Human-Wildlife Conflict
Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence
Human-wildlife conflict occurs when the activities, needs, or behavior of wild animals intersect with human livelihoods, safety, property, agriculture, or other interests. These encounters range from elephants raiding crops and carnivores killing livestock to bears entering settlements, primates exploiting human food, and urban wildlife adapting to cities. The consequences can include economic losses, injuries and deaths, fear, retaliation against wildlife, declining support for conservation, and disruption of everyday life.
Yet the concept of "conflict" can be misleading if it implies that animals themselves are always the opposing party. Much of the research on human-wildlife conflict emphasizes that many of the most difficult disputes are actually conflicts among people over wildlife: disagreements about acceptable risk, conservation priorities, land use, compensation, evidence, cultural values, and who should bear the costs of protecting animals.
For this reason, conservation researchers increasingly discuss human-wildlife coexistence rather than simply conflict management. Coexistence does not necessarily mean eliminating every negative encounter. Instead, it describes the development of social, ecological, and political arrangements that allow people and wildlife to persist together despite occasional costs and disagreements.
Why Human-Wildlife Conflict Occurs
Human-wildlife conflict is often produced by overlapping ecological and human pressures rather than by a single cause. Agricultural expansion, settlement growth, roads, extractive industries, habitat fragmentation, livestock grazing, and the loss of wildlife corridors can bring people and animals into increasingly close contact.
Climate change may intensify this overlap. Drought, changing rainfall, shifting vegetation, declining water availability, and altered animal movements can push wildlife toward farms, livestock areas, towns, and other human-dominated landscapes. At the same time, recovering wildlife populations can create new challenges when animals recolonize regions from which they had previously disappeared.
Wildlife also adapts. Elephants may change when and where they move to avoid people. Bears may learn to exploit human food. Coyotes can establish dens close to development. Primates can learn that farms and settlements provide concentrated food resources. Repeated interactions therefore create changing relationships in which both people and animals alter their behavior.
Conflict also varies enormously from one location to another. The same species may be tolerated in one community and heavily persecuted in another. Local history, culture, livelihoods, institutions, land ownership, wealth, previous experiences with wildlife, and trust in government can all influence how people interpret encounters.
Elephants, Carnivores, and Other High-Conflict Species
Elephants are among the most extensively studied animals in human-wildlife conflict research. Across Africa and Asia, elephants can damage crops, enter settlements, compete for water, damage infrastructure, injure people, and occasionally cause fatalities. Agricultural expansion and the fragmentation of traditional elephant movement routes can increase these encounters.
Human-elephant conflict also illustrates why simple solutions are difficult. Fences and other barriers sometimes reduce incursions but may be expensive, difficult to maintain, or capable of shifting problems elsewhere. Translocating individual elephants can fail to resolve the underlying causes of conflict. More recent approaches combine land-use planning, early-warning systems, community participation, habitat protection, deterrents, communications technology, and better understanding of elephant behavior.
Large carnivores create a different set of challenges. Lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, hyenas, bears, snow leopards, dholes, and other predators may attack livestock or, more rarely, people. Livestock losses can impose especially serious burdens on pastoral households whose wealth and food security depend heavily on animals.
Perceptions of carnivores are shaped by more than measurable losses. Fear, cultural traditions, past experiences, distrust of authorities, and beliefs about particular species can strongly influence whether people tolerate predators. In some landscapes, improved livestock enclosures, herding practices, guard animals, early warnings, and other nonlethal measures can reduce attacks and retaliatory killing.
Human-wildlife conflict extends far beyond large mammals. Hippos and crocodiles can threaten people using rivers and lakes. Wild boar and deer damage crops and create conflicts in urbanizing landscapes. Monkeys and baboons raid farms and exploit human food. Birds may create agricultural or urban problems, while seals, sharks, alligators, giraffes, otters, and other animals generate their own locally specific forms of conflict.
Livelihoods, Inequality, and the Human Cost
One of the strongest themes in human-wildlife conflict research is that the costs of conservation are not distributed equally.
Communities living closest to protected areas and wildlife habitat often bear the greatest costs while receiving only a portion of the wider benefits produced by conservation. A livestock animal killed by a predator or a field destroyed by elephants may represent a relatively small monetary value from a national perspective but a substantial share of a rural household's income or food supply.
Direct losses are only part of the burden. Families may spend nights guarding crops, lose sleep, restrict children's movements, abandon productive fields, alter grazing routes, or devote considerable time to reporting damage and seeking compensation. Dangerous wildlife can create persistent fear, stress, grief, anger, and uncertainty.
Women may experience these pressures differently from men. In some rural regions, changes in household labor patterns have increased women's responsibility for farming, livestock, fuel collection, or other activities that expose them to wildlife. Studies of women-led coexistence programs also show that women can play important roles in monitoring wildlife, protecting livestock, developing alternative livelihoods, and mediating relationships between conservation organizations and communities.
These patterns have made environmental justice increasingly important to the study of human-wildlife conflict. A central question is not simply how to conserve wildlife, but who is expected to absorb the economic, psychological, and physical costs of doing so.
From Conflict Management to Coexistence
Traditional wildlife management often concentrated on controlling or removing animals considered dangerous or troublesome. Contemporary coexistence research increasingly asks a broader question: what combination of ecological, economic, social, and institutional conditions allows humans and wildlife to share landscapes over the long term?
No single intervention works everywhere. Effective strategies may include:
- improved livestock enclosures and herding practices;
- crop-protection barriers and deterrents;
- protection or restoration of wildlife corridors;
- habitat and rangeland restoration;
- removal of attractants such as unsecured food and garbage;
- community-based monitoring;
- compensation or insurance for verified losses;
- rapid-response teams;
- land-use planning;
- public education;
- collaborative decision-making;
- nonlethal predator deterrence;
- locally adapted agricultural practices;
- early-warning systems; and
- improved communication between residents, scientists, conservation organizations, and government agencies.
The social acceptability of an intervention can be as important as its biological effectiveness. A technique that successfully deters wildlife may still fail if it is too expensive, difficult to maintain, culturally unacceptable, or imposed without community participation.
Compensation programs illustrate this challenge. Payments for livestock, crops, injuries, or deaths can reduce financial hardship and potentially discourage retaliatory killing. But complicated reporting rules, delays, disputes over verification, inadequate payments, and lack of trust can undermine such programs.
Technology and the Changing Management of Conflict
New technologies are expanding the tools available for managing human-wildlife interactions.
Satellite collars and GPS tracking can reveal the movements of elephants, lions, wolves, and other animals. When tracking data are connected to communication networks, communities can receive warnings before animals reach farms or settlements.
Camera systems, artificial intelligence, and computer vision can automatically detect wildlife approaching high-risk areas. Experimental systems are being developed to distinguish animals such as crop-raiding macaques and trigger warnings or deterrents. Thermal drones can locate elephants at night and help rangers warn communities or redirect animals away from farms.
Spatial modeling and machine learning can identify conflict hotspots by combining information about wildlife distributions, land cover, agriculture, settlements, roads, climate, and previous incidents. Genetic analysis can sometimes determine which predator actually killed livestock, reducing the risk that the wrong species will be blamed.
Technology, however, does not remove the political and social dimensions of coexistence. Detection systems may identify where an animal is located, but communities and governments must still decide what level of risk is acceptable, who pays for interventions, and how conservation benefits and costs should be shared.
Cities and New Shared Landscapes
Human-wildlife coexistence is increasingly an urban issue. Coyotes, wild boar, monkeys, baboons, bears, deer, birds, and other adaptable animals can survive in or near densely populated areas.
Urban environments offer wildlife food, water, shelter, and refuge from some natural predators. At the same time, animals encounter roads, pets, garbage, recreation, buildings, and large numbers of people. Habituation to human presence can sometimes increase the likelihood of close encounters.
