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Conflicts arising from human-wildlife interactions (HWIs) pose a significant challenge in communities neighboring Nyerere National Park. To achieve long-term conservation success, it is critical to understand and resolve complex social conflicts. Currently, most attention is focused on addressing dispute-related conflicts, whereas underlying, and identity-based conflicts are understudied, resulting in inadequate information in literature regarding underlying and identity-based conflicts that drive social conflicts. Through the use of the Conservation Conflict Transformation Model (CCT), this study aimed to identify existing conflicts across three levels of conflict and assess current intervention strategies employed within the study area. Based on data collected from 324 respondents through questionnaire surveys, the study revealed that the dispute level of conflicts was lower than the underlying and identity-based levels of conflicts, emphasizing the limited scope of addressing conflicts solely at the dispute level within the context of conflicts arising from HWIs. To alleviate conflicts at the dispute level, respondents employed both lethal and non-lethal control techniques, with a preference for non-lethal methods. Additionally, socio-demographic factors including age, gender, household size, respondent's attitude towards wildlife, and residence significantly influenced the implementation of intervention strategies (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the findings revealed that respondents faced several challenges, including a lengthy incident reporting process for conflicts arising from HWIs, lack of consolation payment for damages, exclusionary practices, and lack of transparency in seeking assistance from local, wildlife, and government authorities. Overall, the study recommends adopting and implementing a holistic approach aligned with the CCT model to effectively address conflicts under HWIs. Future research should focus on thorough case studies and actual applications of the CCT model to manage conflicts under HWIs.

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Globally, habitat fragmentation has increased the proximity between wildlife, humans, and emerging predators such as free-ranging dogs. In these fragmented landscapes, encounters between primates and dogs are escalating, with primates often falling victim to dog attacks while navigating patchy landscapes and fragmented forests. We aim to investigate how these primates deal with the simultaneous threats posed by humans and predators, specifically focusing on the adaptive strategies of Central Himalayan langur (CHL) in the landscape of fear. To address this, we conducted a behavioral study on the CHL in an agro-forest landscape, studying them for a total of 3912 h over two consecutive years. Our results indicate that, compared to their most common resting behavior, CHLs allocate more time to feeding and locomotion, and less time to socializing in the presence of humans and predatory dogs. Additionally, they exhibit increased feeding and locomotion and reduced social behavior in agro-forest or open habitats. These behavioral patterns reflect adaptive responses to the landscape of fear, where the presence of predators significantly influences their behavior and resource utilization. This study suggests measures to promote coexistence between humans and wildlife through the integration of effective management strategies that incorporate both ecological and social dimensions of human-wildlife interactions.

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To conserve wide-ranging species in degraded landscapes, it is essential to understand how the behavior of animals changes in relation to the degree and composition of modification. Evidence suggests that large inter-individual variation exists in the propensity for use of degraded areas and may be driven by both behavioral and landscape factors. The use of cultivated lands by wildlife is of particular interest, given the importance of reducing human-wildlife conflicts and understanding how such areas can function as biodiversity buffers. African elephant space use can be highly influenced by human activity and the degree to which individuals crop-raid. We analyzed GPS data from 56 free-ranging elephants in the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem using resource selection functions (RSFs) to assess how crop use may drive patterns of resource selection and space use within a population. We quantified drivers of similarity in resource selection across individuals using proximity analysis of individual RSF coefficients derived from random forest models. We found wide variation in RSF coefficient values between individuals indicating strongly differentiated resource selection strategies. Proximity assessment indicated the degree of crop use in the dry season, individual repeatability, and time spent in unprotected areas drove similarity in resource selection patterns. Crop selection was also spatially structured in relation to agricultural fragmentation. In areas with low fragmentation, elephants spent less time in crops and selected most strongly for crops further from protected area boundaries, but in areas of high fragmentation, elephants spent twice as much time in crops and selected most strongly for crops closer to the protected area boundary. Our results highlight how individual differences and landscape structure can shape use of agricultural landscapes. We discuss our findings in respect to the conservation challenges of human-elephant conflict and incorporating behavioral variation into human-wildlife coexistence efforts.

