Can anyone identify a case whereby a conservation intervention into a human-wildlife conflict situation resulted in a long-term, sustained (and enhanced!) co-existence between the conflict wildlife species and local communities? If so, what were the indicators used to measure this 'co-existence', who measured them, and how? Any links would be appreciated :)
Hello Brandon; It isn't clear what time and space scales you are interested in but here goes. In La Jolla, California on one of the beaches heavily used by people there is a build wading pool. Some years ago harbor seals started using that beach and pool as a breeding beach. The conflict was immediate. Eventually, the city put that part of the beach off limits to people during the pupping season.
Both the seals and the people have adjusted to the new regime. My source is the local newspapers and Wikipedia. Here is a link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Pool_Beach
Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers.
One example that jumps to mind is the Yellowstone National Park bison management case.
The situation was that the bison herd was (is) at a very high population level, resulting in ecological damage, see this study:Article Bison limit ecosystem recovery in northern Yellowstone
Additionally, the bison migrate outside of the park annually into public and private lands, which is a concern for cattle husbandry operators because the bison can pass brucellosis on to cattle, seeArticle Brucellosis Transmission between Wildlife and Livestock in t...
So, the conflict between bison and ranchers has been partially mitigated through a combination of bison culls and hunts when the animals move outside of Park lands. Native American tribes harvest a good number of animals for food and traditional/cultural reasons. Also, hunters are given the opportunity to put in for a drawing for a small number of tags.
Thus, the cattle husbandry operators are happier because efforts have been made to limit bison contact with their cattle, the Native American tribes are able to engage in their traditional subsistence practices, sportsmen are happy because they have a (small) chance of drawing a tag allowing them to hunt and eat one of these animals, and wildlife managers seem happy because a relatively positive management plan is in place that balances ecological and human concerns.
As with any such compromise, however, there are people that are unhappy with the arrangement, primarily those who are ideologically opposed to hunting and some landowners who view the hunts as a safety concern.
The info on the following page gives a good overview of all this: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/management/bison-management.htm
Thanks Kevin, interesting case with apparently a number of win-win outcomes. I'd be interested in learning more about how we 'know' these were win-wins, i.e. what was monitored, by whom, and how?
I would suggest that you look at Indigenous peoples for a plethora of accounts of such activities. The indicators are that these peoples lived in close proximity to wildlife of all kinds for thousands of years. A really good example can be found in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' books The Tribe of Tiger and The Old Way, in which she describes in detail the coexistence of lions and Ju'wasi people in Namibia.
One key issue is the size of the human populations, once humans start increasing in numbers and severely altering habitats, the chances for successful coexistence go down, however, many species try to persist in area where humans. For example black bears live quite well in areas where humans are, in some areas they hibernate under summer cabins, the humans who use those cabins have adjusted (see Lynn Rogers, simply Google him ans you will get lost of hits).
One of the best modern examples is the City of Boulder, CO and it accommodation of cougars. You could Google this and find lots of stories, but the best accounts is The Beast in the Garden by David Baron.
Basically, it seems that anywhere humans are willing to make the necessary adjustments that the wildlife is willing to coexist.
Thanks Raymond, these are great snippets which I'll look into....
Good question--I'm not sure there's any quantifiable measure been looked at that proves the bison case was win-win. Seems like that case is overdue for a review of effectiveness. I suppose a survey/social study of the local community about their attitudes towards bison and towards the new management plan, accompanied by a quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of the management strategy would be a good step.
There is an interesting example in South Brazil. In Laguna city, dolphins and fishermen use to forage together, in an estuarine habitat. When dolphins chase schools, fishes tend to run in direction of fishermen, that throw their nets, capturing some fishes and blocking fish runaway. At this moment, dolphins can easily capture some fishes. There are reports suggesting that dolphins intentionally chase fishes in the direction of the fishermen. There are some papers about this.
some news: http://g1.globo.com/sc/santa-catarina/nossa-terra/2013/noticia/2013/11/botos-ajudam-pescadores-na-captura-de-peixes-em-laguna-sul-de-sc.html
and a paper: Article Natural resource appropriation in cooperative artisanal fish...
Here is a popular article about a herpetologist who has helped a community live with Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) in New York.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2397605/william-brown-rattlesnakes
Dear Brandon,
I found this article to be very interesting in terms of measuring the extent of coexistence between people and wildlife:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2020.00048/full
Hope it helps!
Cheers
Dear Brandon, you will know the human-bat conflict on Mauritius. We have done a number of stakeholder workshops and human wildlife mapping (with you!), but we still have a long way to go to get a widespread co-existence between people and bats. Forget about having measurements of success in place at this stage. I guess there are several factors at play: how old is the conflict?, how connected are people to nature (or not), and what 'benefits' will the different communities/stakeholders obtain from mitigation measures. If there is a win to the community, the co-existence is smoothed!
https://bmcecol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12898-020-00319-1
Here's an article
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