Urban wildlife management therefore requires more than removing individual animals. Food availability, garbage management, public behavior, feeding, habitat structure, education, and seasonal wildlife activity can all influence conflict.
These cases demonstrate that coexistence is not restricted to remote wilderness. Increasingly, conservation must address landscapes in which human and wildlife habitat are interwoven.
Governance, Culture, and Community Participation
Wildlife conflicts are rarely solved through ecology alone. Governments, conservation organizations, landowners, farmers, pastoralists, Indigenous peoples, scientists, tourism operators, hunters, and urban residents may hold very different ideas about what successful coexistence means.
Participatory planning can help communities identify conflict hotspots, describe locally important wildlife behavior, evaluate proposed interventions, and distinguish between perceived and recorded risks. Local and Indigenous knowledge can provide information that formal monitoring programs may overlook.
Culture can also shape coexistence. Some communities have traditions, religious beliefs, or historical relationships that encourage tolerance of particular animals. Elsewhere, historical experiences with government wildlife policies may create mistrust.
Effective governance therefore requires transparency about both scientific evidence and social values. Decisions about wildlife inevitably involve questions about acceptable risk, fairness, rights, livelihoods, conservation goals, and competing uses of land.
Adaptive management is particularly important because human-wildlife relationships change. Climate, land use, animal populations, agricultural practices, public attitudes, and technology all evolve. Policies that worked in one period may need to be modified as conditions change.
Conclusion
Human-wildlife conflict is one of the clearest examples of the challenge of conserving biodiversity in a world increasingly dominated by human activity. Habitat loss, agricultural expansion, urbanization, climate change, recovering wildlife populations, and competition for land and water are creating more landscapes where people and wild animals must negotiate the same space.
The evidence suggests that durable solutions rarely come from simply removing animals or preventing every encounter. Successful coexistence depends on understanding animal ecology while also addressing livelihoods, inequality, cultural values, public safety, trust, governance, and the distribution of conservation costs.
The transition from conflict management to coexistence represents an important shift in conservation thinking. Instead of asking only how wildlife can be kept away from people, coexistence asks how landscapes and institutions can be organized so that both people and wildlife can persist.
That goal does not require a world without conflict. It requires societies capable of managing conflict fairly, reducing preventable harm, sharing costs and benefits, adapting to changing conditions, and recognizing that human communities and wildlife are increasingly part of the same interconnected landscapes.
Human-Wildlife Conflict: General Concepts and Coexistence
1. East African Human-Wildlife Conflict: Policy Challenges and Proposed Solutions From Kenya | Multiple authors | Journal of Environmental Management | 2026
Examines Kenyan policy and proposes improvements involving land-use planning, grazing management, deterrents, incentives, and compensation.
2. Drought Hampers Human–Wildlife Coexistence | Walter Andriuzzi | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2026
Highlights evidence that drought can increase encounters between people and wildlife, particularly carnivores searching for resources near human settlements.
3. Cumulative Multi-Species Effects in Human–Wildlife Conflict Shift the Focus Beyond Large Animals in the Western Ghats | Lakshmi Chenandi Methatta et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026
Finds that repeated damage from monkeys, wild boar, and other smaller species can shape attitudes as strongly as encounters with charismatic megafauna.
4. Bayesian Belief Network Model to Predict Human-Wildlife Conflict in Protected Areas | Santiago García-Lloré, Richard C. Stedman and Angela K. Fuller | Scientific Reports | 2026
Demonstrates how ecological and social variables can be combined to predict where human-wildlife conflict is most likely to occur.
5. Using Causal Loop Diagrams to See the “Big Picture” and Embrace Complexity in Human-Wildlife Coexistence Governance | Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2025
Uses systems thinking to identify feedback loops and potential governance leverage points affecting coexistence in Namibian communal conservancies.
6. Assessing and Evaluating Human-Wildlife Interactions for Coexistence in Shared Landscapes | Katia M. P. M. B. Ferraz et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2025
Presents methods for evaluating both positive and negative interactions rather than defining human-wildlife relationships solely through conflict.
7. A Bibliometric Review of Global Research on the Human-Wildlife Conflicts | Azlan Abas et al. | Frontiers in Environmental Science | 2025
Reviews global research trends, dominant themes, geographic patterns, and knowledge gaps in the expanding human-wildlife conflict literature.
8. Transparency and Adaptability Aid in Realigning the Complexity of Objectives, Approaches, and Systems in Human-Wildlife Coexistence Research | Claire F. Hoffmann et al. | Scientific Reports | 2024
Calls for clearer goals, transparent assumptions, and adaptive approaches when researchers and managers attempt to measure coexistence.
9. Human–Wildlife Conflict Patterns and Hotspot Prediction in the Southern Foothills of the Daba Mountains, China | Qiang Wu, Yunchuan Dai and Qiaoyun Sun | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2024
Maps conflict hotspots involving wild boar and black bears and identifies locations where mitigation and compensation can be targeted.
10. The Unequal Burden of Human-Wildlife Conflict | Alexander R. Braczkowski et al. | Communications Biology | 2023
Shows that livestock losses to large carnivores can consume a disproportionately large share of household income in poorer communities.
11. Navigating “Human Wildlife Conflict” Situations From the Individual's Perspective | Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2023
Examines how individual perceptions, emotions, experiences, and psychological processes shape responses to wildlife encounters and management.
12. Climate Change as a Global Amplifier of Human–Wildlife Conflict | Briana Abrahms et al. | Nature Climate Change | 2023
Explains how climate-driven shifts in water, food, habitat, migration, and animal distributions can increase encounters and conflict with people.
13. An Interdisciplinary Conception of Human-Wildlife Coexistence | Multiple authors | Journal for Nature Conservation | 2023
Develops a multidisciplinary definition of coexistence that incorporates ecological conditions, institutions, politics, values, and human behavior.
14. We Are Silently Paving the Way Toward Human–Wildlife Coexistence: The Role of Women in the Rural Landscapes of Southern Andes | Rocío Almuna et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Examines the often-overlooked role rural women play in negotiating relationships between communities, livelihoods, conservation, and wildlife.
15. Conflict Is Integral to Human-Wildlife Coexistence | Catherine M. Hill | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Argues that coexistence does not necessarily mean an absence of conflict and should instead be understood as a dynamic social and ecological relationship.
16. Conditioned Taste Aversion as a Tool for Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflicts | Lysanne Snijders et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Reviews whether conditioned taste aversion can discourage predators and scavengers from repeatedly consuming livestock or other human-associated foods.
17. A Framework for Estimating Human-Wildlife Conflict Probabilities Conditional on Species Occupancy | Rekha Warrier, Barry R. Noon and Larissa L. Bailey | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Develops a quantitative framework linking wildlife occupancy patterns with the probability that conflict will occur.
18. Wild Seve: A Novel Conservation Intervention to Monitor and Address Human-Wildlife Conflict | Krithi K. Karanth and Anubhav Vanamamalai | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2020
Describes an Indian program designed to help communities report wildlife damage and navigate compensation and conflict-response systems.
19. Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence | Philip J. Nyhus | Annual Review of Environment and Resources | 2016
A foundational review of the ecological, economic, and social causes of human-wildlife conflict and the growing emphasis on coexistence.
20. Understanding and Managing Conservation Conflicts | Steve M. Redpath et al. | Trends in Ecology & Evolution | 2013
Conservation conflicts are often fundamentally disputes among people over wildlife, values, evidence, costs, and acceptable management strategies.
21. Rearticulating the Myth of Human–Wildlife Conflict | M. Nils Peterson et al. | Conservation Letters | 2010
Questions the language of "human-wildlife conflict" and argues that many apparent wildlife conflicts are actually conflicts among human interests.