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Reduction of conflicts arising from human-wildlife interactions is necessary for coexistence. Collisions between animals and automobiles cost the world's economy billions of dollars, and wildlife management agencies often are responsible for reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions. But wildlife agencies have few proven options for reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions that are effective and financially feasible at large spatiotemporal scales germane to management. Recreational hunting by humans is a primary population management tool available for use with abundant wild ungulates that often collide with automobiles. Therefore, we tested how well policies designed to increase human hunting of deer (longer hunting seasons and increased harvest limits) reduced collisions between white-tailed deer and automobiles along 618 km of high-risk roadways in Indiana, USA. We used a 20-y dataset that compiled >300,000 deer-vehicle collisions. Targeted recreational hunting decreased deer-vehicle collisions by 21.12 % and saved society up to $653,756 (95 % CIs = $286,063-$1,154,118) in economic damages from 2018 to 2022. Potential savings was up to $1,265,694 (95 % CIs = $579,108-$2,402,813) during the same 5-y span if relaxed hunting regulations occurred along all high-risk roadways. Moreover, license sales from targeted hunting generated $206,268 in revenue for wildlife management. Targeted hunting is likely effective in other systems where ungulate-vehicle collisions are prevalent, as behavioral changes in response to human hunting has been documented in many ungulate species across several continents. Our methods are attractive for management agencies with limited funds, as relaxed hunting regulations are relatively inexpensive to implement and may generate substantial additional revenue.

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Dogs bring many benefits to our society but, if not properly managed, they can be detrimental for humans, livestock and wildlife. We highlight the increasing problems associated with free-ranging dogs using examples from two regions of the world where this issue is pervasive, India and South America. In these regions, free-ranging dogs spread diseases, injure people, harm biodiversity, and negatively impact human livelihoods. We discuss why mitigating these deleterious effects can be extremely complicated because there are diverse challenges such as: (a) a lack of or inappropriate legislations concerning free-ranging dog management and human-dog interactions, (b) unregulated intentional and unintentional feeding of free-ranging dogs, (c) limitations of animal shelters, (d) non-responsible ownership, and (e) uncontrolled dog populations. As the management of animal species is usually shaped by differing interests, existing policies and regulations, views and social influence of stakeholders, power asymmetries between interested parties is yet another challenge in this regard. We need evidence-based legislations and strong institutions (e.g., public health and conservation institutions) that are capable of implementing governance principles and managing the complexities of this socio-ecological system by taking science-based decisions, and balancing power asymmetries to promote consensus.

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Freya the Walrus, who often climbed onto docked boats to sunbathe and frolic, was euthanized by the Norwegian Department of Fisheries in the Oslo fjord in August 2022, sparking international outrage and media attention. Since walruses are social animals, and since the Anthropocene era of climate change has displaced animals from their Arctic homes, forcing them to migrate, we can expect more human-animal interactions at such places as marinas, where Freya met her end. This paper asks and attempts to answer how we can make such interactions just going forward? In cases such as Freya's, we need to reconcile three competing interests: the animal's interest in living a flourishing life as best they can in a changing climate; the public's interest in a safe and fulfilling wildlife encounter with an animal they have come to know intimately enough to name and follow devotedly on social media; and interests in maintaining private property. Examining these interests through the philosophical lenses of co-sovereignty, capability, and individuality, however, will yield more just results for animals in similar situations of conflict and co-existence with humans in urban spaces. We argue that, going forward, state resources should be expended to safeguard the public from marina access if safety is a genuine concern, while private money should be spent by marinas to enact safe animal removal with a no-kill policy.

