing on social, conservations issues.
- 1 Resources
- 42 Discussions
- 17 Groups
- @alexrood
- | she/her
WILDLABS & World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
I'm the WILDLABS Communications and Community Management Associate Specialist at WWF-US
- 114 Resources
- 78 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- 1 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @MandyEyrich
- | She/Her
University of Florida (UF)
Bridging industries with 15+ years of cross-sector expertise specializing in user-centric technology and product strategy, UX research, UX/UI design, process optimization, and end-to-end agile product development moving from ideation to iteration.
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 27 Groups
I am the project coordinator of the Wildlife Forensic Fund. We help combat wildlife crime by funding the training of first responders to preserve evidence and take them to court successfully. We are eager to connect with wildlife forensics enthusiasts.
- 3 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
A Wildlife Biologist interested in Environment Assessment and Restoration, In-situ and Ex-situ strategies, Technologies used in Conservation and Illegal Wildlife Trade.
- 0 Resources
- 16 Discussions
- 15 Groups
Data Scientist
- 0 Resources
- 7 Discussions
- 13 Groups
- @cristiar.samosir
- | She/Her
Just a woman passionate in conservation practices
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 4 Groups
worked in wildlife conservation coms, now in live music production incl audio, curious about eco/bioacoustics.
- 0 Resources
- 11 Discussions
- 3 Groups
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...
8 July 2016
Article
More than half of all primate species are endangered, including our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. Could Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) be applied to primates as well as it has been for other taxa? In this...
29 June 2016
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...
28 April 2016
Article
Margaret Driciru, Senior Warden & Wildlife Veterinarian with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, showcases how mobile reporting technology is being used in the field to monitor, collect data, and send rapid alerts when...
22 December 2015
Article
Katherine Chou, Product Lead at Google[x] Labs, sees technology as a way to make the impossible, possible. She explores differences in how wildlife NGOs and the tech sector think and plan, and what the conservation ...
22 December 2015
Article
The Impact of the Internet of Things
WILDLABS Admin
Gary Atkinson, Director of Emerging Technologies at ARM, explains why we should be interested in the Internet of Things. Could it be a game changer for conservation?
10 December 2015
June 2025
event
Nalini
July 2025
October 2025
event
Lacey Hughey and 3 more
October 2024
32 Products
3 R&D Projects
40 Organisations
Recently updated products
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Recently updated organisations
| Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
|
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! |
+30
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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 |
How polar bears and people are kept safe thanks to integrated video and radar system
15 December 2023 12:22pm
Bear-dar: Updates from the Field
15 December 2023 11:58am
New Toolkit to Help Communities in Africa to Live Safely with Elephants
13 December 2023 5:44pm
Holistic, Ethical & Community-led Human-Wildlife Conflict Solutions with Gabriela Fleury
Gabriela Fleury
and 1 more
8 December 2023 1:38pm
ICOTEQ launch TAGRANGER® system of products
23 November 2023 1:25pm
AWMS Conference 2023
Insight; a secure online platform designed for sharing experiences of conservation tool use.
7 November 2023 1:01pm
How 400km solar-powered fence reduces human-wildlife conflict - The Standard
31 October 2023 7:35am
A Market Reduction Approach to Illegal Ivory Markets in Tanzania
30 October 2023 7:41am
Seismic detectors
20 December 2015 1:10pm
30 March 2021 6:01pm
Dear all, any update on this subject?
All the best.
29 October 2023 6:39pm
Hi Antoine,
Sorry about the late reply. The field trials were abandoned mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We're planning to improve our prototype and conduct field trials in this December. I'll post an update here.
regards
Horizon call for EU Human-Wildlife conflict experts
23 October 2023 10:34am
ZSL Research Fellow (x3 roles)
20 October 2023 3:34pm
Restoring the Mara Elephant Population Using Coexistence Tech Solutions with Mara Elephant Project's Wilson Sairowua
20 October 2023 1:31pm
27 May 2024 3:54pm
28 May 2024 8:12am
What Biologgers are you using?
30 August 2023 10:44am
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?
12 October 2023 12:24pm
Hey Stephanie,
Thanks a lot! Sorry I missed your message but of course I can ask our users about their experience with sensors!
🚀 New Grant: 'Satellites for Biodiversity Award' Round 2
2 October 2023 1:50pm
Human - Non-human Primate Conflict Mitigation Approaches: Lessons from Olive Baboons - YouTube
26 September 2023 12:11pm
Predator Monitoring & Community Conservation within the Greater Mara Ecosystem
13 September 2023 10:22am
In case you missed it... (no. 1)
12 September 2023 11:49am
13 September 2023 6:23am
The Maasai Mara: Conservation, Communities & Cattle
11 September 2023 2:12pm
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
Born Free Uses Smart Maps to Save Lions, Solve Human-Wildlife Conflict
17 August 2023 2:35pm
Born Free Uses Smart Maps to Save Lions, Solve Human-Wildlife Conflict
Born Free maps the conflict between lions and communities to find solutions, including fortifying fences to keep lions away from livestock.
Human-Elephant Conflict Tech Solution in Tsavo: NdovuCare
Esther Githinji
and 1 more
7 August 2023 1:36pm
30 April 2024 12:48am
9 May 2024 1:56pm
15 May 2024 9:34am
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 juliana.masseloux@zsl.org 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
31 August 2018 2:51pm
Hi Nilaksha,
Congratulations! That is great news! Please do keep us posted on how it goes and do let us know if you need varied field sites in which to test the tools. @Teun , how's your prototype coming along?
Best,
Nilanga