22. Creating Coexistence between Humans and Wildlife: Global Perspectives on Local Efforts to Address Human–Wildlife Conflict | Francine Madden | Human Dimensions of Wildlife | 2004
An influential examination of local efforts to move beyond reactive conflict management toward durable coexistence between people and wildlife.
23. Human-Carnivore Conflict and Perspectives on Carnivore Management Worldwide | Adrian Treves and K. Ullas Karanth | Conservation Biology | 2003
Reviews approaches to carnivore management worldwide and emphasizes preventive and nonlethal measures alongside understanding human attitudes.
Elephants and Human Communities
24. Sharing Space Between Humans and Forest Elephants: A Comprehensive Review | Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2026
Reviews four decades of research on coexistence between forest elephants and people in Central and West Africa.
25. Reframing Human–Elephant Conflict in India Through Context-Dependent Coexistence Strategies | Ramesh Kumar Pandey et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2026
Reviews Indian conflict trends and argues that mitigation must reflect regional ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic differences.
26. Human-Elephant Conflict in Communities Bordering Kruger National Park | Tom P. Moorhouse et al. | PLOS One | 2026
Examines causes of elephant conflict around Kruger National Park and compares community experience with narratives circulating through social media.
27. An Expanding Human Footprint Drives Escalating Human-Elephant Conflict Across a Transboundary African Landscape Through 2085 | Evan Patrick et al. | PNAS Nexus | 2026
Projects substantial expansion of high-risk conflict areas as human development, agricultural expansion, and climate pressures intensify.
28. A Systematic Map of Research on the Conflict Between Humans and African Savannah Elephants | Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2026
Finds major geographic and methodological gaps in research on African savannah elephant conflict and evaluates the evidence for mitigation strategies.
29. A Multi-Scale Ensemble Machine Learning Framework for Assessing Human–Elephant Conflict in the Brahmaputra Flood Plain | Kajoli Begum et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026
Applies machine-learning techniques to predict elephant-conflict risk across a heavily populated agricultural floodplain.
30. Long-Term Trends in Human Fatalities From Human–Elephant Conflict in Chhattisgarh, India | Multiple authors | Scientific Reports | 2025
Analyzes more than two decades of fatalities and injuries to identify seasonal, spatial, and landscape-related risk factors.
31. Addressing Human–Elephant Conflicts in Taita Taveta County, Kenya | Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2025
Uses species-distribution modeling to identify areas of heightened elephant-conflict risk and guide targeted interventions in southeastern Kenya.
32. Rapid Assessment of Human–Elephant Conflict: A Crime Science Approach | Mangai Natarajan | Crime Science | 2024
Applies concepts from crime science and situational prevention to identify specific opportunities for reducing elephant incursions and damage.
33. Human-Elephant Conflict: Understanding Multidimensional Perspectives Through a Systematic Review | Multiple authors | Journal for Nature Conservation | 2024
Reviews ecological, economic, social, spatial, and management dimensions of human-elephant conflict across different regions.
34. Human-Elephant Conflict in the African Rainforest Landscape: Crop-Raiding Situations and Damage Mitigation Strategies in Rural Gabon | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2024
Examines elephant crop damage and the practical difficulties rural communities face when attempting to protect farms in Gabon.
35. Factors Driving Human–Elephant Conflict: Statistical Assessment of Vulnerability and Implications for Wildlife Conflict Management in Sri Lanka | Multiple authors | Biodiversity and Conservation | 2024
Uses household survey data to identify factors influencing vulnerability, attitudes, and exposure to elephant conflict in Sri Lanka.
36. Good, Quarrelsome, Bad: Animal Agency and Human-Elephant Interactions in the Western Ghats, India | Deepak Bhat Dundi, Istvan Praet and Garry Marvin | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2023
Explores how local people interpret individual elephant behavior and personalities rather than treating elephants as a uniform source of conflict.
37. Environmental Factors Induced Crop Raiding by Wild Asian Elephant in the Eastern Economic Corridor, Thailand | Maneepailin Wettasin et al. | Scientific Reports | 2023
Identifies environmental and landscape characteristics associated with elephant crop-raiding in a rapidly developing region of Thailand.
38. Elephants in the Farm: Changing Temporal and Seasonal Patterns of Human-Elephant Interactions in the Western Ghats, India | N. R. Anoop, Siddhartha Krishnan and T. Ganesh | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2023
Shows how agricultural landscapes and changing seasonal patterns influence elephant crop-raiding and encounters with farmers.
39. A Case Study on Conflict Intensity Between Humans and Elephants at Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh | Amir Hossen and Eivin Røskaft | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2023
Examines the severity, causes, and local perceptions of elephant conflict surrounding a heavily pressured wildlife sanctuary in Bangladesh.
40. Understanding Barriers and Benefits to Adopting Elephant Coexistence Practices in Oil Palm Plantation Landscapes in Lower Kinabatangan, Sabah | Nurzhafarina Othman et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Investigates why plantation managers adopt—or reject—practices intended to make agricultural landscapes safer for elephants and people.
41. Effectiveness of Physical Barriers in Mitigating Human–Elephant Negative Interactions in North-East India | Gitima Das et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Evaluates physical barriers intended to keep elephants away from farms and settlements and considers their practical limitations.
42. Human-Elephant Conflict: A Review of Current Management Strategies and Future Directions | L. J. Shaffer et al. | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution | 2019
Reviews barriers, deterrents, land management, early-warning systems, compensation, and other approaches used to reduce elephant conflict.
Tigers, Leopards, Lions and Other Carnivores
43. Leopard Sterilisation in India: The Ecological and Ethical Costs of Anthropocentric Wildlife Management | Pranay Arora | Ambio | 2026
Critiques proposals to sterilize conflict-associated leopards and discusses ecological, ethical, and coexistence-oriented alternatives.
44. Human–Tiger Conflict in and Around Chitwan–Parsa National Parks | Aayush Shrestha et al. | Ecology and Evolution | 2026
Analyzes tiger attacks, hotspots, seasonal patterns, victim characteristics, mitigation, and community perceptions surrounding protected areas in Nepal.
45. Human–Tiger Conflict During Mahua Flower Collection in Chandrapur Forest Circle, Central India | Multiple authors | Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies & Management | 2026
Links seasonal forest-resource gathering with heightened tiger-attack risk and identifies periods when preventive measures could be concentrated.
46. Household Perspectives and Predictors of Human–Carnivore Conflict in Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area | Liam S. McLinda et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026
Identifies household and livelihood characteristics influencing carnivore conflict, livestock losses, and attitudes toward species including snow leopards.
47. Cost of Living in Leopard Habitat: Pattern, Drivers, and Perceptions of Human-Leopard Conflict in the Aravalli Hilly Landscape | Koli et al. | Ecological Research | 2026
Maps livestock depredation and other leopard interactions while examining environmental predictors and community perceptions in Rajasthan.
48. Assessing the Aftermath of Tripling the Tigers’ Population in Nepal | Hari Prasad Pandey, Armando Apan and Tek Narayan Maraseni | Biodiversity and Conservation | 2026
Examines social and environmental challenges emerging alongside Nepal's highly successful recovery of its tiger population.
49. Claws and Consequences: Human–Tiger Conflict and Community Responses in Bardiya National Park, Nepal | Prabina Shrestha et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2025
Uses household surveys to examine tiger conflict, community responses, and attitudes toward conservation in the Bardiya buffer zone.
50. Anthropogenic Mortality Risk of Lions Depends on a Combination of Environmental, Climatic, and Cultural Factors | Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2025
Finds that lion mortality around Namibia's Greater Etosha landscape reflects livestock density, habitat, seasonality, and human land use.
51. Human Procurement of Meat From Lion Kills: Costs of Disturbance and Implications for Carnivore Conservation | White et al. | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2024
Examines an unusual form of human-carnivore competition in which people appropriate prey killed by lions.