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Introduction: Ongata Rongai is a rapidly growing peri-urban space in Nairobi Metropolitan, Kenya. The last 10 years have seen exponential population growth and building development leading to overcrowding and pressure on water and environmental resources. This original research sheds light on interactions among humans, animals, and this rapidly changing urban environment. It is therefore a quintessentially One Health study. Methods: Qualitative and ethnographically informed methods are employed to better understand the impact of rapid growth on the riparian environment and the effect of this on those who depend on it. The reflexive use of archival material and a historical ethnographic approach enabled in-depth narratives to address these issues within a longitudinal context, and the use of deliberate walking alongside visual methodologies and more traditional anthropological methods make this study novel both in terms of methodological approach and findings. Results: This study finds that people cite high levels of pollution from solid waste and sewage have made the rivers almost unusable and a hazardous place for both humans and animals. Yet, in the past, these rivers played key roles in daily life. There is frustration with structural-level actors' moribund attitude to the environment. The poor health of the rivers and riparian environment leads to human and animal health challenges, increased pressure on water resources, and economic pressure due to a loss of livelihoods. Discussion: The study contributes to what is currently a fairly small literature on urban riparian spaces globally, but one which is of growing and vital importance given the rapidly increasing percentage of humans who now reside in urban spaces. It contributes to WASH and urban clean water knowledge as well as One Health, public health, and urban growth narratives, and directly addresses challenges faced by SDG 6.

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Lamba et al. demonstrated the feasibility of explicitly incorporating wild animal conservation into nature-based climate solutions, the multifaceted value of which was recently promoted by Schmitz et al. I synthesize their ideas to highlight some issues critical for large-scale integration of these coupled priorities across social-ecological systems.

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The European Beaver came close to extinction in France at the beginning of the twentieth century. It has since been reintroduced across the country but its gradual expansion has caused conflicts linked to its behavior, exacerbated by strict enforcement of laws against poaching or the destruction of beaver dams. We conducted field research in 2021 in three municipalities, two in the Loire basin and one in the Seine basin. Using a reconciliation ecology perspective and participatory science methodology, we investigated the dynamics of beaver rejection and approaches to defuse them by emphasizing the anthropomorphic characters of the beaver. During successive meetings with study participants, we attempted to mitigate attitudes of human/nature opposition by presenting humans as part of ecosystems, engaged in social relations with other living beings using the concept of "neighborhood," which specifically places these relationships and has proven to be more readily adopted than the more abstract concepts of ecosystem, habitat, or biotope. We used a three-stage process of reconciliation/reconnection/protection to raise environmental awareness and concerns. Our results can provide guidelines for environmental agents and officers to engage local populations in conservation efforts. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10745-023-00406-z.

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Translocation and reintroduction are common tools in conservation management and can be very successful. However, translocation can be stressful for the animals involved, and stress is implicated as a major cause of failure in release programs. Conservation managers should therefore seek to understand how the stages of translocation impact stress physiology in the animals involved. We quantified fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCMs) as a noninvasive measure of response to potential stressors during a translocation of 15 mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) into Conkouati-Douli National Park, Republic of Congo. The mandrills were initially housed in a sanctuary, transferred to a pre-release enclosure in the National Park and then released into the forest. We collected repeated fecal samples (n = 1101) from known individuals and quantified fGCMs using a previously validated enzyme immunoassay. Transfer from the sanctuary to the pre-release enclosure correlated with a significant 1.93-fold increase in fGCMs, suggesting that transfer was a stressor for the mandrills. fGCM values decreased over time in the pre-release enclosure, suggesting that the mandrills recovered from the transfer and acclimatized to the enclosure. Release to the forest was not linked to a significant increase in fGCMs over the final values in the enclosure. Following release, fGCMs continued to decrease, fell below sanctuary values after just over a month and were about half the sanctuary values after 1 year. Overall, our results suggest that the translocation, although initially presenting a physiological challenge to the animals, was not detrimental to the well-being of the animals over the timescale of the study and, in fact, may have been beneficial. Our findings show the value of non-invasive physiology in monitoring, evaluating and designing wildlife translocations and, ultimately, contributing to their success.

