Wildlife and Human Conflict

1. Wildlife and Human Conflict

2. Habitat Destruction • Habitats can be destroyed by natural causes, human actions, and pollution • Natural causes: lightning strikes, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and ice storms • Human actions: building highways, subdivisions, factories, agricultural practices • Pollution: chemical contaminants, landfills, smoke, smog, and acid rain destroy habitat

3. Human Impact on Wildlife • Harvest: hunting and fishing • Introduce exotic species • Fire suppression • Campsite and trail development • Grazing • Mining • Predator control • Harassment

4. What is Human-Wildlife Conflict? • Conflict occurs when wildlife requirements overlap the requirements of human populations • Species most exposed to conflict are also shown to be more prone to extinction due to human-induced mortality • Impact human welfare and have economic and social costs

5. Human-Wildlife Conflict Driving Forces • Human Population Growth • As populations increase, settlements expand leading to wildlife encroachment • Land Use Transformation • Consequence of increasing demand for land, food production, energy, and raw materials • Species habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation • Interconnected with population growth and land use change

6. Human-Wildlife Conflict Driving Forces • Increasing Livestock Populations • Increased densities in livestock production create an overlap of diets and forage competition with wild herbivores • Results in over grazing and decline of local herbivore • Abundance and distribution of wild prey • Abundance prey leads to increased predation • Decrease prey leads to diet change of predator which then focuses on livestock • Climatic factors • Seasonal changes in rainfall or temperatures leads to diet and habitat change for animals

7. Human-Wildlife Conflict Indicators • Species Distribution • Species shift away from human activity may indicate displacement • Species shift towards human activity may indicate attraction of opportunistic species • Abundance • Increased abundance may indicate attraction of opportunistic species • Decreased abundance may indicate displacement of species

8. Human-Wildlife Conflict Indicators • Population Trends • Increasing population trends may indicate attraction for opportunistic species • Decreasing population trends may indicate displacement • Species Diversity • Diversity measures combine information on the number of species and abundance • A decrease in diversity may indicate some species have been displaced or eliminated • Does not reflect replacement of one species with another

9. Human-Wildlife Conflict Indicators • Species composition • Change in composition may indicate displacement of species sensitive to human presence • May also indicate attraction if the species present are opportunistic • Species Richness • A decrease may indicate displacement of species sensitive to human presence • An increase may indicate that opportunistic species have moved into an area • Does not reflect the replacement of one species by another

10. Human-Wildlife Conflict Prevention • Lethal methods of control should not be first response • Public education is needed • Improved land use planning