52. A Scoping Review of Academic Papers on Human–Lion Conflict in Africa | Jackie Abell, Donna Oldbury-Thomas and C. Mazhandu | Conservation Science and Practice | 2024
Reviews the African human-lion conflict literature and identifies geographic, methodological, and coexistence-related research gaps.
53. Predicting Negative Human-Tiger Interactions in Mosaic Landscapes Around Dudhwa and Pilibhit Tiger Reserves in India | Mayukh Chatterjee et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Identifies landscape characteristics associated with dangerous tiger encounters in densely settled agricultural and forest mosaics.
54. Patterns of Livestock Depredation and Human–Wildlife Conflict in Misgar Valley of Hunza, Pakistan | Rubina Bano et al. | Scientific Reports | 2021
Documents livestock losses to wild carnivores and the resulting financial burden on mountain communities dependent on pastoral livelihoods.
Bears and Wolves
55. Patterns of Brown Bear Visits to Human Settlements Provide Insights for Human–Wildlife Coexistence | Manuel Díaz-Fernández et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026
Analyzes when and why brown bears visit settlements to improve prevention and reduce dangerous encounters.
56. Patterns of Brown Bear Damages to Agro-Livestock Activities in North-Eastern Italy Across 15 Years | Marcello Franchini et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026
Uses compensation records to reveal long-term spatial and temporal patterns in bear damage to livestock and agricultural activities.
57. Coexistence Between People and Polar Bears Supports Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization in Wildlife Management and Research | Multiple authors | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025
Highlights the importance of Indigenous knowledge and lived experience in understanding and managing human-polar bear relationships.
58. Broadening the Spectrum of Conflict and Coexistence: Human-Wolf Interactions in British Columbia, Canada | Ethan D. Doney, Beatrice Frank and Douglas A. Clark | PLOS One | 2025
Uses interviews to explore the many forms human-wolf relationships can take beyond a simple conflict-versus-coexistence binary.
59. Factors Influencing Frequency and Severity of Human-American Black Bear Conflicts in New York, USA | Jamshid Parchizadeh et al. | PLOS One | 2023
Examines environmental and human factors influencing how often black-bear conflicts occur and how serious those incidents become.
60. Mediating Human-Wolves Conflicts Through Dialogue, Joint Fact-Finding and Empowerment | H. P. Hansen et al. | Frontiers in Environmental Science | 2022
Demonstrates how facilitated dialogue and jointly produced evidence can help address polarized disputes surrounding wolf management.
61. How to Be Bear Aware in Black Bear Country | Rebecca Fabbri | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service | 2022
Explains how food conditioning and habituation create bear conflicts and outlines practical measures for preventing them.
62. Human-Polar Bear Interactions | Todd C. Atwood and James Wilder | U.S. Geological Survey | 2021
Reviews causes, consequences, and management of increasing interactions between humans and polar bears across the Arctic.
63. From Conflict to Conviviality? Transforming Human–Bear Relations in Bulgaria | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Uses Bulgarian case studies to explore how institutions, livelihoods, local participation, and social relationships can transform human-bear conflict.
64. Circumstances of Human Conflicts With Bears and Patterns of Bear Maul Injuries in Bhutan | Dorji Penjor and Thinley Dorji | PLOS One | 2020
Analyzes records of bear attacks and human injuries to identify circumstances associated with dangerous encounters in Bhutan.
65. Brown Bear Attacks on Humans: A Worldwide Perspective | G. Bombieri et al. | Scientific Reports | 2019
Provides a global analysis of brown bear attacks, identifying circumstances associated with encounters and changes in attack frequency.
Birds, Primates, Ungulates, Hippos, Crocodiles and Other Wildlife
66. What Do Fishermen Think? Local Perspectives on Human–Crocodile Coexistence in Lake Nasser | Mohamed A. Ezat, Frank van Langevelde and Marc Naguib | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2026
Documents fishermen's knowledge, experiences, and perceptions of crocodiles as a basis for designing locally acceptable coexistence strategies.
67. Weak Migratory Connectivity Undermines Human–Wildlife Conflict Management of Urban-Adapted Eastern Rooks Wintering in Korea | Eun-Jeong Kim et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026
Shows why controlling birds at individual urban sites may fail when populations originate from numerous widely dispersed breeding areas.
68. Raptors’ Contributions to People and Human–Raptor Conflicts Worldwide: An Expert Assessment | Santiago Zuluaga, F. Hernán Vargas and Juan M. Grande | Frontiers in Bird Science | 2026
Assesses both beneficial ecosystem services provided by raptors and the conflicts that arise when raptors affect livestock or human interests.
69. Human–Giraffe Conflict in Eastern Kenya: Local Interactions, Attitudes, Perceived Risks, and Pathways to Coexistence | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2026
Examines crop loss, water competition, livestock interactions, and community attitudes toward giraffes in eastern Kenya.
70. Coexistence in Rivers of Hunger: Human–Otter Relations and “Shamans of the Waters” in an Amazonian Socioecological System | N. C. Pimenta et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2026
Integrates Indigenous knowledge, cultural beliefs, and ecology to examine human-otter relationships in Amazonian fishing communities.
71. Changes in Public Perceptions of Wild Boar Presence and Management in Flanders | Jim Casaer and Anneleen Rutten | Scientific Reports | 2026
Tracks changes in public attitudes toward expanding wild-boar populations and management responses in a densely populated European landscape.
72. Stakeholder Solutions to Human-Wildlife Conflicts: Adaptive Impact Management for Wild Red Deer in the English Lake District | Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2025
Uses a collaborative stakeholder process to develop shared objectives and adaptive responses to disputes involving wild deer.
73. Human-Wildlife Conflict in Rwanda: Linking Ecoregion, Changing Conservation Status and Local Communities’ Perception | Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2025
Compares crop-raiding, livestock depredation, and attitudes toward wildlife across contrasting Rwandan ecological landscapes.
74. Human-Wildlife Conflict and Its Consequences in Tanzania: Advocating the Use of One Health Approach as a Mitigation Measure | Multiple authors | Science in One Health | 2025
Frames conflict as an interconnected human, livestock, wildlife, environmental, and public-health problem requiring multidisciplinary intervention.
75. Human-Wildlife Coexistence Through the Lens of Fishermen’s Knowledge and Lived Experience | Molly Glickman et al. | npj Ocean Sustainability | 2025
Shows how fishermen's experiential knowledge can contribute to managing interactions with marine wildlife in rapidly changing ocean environments.
76. Deep-Track: A Real-Time Animal Detection and Monitoring System for Mitigating Human-Wildlife Conflict in Fringe Areas | Multiple authors | Journal for Nature Conservation | 2025
Describes a camera and computer-vision system designed to detect wildlife approaching settlements and provide rapid warnings.
77. Comparative Analysis of Monetary Transaction Cost of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Mt. Kenya and Amboseli Ecosystems, Kenya | David Owino Manoa and Francis Mwaura | PLOS Sustainability and Transformation | 2025
Compares the direct and indirect economic costs households face while coping with wildlife damage in two Kenyan conservation landscapes.
78. Characterization and Management of Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Mid-Hills Outside Protected Areas of Gandaki Province, Nepal | Multiple authors | PLOS One | 2022
Shows that serious conflict also occurs outside protected areas and examines crop damage, livestock loss, mitigation, and local attitudes.
79. A Synthesis of Human Conflict With an African Megaherbivore: The Common Hippopotamus | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Reviews causes and consequences of human-hippo conflict and mitigation options in landscapes where people and hippos compete for water and land.
80. Transfrontier Conservation Areas and Human-Wildlife Conflict: The Namibian Component of the Kavango-Zambezi TFCA | Mirja Stoldt et al. | Scientific Reports | 2020
Examines conflict across communities in the vast KAZA conservation landscape and emphasizes the interaction of ecological and socioeconomic conditions.
81. Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Nepal: Patterns of Human Fatalities and Injuries Caused by Large Mammals | Multiple authors | PLOS One | 2016
Analyzes hundreds of injuries and deaths involving elephants, bears, leopards, rhinos, tigers, buffalo, and wild boar.
82. Human–Hippo Conflicts in Kenya During 1997–2008 | Erustus M. Kanga et al. | Journal of Land Use Science | 2012
Documents thousands of hippo-conflict incidents and links rising crop damage and attacks to land-use change and drought.
Current Reporting and Applied Coexistence
83. More People, Farms, and Drought Could Mean More Elephant Conflict in Southern Africa | David Brown | Mongabay | August 14, 2026
Reports modeling that predicts growing elephant-conflict risk as agriculture, population, development, and drought reshape southern African landscapes.
84. Nepal Enlists AI to Help Fight Against Crop-Raiding Macaques | Mongabay Staff | Mongabay | August 13, 2026
Describes experimental AI-assisted cameras and deterrents intended to identify macaques and protect crops while avoiding lethal control.
85. World Lion Day: The Communities Living With Lions | Mongabay Staff | Mongabay | August 10, 2026
Surveys community-based African approaches including fortified livestock enclosures, GPS alerts, local guardians, and greater involvement by women.
86. Thermal Drones Deployed in Kenya’s Amboseli Park to Tackle Human-Elephant Conflict | Aimable Twahirwa | Mongabay | August 7, 2026
Reports on thermal drones used at night to locate elephants, alert communities, and help rangers move animals away from farms.
87. Rural Women at Increasing Risk of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Nepal | Mongabay Staff | Mongabay | May 21, 2026
Examines how male labor migration and women's increasing responsibility for farming may expose women to greater wildlife risks.
88. Living With Wildlife, Bearing the Cost | Mongabay | Mongabay | April 2026
Examines the financial, psychological, safety, and livelihood costs disproportionately borne by rural communities expected to coexist with wildlife.
89. Study Finds Livestock Pushing Lions Away From Shared Rangeland in Kenya | Charles Mpaka | Mongabay | March 12, 2026
Reports evidence that lions alter their use of rangelands in response to current and previous cattle grazing.
90. Botswana Shows How Smarter Cattle Herding Can Save Lions, Reopen Ancient Wildlife Pathways | Gloria Dickie | Mongabay | February 24, 2026
Reports how traditional herding, mobile livestock enclosures, and GPS warnings can reduce cattle losses and retaliatory lion killings.
91. In Peru’s Andes, Quechua Women Turn Human-Wildcat Conflict Into Coexistence | Mongabay | Mongabay | February 11, 2026
Describes women-led monitoring, improved corrals, deterrents, and alternative livelihoods that have helped reduce retaliatory killing of Andean wildcats.
92. Human–Wildlife Conflict in Zimbabwe Is a Crisis: Who Is in Danger, Where, and Why? | Blessing Kavhu | The Conversation / Phys.org | 2026
Uses national evidence to examine where fatal wildlife encounters occur in Zimbabwe and why communities near protected areas face disproportionate risks.
93. Gray Wolves’ Return to California Tests Human Tolerance for Coexistence | Mongabay Staff | Mongabay | September 23, 2025
Examines how recovering wolf populations generate both conservation successes and new tensions with livestock producers and rural communities.
94. What It’s Like to Live With Tigers | Arathi Menon | Mongabay | July 9, 2025
Documents the everyday risks, uncertainty, and adaptation of people living beside tiger habitat around India's Tadoba-Andhari landscape.
95. Inside the Human-Bear Conflict in Northern India | Shaz Syed | Mongabay | May 21, 2025
Looks at black bears entering orchards and villages in Kashmir and the difficulties surrounding capture, relocation, attractants, and public safety.
96. Farmers in Nepal and India See Red as Blue Bulls Raid Their Crops | Mukesh Pokhrel | Mongabay | March 7, 2025
Examines severe nilgai crop-raiding, nighttime guarding, abandoned farmland, and controversy over relocation and lethal control.
97. A Future for All: The Need for Human-Wildlife Coexistence | WWF and UNEP | World Wildlife Fund | 2021
Provides a global overview of human-wildlife conflict, its effects on communities and biodiversity, and the need to shift from reactive conflict management toward coexistence.
98. Sri Lanka: Rich in Biodiversity, and Human-Wildlife Conflict | Dennis Mombauer | Mongabay | July 22, 2020
Surveys conflict involving elephants, leopards, monkeys, peafowl, crocodiles, and other species in a densely populated biodiversity hotspot.
99. ‘Bear-Moving’ Revamped: A Better Way to Reduce Conflict in the Himalayas? | Esther Wullschleger Schättin | Mongabay | December 31, 2015
Examines shortcomings of simply relocating problem bears and considers food mapping, habitat management, and aversive conditioning as alternatives.
100. Human-Wildlife Conflict on the Rise in India | Akhila Vijayaraghavan | Mongabay | April 3, 2013
Provides an overview of growing conflict involving elephants, leopards, and other wildlife as development and settlement expand into habitat.
Human-Wildlife Conflict: Frameworks, Governance, and Livelihoods
101. Patterns of Human-Wildlife Conflicts and Management: Insights From Areas Adjacent to Mid-Zambezi Protected Areas | Jeremiah Chakuya et al. | BMC Ecology and Evolution | 2025
Examines crop damage, livestock predation, dangerous encounters, and local mitigation around protected landscapes of the Mid-Zambezi region.
102. Management of Human–Wildlife Conflicts for Sustainable Socio-Ecological Development | Multiple authors | Forests for Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth | 2025
Reviews deterrents, surveillance, habitat management, technology, compensation, and community participation as components of integrated conflict management.
103. Human–Wildlife Conflicts, Household Livelihood Security, and Conservation Support Among Residents Adjacent to the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya | Mercy Chepkemoi Chepkwony, Gasto Jerome Lyakurwa and Edwin Sabuhoro | Wild | 2025
A survey of households bordering the Maasai Mara examines livestock predation, economic insecurity, attitudes toward wildlife, and continued support for conservation.
104. Human-Wildlife Conflict and Socio-Economic Impacts in North West Ethiopia | Shetie Gatew and Worku Azage | Discover Life | 2025
Documents crop loss, livestock damage, community attitudes, and the economic consequences of living alongside wildlife in northwestern Ethiopia.
105. Exploring Human-Wildlife Conflict Through Environmental Justice in Uganda’s Extractive Industries | Multiple authors | Journal for Nature Conservation | 2025
Examines how resource extraction, habitat change, conservation restrictions, and encounters with wildlife intersect with environmental justice in Uganda.
106. Assessment on Factors Affecting Human Wild Animal Coexistence and Associated Mitigation Measures in Buffer Zone Community of Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, Nepal | Multiple authors | Environmental and Sustainability Indicators | 2025
Examines which species cause damage around a Nepalese protected area, when conflicts occur, and which social and environmental factors influence coexistence.
107. Assessing Human-Wildlife Conflict in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan: Economic Impacts and People’s Perceptions | T. Khan, S. Ahmad, T. Mehmood et al. | European Journal of Wildlife Research | 2025
Evaluates economic losses and public perceptions associated with wildlife conflict in a region where agriculture and livestock are important to household livelihoods.
108. A Systematic Review of Modelling Approaches and Taxonomic Focus for Studying Human-Wildlife Conflict Patterns | Petros Kachulu et al. | Discover Environment | 2025
Reviews the statistical and spatial models researchers use to predict conflict and identifies species and geographic regions that remain understudied.
109. Individuals in Focus: Individuals as the Ecological and Ethical Center of Human-Wildlife Conflict | Multiple authors | Biological Conservation | 2024
Argues that conflict research should pay greater attention to individual animals and individual people rather than treating populations and communities as uniform groups.