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Hunters can affect the behavior of wildlife by inducing a landscape of fear, selecting individuals with specific traits, or altering resource availability across the landscape. Most research investigating the influence of hunting on wildlife resource selection has focused on target species and less attention has been devoted to nontarget species, such as scavengers that can be both attracted or repelled by hunting activities. We used resource selection functions to identify areas where hunters were most likely to kill moose (Alces alces) in south-central Sweden during the fall. Then, we used step-selection functions to determine whether female brown bears (Ursus arctos) selected or avoided these areas and specific resources during the moose hunting season. We found that, during both day and nighttime, female brown bears avoided areas where hunters were more likely to kill moose. We found evidence that resource selection by brown bears varied substantially during the fall and that some behavioral changes were consistent with disturbance associated with moose hunters. Brown bears were more likely to select concealed locations in young (i.e., regenerating) and coniferous forests and areas further away from roads during the moose hunting season. Our results suggest that brown bears react to both spatial and temporal variations in apparent risk during the fall: moose hunters create a landscape of fear and trigger an antipredator response in a large carnivore even if bears are not specifically targeted during the moose hunting season. Such antipredator responses might lead to indirect habitat loss and lower foraging efficiency and the resulting consequences should be considered when planning hunting seasons.

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Variation and disparity in resource access between individuals in an animal population within human-dominated landscapes require attention as artificial selection processes may be at work. Independent, recreational human-wildlife feeding interactions constitute an increasingly prevalent, yet understudied, food resource for birds and mammals living in our cities. However, only a limited number of risk-taking individuals may access it. Using urban fallow deer as our model species, we hypothesized that if these interactions result in positive effects for the engaging individual, e.g. increased milk quality and yield, then this would result in the increased growth rates of their offspring. Alternatively, if these individuals were prioritizing investing time in engagement with humans, resulting in decreased maternal care, then this would result in slower growth rates in their offspring. We found that the offspring of those females that regularly interacted with humans displayed significantly faster growth rates than their risk-adverse counterparts. This advantage for fearless mothers in terms of boosted neonatal growth rates could be mirrored in birds accessing garden feeders, seagulls or pigeons utilizing urban resources, or seals approaching city harbours. Here, we add a new piece to the complex puzzle of how humans are impacting wildlife living within human-dominated landscapes.

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Recreational fishing waste, produced from processing catches at shore-based fish cleaning facilities and discarded into adjacent waters, is foraged by various aquatic species. However, the potential alterations to the diet of consumers of these resources are poorly studied. Smooth stingrays (Bathytoshia brevicaudata) are a large demersal mesopredatory ray species and common scavenger of recreational fishing discards around southern Australia. Due to their attraction to fish cleaning sites, they are also common targets of unregulated 'stingray feeding' tourism where they are fed commercially produced baits (e.g., pilchards). This study provides a preliminary assessment of the diet of smooth stingrays provisioned recreational fishing discards and baits at two sites in southern New South Wales, Australia (Discard Site: recreational fishing discards only; Provisioning Site: recreational fishing discards and commercial baits) using stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ13 C) and nitrogen (δ15 N), and Bayesian stable isotope mixing models. Our results indicate that at both sites invertebrates, considered a main part of the natural diet of smooth stingrays, made a limited contribution to the diets of provisioned stingrays, while a benthic teleost fish that is a common recreational catch was the dominant contributor. As the assessed teleost is potentially a natural prey item for smooth stingrays, it remains unclear whether the contribution came from recreational fishing discards or natural foraging. However, due to smooth stingrays' typically opportunistic foraging strategy, we expected a greater mixture of resources from low to high trophic level prey than was observed. These results suggest that smooth stingrays have either lower reliance on invertebrates as a result of utilizing provisioned resources or higher reliance on teleost fishes than previously thought. Commercial bait products fed to stingrays at the Provisioning Site were not a major contributor to the diets of smooth stingrays, suggesting this activity has a low impact on their nutrition.

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Human-elephant conflict (HEC) compromises crop security and threatens elephant conservation. Most commonly, HEC manifests as crop-foraging as elephants modify natural foraging strategies to incorporate crops. Farmers may retaliate by frightening or harming elephants, leaving scars from inflicted wounds. We assessed the prevalence and distribution of scars on the bodies of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) observed in the Kasigau Wildlife Corridor (KWC), part of the Greater Tsavo Ecosystem of Kenya, where conflict is prevalent. We surmised that scars on the body are largely a result of HEC as opposed to scars on the rump or head, which we attributed primarily to elephant-elephant conflict. We hypothesized that: (1) male elephants would have more scars than females; (2) older males would be more likely to have scars than younger males; and (3) most scars would be located on the bodies of elephants. We assessed scars from a photographic catalogue of elephants from the KWC. In line with our hypotheses, male elephants were more likely to have scars than females (32% of males compared to 6% of females); older males had significantly more scars than younger males (61% compared to 24%); and the majority of scars (89%) were located on the body. Scar presence may be useful as an animal-centered indicator to estimate the prevalence and demographic patterns of HEC.