110. Conservation, Sustainability, Conflict and Coexistence: Key Themes in Wildlife Management | Vasilios Liordos | Sustainability | 2024
Reviews major themes connecting wildlife conservation with social sustainability, conflict mitigation, public attitudes, and long-term coexistence.
111. Between Conflict and Reciprocal Habituation: Human-Wild Boar Coexistence in Urban Areas | Multiple authors | Science of the Total Environment | 2024
A large Barcelona survey finds that repeated encounters with urban wild boar can produce reactions ranging from fear and opposition to familiarity and tolerance.
112. From Conflict to Coexistence: The Challenges of the Expanding Human–Wildlife Interface | Claudio Sillero-Zubiri et al. | Oryx | 2023
Discusses the need for conservation practice to adapt as recovering wildlife populations, expanding agriculture, and human development increasingly overlap.
113. The Coexistence Potential of Different Wildlife Conservation Frameworks in Historical Perspective | Bjørn P. Kaltenborn and John D. C. Linnell | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Examines how changing conservation philosophies have influenced whether wildlife is treated as a resource, threat, protected entity, or participant in shared landscapes.
114. Human–Wildlife Conflicts Across Landscapes—General Applicability Versus Case Specificity | Thomas Göttert and Nicole Starik | Diversity | 2022
Compares conflict situations across landscapes and considers which lessons can be transferred between places and which require highly local solutions.
115. The Arts of Coexistence: A View From Anthropology | Sara Asu Schroer | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Uses an anthropological perspective to explore coexistence as an ongoing process of negotiation, adaptation, knowledge, and everyday practice.
116. More Than Just No Conflict: Examining the Two Sides of the Coexistence Coin | Saloni Bhatia | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Argues that genuine coexistence should include positive and neutral relationships with wildlife rather than merely the absence of measurable conflict.
117. IUCN SSC Position Statement on the Management of Human-Wildlife Conflict | IUCN Species Survival Commission Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force | IUCN | 2021
Sets out principles for addressing conflict through locally appropriate, evidence-based approaches that account for ecological conditions and human social factors.
118. Coexisting With Different Human-Wildlife Coexistence Perspectives | Jenny Anne Glikman et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Shows that scientists, managers, residents, and other stakeholders may define successful coexistence differently and therefore favor different policies.
119. Beyond Conflict: Exploring the Spectrum of Human–Wildlife Interactions and Their Underlying Mechanisms | Saloni Bhatia, Stephen Redpath, Kulbhushan Suryawanshi and Charudutt Mishra | Oryx | 2019
Proposes examining the full spectrum of interactions between people and wildlife rather than focusing exclusively on negative encounters.
120. Tilting at Wildlife: Reconsidering Human–Wildlife Conflict | Stephen Mark Redpath, Saloni Bhatia and Juliette Young | Oryx | 2015
Questions simplistic use of the term human-wildlife conflict and emphasizes that many conservation disputes ultimately involve disagreements among people.
Carnivores, Livestock, and Pastoral Landscapes
121. Mapping the Landscape of Livestock Depredation: Local Perceptions as an Indicator of Conflict Severity in North-Western Bhutan | Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2025
Combines community knowledge with landscape information to map livestock-depredation risk involving snow leopards, tigers, dholes and other carnivores.
122. Livelihoods and Large Carnivores: Social-Ecological Drivers in Northern Tanzania | Multiple authors | Journal of Environmental Management | 2025
Investigates livestock losses to leopards and hyenas and finds that improved livestock enclosure and husbandry can substantially reduce vulnerability.
123. Livestock Depredation by Large Carnivores and Human-Wildlife Conflict in Two Districts of Balochistan, Pakistan | Multiple authors | Animals | 2024
Documents livestock losses to carnivores and evaluates husbandry practices, household impacts, and local attitudes toward predator conservation.
124. Human–Hyena Conflict in the Tarangire Ecosystem, Tanzania | Justin Raycraft | Conservation | 2024
Examines livestock losses and community relationships with hyenas in a pastoral ecosystem where predators regularly move beyond protected-area boundaries.
125. A Genetic Tool to Identify Predators Responsible for Livestock Attacks in South America and Recommendations for Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation | Multiple authors | Animals | 2024
Demonstrates how genetic evidence can identify which carnivore species actually killed livestock and potentially prevent retaliation against wrongly blamed wildlife.
126. Efficacy of Bomas in Mitigating Livestock Depredation in the Maasai Mara Conservancies, Kenya | Multiple authors | Conservation | 2023
Evaluates traditional and improved livestock enclosures as a practical way to reduce nighttime attacks by lions and other predators.
127. A Worldwide Perspective on Large Carnivore Attacks on Humans | Multiple authors | PLOS Biology | 2023
Compiles attacks by large carnivores worldwide and identifies behavioral, environmental, and geographic patterns that can inform prevention.
128. Stakeholder Perceptions of Success in Human-Carnivore Coexistence Interventions | Chloe Lucas et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Finds that researchers, communities, governments, and conservation organizations often use different criteria when deciding whether coexistence programs have succeeded.
129. Generalization of Threats Attributed to Large Carnivores in High Human-Wildlife Conflict Areas | Multiple authors | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2022
Examines how fear and perceptions of carnivores can extend beyond direct experience and shape attitudes across communities.
130. Fostering Coexistence Between People and Large Carnivores in Africa: Using a Theory of Change to Identify Pathways to Impact and Their Underlying Assumptions | Sarah M. Durant et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Develops a framework for connecting conservation interventions with the behavioral, institutional, and ecological changes needed for carnivore coexistence.
131. Assessing Carnivore Occurrence and Community Attitudes Towards Wildlife in a Multi-Use Arid Landscape Corridor | Prameek Kannan et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Combines ecological surveys with community attitudes to examine the prospects for carnivore persistence in a landscape shared with livestock and people.
132. Social Effectiveness and Human-Wildlife Conflict: Linking Ecological Effectiveness and Social Acceptability of Livestock Protection Tools | Lara Volski et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Argues that a livestock-protection method must not only work biologically but also be affordable, acceptable, practical, and trusted by the people expected to use it.
133. Emotions and Cultural Importance Predict Acceptance of Large Carnivore Management Strategies by Maasai Pastoralists | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Shows that emotions and cultural relationships with carnivores can be as important as material losses in determining support for management policies.
134. Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents and Recommendations for Fostering Coexistence in Agricultural Landscapes | Nicolás Gálvez et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Investigates why rural residents kill predators and identifies social and ecological factors that can be addressed to reduce retaliatory persecution.
135. A Socio-Ecological Landscape Analysis of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Northern Botswana | Jeffrey Dunnink et al. | Oryx | 2020
Links household vulnerability, livestock practices, settlement patterns, and wildlife presence to different levels of conflict across northern Botswana.
136. Increasing Game Prices May Alter Farmers’ Behaviours Towards Leopards and Other Carnivores in South Africa | Multiple authors | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2017
Explores how economic incentives associated with wildlife can alter the perceived costs and benefits of tolerating predators on private land.
137. Identification of Human–Carnivore Conflict Hotspots to Prioritize Mitigation Efforts | Femke Broekhuis, Samuel A. Cushman and Nicholas B. Elliot | Ecology and Evolution | 2017
Uses spatial modeling to identify areas where livestock and large carnivores are most likely to come into conflict so mitigation can be targeted more efficiently.
138. Financial Compensation for Damage to Livestock by Lions on Community Rangelands in Kenya | Multiple authors | Oryx | 2017
Evaluates whether compensation for livestock killed by lions can reduce economic hardship and retaliatory killing while maintaining community support for conservation.
139. Dead or Alive? Comparing Costs and Benefits of Lethal and Non-Lethal Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation on Livestock Farms | McManus et al. | Oryx | 2014
Compares predator killing with nonlethal livestock-protection methods and assesses both economic consequences and conservation outcomes.
140. Human-Wildlife Conflict in Northern Botswana: Livestock Predation by Endangered African Wild Dog and Other Carnivores | Gusset et al. | Oryx | 2009
Documents livestock predation by African wild dogs and other carnivores and evaluates how actual losses compare with community perceptions.
Elephants, Agriculture, and Conflict Mitigation
141. Satellite-Telemetry and Mass Communication Based Early Warning System for Human-Elephant Coexistence in Southern India’s Agroforestry Landscapes | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2026
Describes an early-warning system that combines elephant tracking with rapid communication to help communities anticipate elephant movements.
142. In Kenya, Grassland Restoration Can Help Reduce Conflict, Study Says | Gilbert Nakweya | Mongabay | February 26, 2025
Reports research suggesting that restoring degraded rangelands may reduce competition among livestock, elephants, zebras, and other herbivores for limited forage and water.
143. Participatory Modelling Across Kenyan Villages Facilitates Insights Into the Complexity of Human–Elephant Interactions | Multiple authors | Oryx | 2024
Uses community participation to map the linked ecological, economic, and social processes that generate elephant conflict.
144. Lack of Crucial Information Exacerbates Barriers to Mitigating Human–Elephant Conflicts in Rural Kenya | Multiple authors | Oryx | 2024
Finds that gaps in information, communication, and institutional coordination can prevent communities from effectively using conflict-mitigation measures.
145. Effects of Climate, Land Use and Human Population Change on Human-Elephant Conflict Risk in Africa and Asia | Multiple authors | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2024
Models how climate change, population growth, and land conversion may reshape future areas of overlap between elephants and people.
146. Who Is Adjusting to Whom? Differences in Elephant Diel Activity in Wildlife Corridors Across Human-Modified Landscapes | Tempe S. F. Adams et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Shows that elephants alter the timing of their movements in response to human activity, demonstrating behavioral adaptation to shared landscapes.
147. Shifts in the Conflict-Coexistence Continuum: Exploring Social-Ecological Determinants of Human-Elephant Interactions | Multiple authors | PLOS One | 2022
Examines why some communities and households experience predominantly damaging elephant encounters while others maintain greater tolerance or coexistence.
148. Long-Term Elephant Mortality Reveals the Importance of Human-Elephant Conflict in Kenya | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Uses long-term mortality records to examine how conflict contributes to elephant deaths and why prevention is important for conservation.
149. A Socio-Ecological Approach to Land-Use Challenges Associated With Human-Elephant Conflict in Northern Tanzania | Multiple authors | Diversity | 2022
Connects elephant conflict with agricultural expansion, settlement patterns, conservation boundaries, and changing patterns of land use.
150. Quantitative Assessment of the Indirect Impacts of Human-Elephant Conflict | Sampson et al. | PLOS One | 2021
Measures costs that are often overlooked, including time spent guarding crops, lost sleep, reduced mobility, fear, and disruptions to household activities.
151. Living With Elephants: Evidence-Based Planning to Conserve Wild Elephants in a Megadiverse South East Asian Country | Ee Phin Wong et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Develops evidence-based recommendations for maintaining elephant populations while reducing damaging encounters in Malaysia's human-modified landscapes.
152. Coexistence and Culture: Understanding Human Diversity and Tolerance in Human-Elephant Interactions | Tarsh Thekaekara, Shonil A. Bhagwat and Thomas F. Thornton | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Demonstrates how cultural history, values, livelihood systems, and local institutions influence tolerance of elephants.
153. Assessment and Prediction of Spatial Patterns of Human-Elephant Conflicts in Changing Land Cover Scenarios of a Human-Dominated Landscape in North Bengal | Multiple authors | PLOS One | 2019
Shows how changing forests, farms, settlements, and movement routes affect the geography of elephant conflict in northeastern India.
154. Human-Elephant Conflict in Western Thailand: Socio-Economic Drivers and Mitigation Strategies | A. van de Water and K. Matteson | PLOS One | 2018
Examines household exposure to elephant damage and evaluates how socioeconomic conditions influence both conflict risk and preferred mitigation methods.
155. Determining Baselines for Human-Elephant Conflict: A Matter of Time | Multiple authors | PLOS One | 2017
Demonstrates why conflict studies need sufficiently long monitoring periods to distinguish genuine trends from large short-term fluctuations in elephant damage.
156. Predicting Hotspots of Human-Elephant Conflict to Inform Mitigation Strategies in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China | Ying Chen et al. | PLOS One | 2016
Uses spatial modeling to identify where elephant incursions are most likely and where preventive measures could be concentrated.
157. Problem-Elephant Translocation: Translocating the Problem and the Elephant? | Multiple authors | PLOS One | 2012
Questions whether moving conflict elephants actually solves problems and documents ecological and behavioral risks associated with translocation.
158. Habitat Loss and Human-Elephant Conflict in Assam, India: Does a Critical Threshold Exist? | Multiple authors | Oryx | 2011
Investigates the relationship between forest loss and rising elephant conflict in a rapidly changing landscape of northeastern India.
159. Investigating the Potential for Chilli Capsicum spp. to Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict in Zimbabwe | Guy E. Parker and Ferrel V. Osborn | Oryx | 2006
Tests chili-based deterrents as a relatively inexpensive method for discouraging elephants from entering crops and settlements.
Primates and Urban Wildlife
160. Potential for Conflict Between Urban Coyotes and People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment | 2026
Draws attention to a poorly studied dimension of urban wildlife conflict involving people who spend extended periods outdoors in coyote habitat.
161. Human-Hamadryas Baboon Conflict in and Around Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia | Binega Derebe and Mezgebu Ashagrie | Discover Applied Sciences | 2026
Documents crop-raiding and other interactions around a major protected area and assesses how households attempt to protect their livelihoods.
162. Crop Feeding Behavior of Rhesus Macaques in a Forest-Farm Mosaic of Central Nepal: Implications for Human-Wildlife Coexistence | Multiple authors | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2026
Investigates how macaques select crops and navigate mixed forest-agricultural landscapes where farms provide attractive food resources.
163. Anthropogenic Effects on Activity Patterns and Vigilance of Cape Chacma Baboons in South Africa's Garden Route | Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2026
Investigates how baboons modify their behavior in landscapes containing roads, settlements, tourists, and other human disturbances.
164. Variation in Nubian Ibex's Tolerance to Humans Is Shaped by Urban Environmental Conditions and Social Groups | Multiple authors | Animal Behaviour | 2025
Shows that urban environments and social context influence how closely wild ibex allow people to approach.
165. Coexistence of Humans and Hamadryas Baboons in Al-Baha Region, Saudi Arabia—Emotional, Social and Financial Aspects | Multiple authors | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2025
Examines the emotional and economic effects of living alongside baboons and how these experiences influence public tolerance.
166. Urban Human-Coyote Conflicts: Assessing Friendliness as an Indicator of Coexistence | Multiple authors | Animals | 2023
Investigates how coyote behavior toward people may help predict conflict risk and guide urban wildlife management.
167. Potential Hotspots of Hamadryas Baboon–Human Conflict in Al-Baha Region, Saudi Arabia | Multiple authors | Diversity | 2023
Maps locations where baboon abundance, human food, roads, settlements, and recreation combine to increase conflict risk.
168. Does Anthropogenic Influence on Habitats Alter the Activity and Home Range of Toque Macaques? Insight Into Human-Macaque Conflict | Jayapali et al. | Trees, Forests and People | 2023
Investigates how human-modified habitats affect macaque movement and activity patterns and consequently increase opportunities for conflict.