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Reduced human activity to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by reports of unusual wildlife sightings in highly developed areas. Such experiences with urban nature may have helped residents cope with the stress of the pandemic and increased public interest in urban wildlife; however, this may depend on the species residents encountered. In this study, we surveyed Chicago, Illinois, USA residents during a stay-at-home order to understand if residents in more affluent or greener neighborhoods saw more wildlife species. We also evaluated whether encounters with pest and non-pest species were associated with residents' values about wildlife. Of 593 responses included in our analyses, respondents in higher-income and greener neighborhoods were more likely to perceive increased wildlife sightings and respondents in higher-income areas reported observing a higher number common birds and mammals. Support for seeing wildlife in residential areas was associated with seeing passerine birds and not seeing rats during the stay-at-home order. Our results suggest that perceived increases in wildlife sightings were common during a stay-at-home order, especially for affluent residents, and that residents' perceptions depended on the species encountered. Understanding how changes in human behavior modifies human-wildlife interactions can help mitigate human-wildlife conflict and foster positive engagement with local wildlife. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11252-022-01284-x.

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Prey species may display anti-predatory behavior, i.e., flight, increased vigilance, and decreased feeding, in response to the true presence of a predator or to the implied presence of a predator through, e.g., acoustic cues. In this study, we investigated the anti-predatory reactions of moose (Alces alces) to acoustic stimuli related to hunting, at saltlick stones, a known attractant. In before-during-after-control-impact experiments, we compared the behavioral responses of individuals to: (i) two hunting-related acoustic stimuli-hunting dog barking and human speaking; (ii) nonpredatory acoustic stimuli-bird sounds and; and (iii) no acoustic stimulus (control). We asked: (1) How does the probability of moose leaving the site differ depending on the stimulus they are exposed to?; (2) What affect do the acoustic stimuli have on the amount of time moose spend vigilant, feeding, or away from the site?; and (3) What affect do the stimuli have on the time between events at a site? We found that when exposed to the human stimulus, moose left the sites in 75% of the events, which was significantly more often compared to the dog (39%), bird (24%), or silent (11%) events. If moose did not leave the site, they spent more time vigilant, and less time feeding, particularly when exposed to a dog or human stimulus. Furthermore, moose spent the most time away from the site and took the longest to visit the site again after a human stimulus. Moose were also more likely to leave the site when exposed to the bird stimulus than during silent controls. Those that remained spent more time vigilant, but their behaviors returned to baseline after the bird stimulus ended. These findings suggest that acoustic stimuli can be used to modify the behavior of moose; however, reactions towards presumably threatening and nonthreatening stimuli were not as distinct as we had expected.

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Perceptions of, and attitudes toward, wildlife are influenced by exposure to, and direct experiences with, nature. Butterflies are a conspicuous and ubiquitous component of urban nature across megacities that are highly urbanized with little opportunity for human-nature interactions. We evaluated public familiarity with, perceptions of and attitudes toward butterflies across nine megacities in East and Southeast Asia through face-to-face interviews with 1774 urban park users. A total of 79% of respondents had seen butterflies in their cities mostly in urban parks, indicating widespread familiarity with butterflies. Those who had seen butterflies also had higher perceptions of butterflies, whereas greater than 50% of respondents had positive attitudes toward butterflies. Frequent visits to natural places in urban neighbourhoods was associated with (i) sightings of caterpillars, indicating increased familiarity with urban wildlife, and (ii) increased connectedness to nature. We found two significant positive relationships: (i) between connectedness to nature and attitudes toward butterflies and (ii) between connectedness to nature and perceptions of butterflies, firmly linking parks users' thoughts and feelings about butterflies with their view of nature. This suggests that butterflies in urban parks can play a key role in building connectedness to nature and consequently pro-environmental behaviours and support for wildlife conservation among urban residents.

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Human-wildlife cooperation occurs when humans and free-living wild animals actively coordinate their behavior to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. These interactions provide important benefits to both the human and wildlife communities involved, have wider impacts on the local ecosystem, and represent a unique intersection of human and animal cultures. The remaining active forms are human-honeyguide and human-dolphin cooperation, but these are at risk of joining several inactive forms (including human-wolf and human-orca cooperation). Human-wildlife cooperation faces a unique set of conservation challenges, as it requires multiple components-a motivated human and wildlife partner, a suitable environment, and compatible interspecies knowledge-which face threats from ecological and cultural changes. To safeguard human-wildlife cooperation, we recommend: (i) establishing ethically sound conservation strategies together with the participating human communities; (ii) conserving opportunities for human and wildlife participation; (iii) protecting suitable environments; (iv) facilitating cultural transmission of traditional knowledge; (v) accessibly archiving Indigenous and scientific knowledge; and (vi) conducting long-term empirical studies to better understand these interactions and identify threats. Tailored safeguarding plans are therefore necessary to protect these diverse and irreplaceable interactions. Broadly, our review highlights that efforts to conserve biological and cultural diversity should carefully consider interactions between human and animal cultures. Please see AfricanHoneyguides.com/abstract-translations for Kiswahili and Portuguese translations of the abstract.

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The artificial selection of traits in wildlife populations through hunting and fishing has been well documented. However, despite their rising popularity, the role that artificial selection may play in non-extractive wildlife activities, for example, recreational feeding activities, remains unknown. If only a subset of a population takes advantage of human-wildlife feeding interactions, and if this results in different fitness advantages for these individuals, then artificial selection may be at work. We have tested this hypothesis using a wild fallow deer population living at the edge of a capital city as our model population. In contrast to previous assumptions on the randomness of human-wildlife feeding interactions, we found that a limited non-random portion of an entire population is continuously engaging with people. We found that the willingness to beg for food from humans exists on a continuum of inter-individual repeatable behaviour; which ranges from risk-taking individuals repeatedly seeking and obtaining food, to shyer individuals avoiding human contact and not receiving food at all, despite all individuals having received equal exposure to human presence from birth and coexisting in the same herds together. Bolder individuals obtain significantly more food directly from humans, resulting in early interception of food offerings and preventing other individuals from obtaining supplemental feeding. Those females that beg consistently also produce significantly heavier fawns (300-500 g heavier), which may provide their offspring with a survival advantage. This indicates that these interactions result in disparity in diet and nutrition across the population, impacting associated physiology and reproduction, and may result in artificial selection of the begging behavioural trait. This is the first time that this consistent variation in behaviour and its potential link to artificial selection has been identified in a wildlife population and reveals new potential effects of human-wildlife feeding interactions in other species across both terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

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Context: Zoos are a unique landscape with fascinating connections to the principles of landscape ecology. These 'zooscapes' have a focus on managing wild species. Objectives: This article examines the multiple scales of zoos as urban green spaces, exhibit landscapes, and resources for resilience. I identify that landscape ecology can inform zoo evolution and note how zoos may provide a novel research site for landscape ecology. Methods: I provide a brief history of American zoos and insight into lingering questions within zoos, including their representations of animals and humans. Additionally, I note conceptual overlap between zoo design/function and landscape ecology literature. Results: Zoos provide habitat for native species and valued cultural ecosystem services. Zoo exhibits developed a landscape focus as modern landscape ecology emerged in the 1980s. Patches, corridors, and matrices exist within a zoo, and these facilities have value for the genetic support of fragmented populations. Zoos' strategies for disease management are increasingly relevant for global health. Simultaneously, zoos must exhibit sustainable landscapes, not just ecological simulacrums for threatened species. Conclusions: Zoos must promote humanity's continued coexistence with other species. A landscape view is essential to achieving this goal. Zoos need to model sustainable landscapes of our present and future.