169. Coexistence Across Space and Time: Social-Ecological Patterns From a Decade of Human-Coyote Interactions in San Francisco | Christine E. Wilkinson et al. | People and Nature | 2023
Uses a decade of records to examine when and where coyotes and people interact across a densely populated American city.
170. Urban Coyotes Select Cryptic Den Sites Near Human Development Where Conflict Rates Increase | Sage Raymond et al. | Journal of Wildlife Management | 2022
Finds that coyotes can den surprisingly close to human development and that proximity can increase seasonal encounters and conflict reports.
171. Understanding Potential Conflicts Between Humans and Non-Human Primates: A Large-Scale Survey in Malaysia | Multiple authors | Biodiversity and Conservation | 2022
Uses broad public survey data to investigate encounters with monkeys and the factors influencing attitudes toward primates.
172. Wild Boar Events and the Veterinarization of Multispecies Coexistence | Ludek Broz et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Examines how concerns about disease, veterinary control, hunting, and agriculture shape relationships between people and expanding wild-boar populations.
173. Factors Affecting Crop-Raiding Behavior of Rhesus Macaques in Nepal: Implications for Wildlife Management | Multiple authors | Journal of Environmental Management | 2021
Identifies crop types, landscape features, and human activities associated with macaque raids on farms in Nepal.
174. Interactions With Humans Shape Coyote Responses to Hazing | Julie K. Young, Edd Hammill and Stewart Breck | Scientific Reports | 2019
Finds that coyotes' reactions to deterrence depend partly on their previous exposure to humans and their degree of habituation.
175. More Dogs Less Bite: The Relationship Between Human-Coyote Conflict and Prairie Dog Colonies in an Urban Landscape | Multiple authors | Landscape and Urban Planning | 2014
Examines how prey availability and urban habitat structure influence coyote distribution and reported interactions with people.
176. The Development of Primate Raiding: Implications for Management and Conservation | Multiple authors | International Journal of Primatology | 2010
Examines how primates learn to exploit crops and human food and why raiding behavior can intensify once animals become accustomed to anthropogenic resources.
Sharks, Alligators, Bears, Wolves, and Other Coexistence Cases
177. Eight Strategies for Human–Wolf Coexistence and Swiss Governance Gaps | Multiple authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2025
Reviews major approaches to wolf coexistence and evaluates gaps between available strategies and the institutions responsible for implementing them.
178. Working Together for Grizzly Bears: A Collaborative Approach to Estimate Population Abundance in Northwest Alberta | Courtney Hughes et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Shows how researchers, communities, industry, and government can collaborate on bear monitoring and management in a contested landscape.
179. When a Shark Is More Than a Shark: A Sociopolitical Problem-Solving Approach to Fisher-Shark Interactions | Mia A. Iwane et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Shows that disputes involving sharks and fisheries are embedded in larger political, cultural, economic, and institutional relationships.
180. Welcoming Wolves? Governing the Return of Large Carnivores in Traditional Pastoral Landscapes | Hanna L. Pettersson et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Explores how recovering wolf populations challenge pastoral traditions and how governance can either intensify or reduce conflict.
181. Using a Conflict Framework Analysis to Help Beekeepers and Giant Armadillos Coexist | Mariana L. Catapani et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Examines damage to beehives by giant armadillos and illustrates how conflict analysis can identify solutions acceptable to both conservationists and producers.
182. Understanding Human–Canid Conflict and Coexistence: The Case of the Dhole in Bhutan | Phuntsho Thinley et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Examines the complicated history of livestock predation, persecution, ecological recovery, and changing public perceptions of dholes.
183. Sharing Spaces and Entanglements With Big Cats: The Warli and Waghoba in Maharashtra, India | Ramya Nair et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Explores cultural traditions surrounding the feline deity Waghoba and how these beliefs contribute to coexistence with leopards in shared landscapes.
184. Ranchers' Perspectives on Participating in Non-Lethal Wolf-Livestock Coexistence Strategies | Carol Bogezi et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Investigates ranchers' experiences with nonlethal wolf deterrents and the economic and institutional factors affecting willingness to participate.
185. Mapping Micro-Level Decision-Making for Alligator Management in North Carolina | Rebecca Cavalier and Dinçer Konur | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Examines how residents, officials, and wildlife managers make decisions when alligators are encountered in human-dominated environments.
186. Coexistence Praxis: The Role of Resource Managers in Wolf-Livestock Interactions on Federal Lands | Jeff Vance Martin et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Examines the practical role government land managers play in mediating disputes between wolf conservation and livestock production.
187. Beasts in the Garden: Human-Wildlife Coexistence in India's Past and Present | Meera Anna Oommen | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Uses historical and contemporary examples to challenge assumptions that humans and wildlife were once completely separated and conflict only recently emerged.
188. A “Wicked Problem” Reconciling Human-Shark Conflict, Shark Bite Mitigation, and Threatened Species | Yuri Niella et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Explores the difficult tradeoffs between protecting swimmers, conserving threatened sharks, and choosing socially acceptable shark-bite mitigation.
189. A Community Science Approach to Understanding Seal-Fishery Interactions in New England | Andrea Bogomolni et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Uses fishermen's observations and community science to investigate interactions between recovering seal populations and commercial fisheries.
Social Dimensions, Planning, and Coexistence
190. Nepal’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Relief System Hits Roadblock With New Guidelines | Abhaya Raj Joshi | Mongabay | February 28, 2024
Reports how administrative rules and implementation problems can prevent wildlife victims from receiving timely compensation and undermine confidence in conservation institutions.
191. Subsistence Farmers’ Understanding of the Indirect Impacts of Human-Wildlife Conflict on Psychosocial Wellbeing in Bhutan | Yeshey et al. | Sustainability | 2022
Documents fear, stress, sleep loss, uncertainty, and other psychological burdens that wildlife damage can impose beyond direct financial losses.
192. Coexistence in Times of Climate Crisis: Participatory Mapping to Understand Conservation Conflicts in the Central Andes of Chile | Solange P. Vargas et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2022
Uses participatory mapping to reveal how climate pressures, land use, livelihoods, and wildlife conservation interact across Andean landscapes.
193. Transparency About Values and Assertions of Fact in Natural Resource Management | Adrian Treves et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Argues that wildlife policy debates improve when managers distinguish empirical evidence from value judgments and make uncertainty explicit.
194. Planning for Human-Wildlife Coexistence: Conceptual Framework, Workshop Process, and a Model for Transdisciplinary Collaboration | Silvio Marchini et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Presents a structured planning approach that brings together ecological science, social science, communities, practitioners, and decision-makers.
195. Examining Drivers of Divergence in Recorded and Perceived Human-Carnivore Conflict Hotspots | Christine E. Wilkinson et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Shows that official records of carnivore conflict and residents' perceptions of dangerous areas do not necessarily identify the same hotspots.
196. Developing an Evidence-Based Coexistence Strategy to Promote Human and Wildlife Health in a Biodiverse Agroforest Landscape | Elena Bersacola et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Develops a coexistence strategy that connects conservation with human health, livelihoods, agricultural practices, and wildlife ecology.
197. Decision-Making for Rewilding: An Adaptive Governance Framework for Human-Wildlife Coexistence | Multiple authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2021
Proposes adaptive governance for rewilding projects where the return of wildlife can create new ecological benefits as well as social conflicts.
198. Emotional Coping Among Communities Affected by Wildlife-Caused Damage in Northeast India | Mayuri Gogoi | Oryx | 2018
Examines grief, fear, anger, uncertainty, and coping after wildlife damage and argues that conflict programs should address emotional as well as economic impacts.
199. Media Workshops to Improve Reporting of Human-Wildlife Interactions | Multiple authors | Oryx | 2015
Explores how journalist training can improve the accuracy and context of wildlife-conflict reporting and reduce sensationalized portrayals of animals.
