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Human-Wildlife Conflict / Feed

Human-wildlife conflict is a significant challenge that only grows as habitats shrink and other issues like climate change alter the natural world. Technologies like biologging gear have become essential for proactively addressing human-wildlife conflict before it escalates, and tech projects that seek to understand population ranges and behaviour can help people learn to live with wildlife as part of our own environments. If you're interested in using technology to prevent human-wildlife conflict, this group is the place for you!

discussion

Education to combat wildlife crime

Christopher Brougthon-Bossong

2 February 2017 4:54pm

I am curretnly starting a masters program focusing ont eh use of education and trianing initiatives being used to combat poaching and smuggling in communiities around the world,...

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Dominique

9 February 2017 1:09pm

@StephODonnell Good to hear from you, and thanks for drawing my attention to this question!

Hi Chris,

As Steph is mentioning, as Ranger Campus Foundation we aim to strengthen law enforcement in protected areas, by focusing on ranger training. We are developing an e-learning platform (Ranger Academy) and acconpanying training modules specifically targeted to the needs of rangers. The content is based on the training guidelines that were written by the big players in the field and were just made public:

http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/anti_poaching_training_guidelines___electronic_version.pdf 

Main advantages of Ranger Academy are:

- Combine e-learning with physical training and shorten the time you spend on basic level training. This enables instructors to make better use of their time when on the ground.

- Rangers can access their personal e-learning environment when they have time for it - no internet is required for following lessons. So no need to take people off patrols.

- Rangers can communicate with other rangers around the world and lessons in all modules are given by rangers.

- Managers have more insight in ranger competence levels and certificates acquired.

This turned into quite a story so will leave it at that. Let me know if there is anything I could assist with.

Best wishes,

Dominique

P.S. Attaching a picture of the filming of the Care under Fire module last month, where Joseph is demonstrating the correct use of a tourniquet. Picture copyright of Cees Baardman.

Peter Jacobs

13 February 2017 12:26pm

Hi Chris, 

@StephODonnell thanks for the heads up on this question!

United for Wildlife have an free online course https://learn.unitedforwildlife.org/ which has an "Introducing Conservation" lesson which covers conservation basics.

Over this year we're (for transparency - I work on the project) releasing a new series of Insights on specific areas of conservation. 

So far we've released "Species and Spaces" and "Worth More Alive" insights - the latter is focussed on the Illegal wildlife trade.

We're also releasing a  series of films called "Natures Guardians" which focus on the Southern African Wildlife College and cover some of the aspects of ranger training. You can view these on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH4rBFGCnvow7YQe3ycwWJ3mVR2MAwuIu  or Facebook page

Thanks!

Christopher Brougthon-Bossong

12 April 2017 5:30pm

Peter, thanks for your reply and sorry for the dealyed repsonse, I have been ahving some issues getting alerts in my email.  I would like to talk to you more about your trafficking courses, especially who you have identified as your target audience and what the model was that these courses were designed aorund.  

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discussion

Foxlights predator deterrant

Dave Cortright

24 November 2015 6:53pm

You probably all heard about Richard Turere's lion lights project. A Australian sheep herder created a similar device called Foxlights. It has some advantages in that it...

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Dave Cortright

24 March 2017 8:22pm

Personally, I'd order a few of the $10 radios from eBay and see how they work. They are cheap enough that if they don't work out, you wouldn't be out much money. 

For $27, you could try one of these which is rated Waterproof Level IPX3; it can be used during rainy weather.

From my brief search, I think you are going to have a tough time finding something solar, waterproof, and inexpensive. But do let us know what you turn up!

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discussion

Infrastructure impacts

Nilanga Jayasinghe

22 December 2016 4:12pm

Hi everyone, Is anyone aware of detection tools to prevent wildlife collisions on highways or railways? I'm particularly interested in finding out if there may be any...

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Udayan Patil

6 January 2017 10:06am

Hi Nilanga,

 This is a topic of my interest too. I have been doing some work on getting some mitigations implemented on some highways in central India. So what excatly do you mean by tools? Some gadget to detect physical presence on large mammals around highways and railway tracks ? Or some software tools to predict animals crossings along them.

Regards

Udayan

Nilanga Jayasinghe

6 January 2017 1:36pm

Hi Udayan,

Many thanks for following up and it's great to hear that it's an area of interest for you as well. I'm certainly interested to hear more about the work you've been doing on mitigation actions implemented or being tested to prevent wildlife collisions on highways in central India. Are they early detection tools? By tools, I mean either technology to detect presence and provide warnings to drivers or railway operators, or even tools to predict based on movement patterns. I'm interested in learning about any such measure that is being developed. You may be aware that in the last month alone, around 11 elephants have died from train collisions in northeast India. If there are means being developed to detect presence and prevent such deaths, it would be wonderful to know more about them and how we could test and implement such measures. Look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Nilanga

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discussion

Wolf protection vests for dogs

Niki Rust

14 December 2016 1:49pm

Hi all,   Just saw this on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-38288999 Dogs in one town in Finland are to be kitted out in...

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discussion

WildLabs success! E-shepherd predator deterrent trials in USA

Dave Cortright

25 January 2016 8:04pm

@Chavoux , I mention E-shepherd to a colleague recently who is connected with several predator organizations in the USA (including the government's Department...

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Rachel Kramer

11 February 2016 8:14pm

Thanks, @Suzanne.Stone ! It would be wonderful if the community could track your progress in this thread. Also looking forward to reading your Journal of Mammology paper.

- Rachel

Chavoux Luyt

26 April 2016 2:12pm

@Rachel , the last time I checked (2015), it was about R1200-00 per collar. In South Africa that can be approximated as the price of one sheep. To my mind, that only makes it viable and affordable if the predation (or theft?) levels are very high (more than 10% losses/year?). 

I have to add two additional observations:

  1. Sheep breeds differ in the extend to which they flock together in a single herd (e.g. African indigenous breeds graze together in larger herds than the most popular breeds in South Africa (Merino or Dorper). In these breeds it might be possible to have less collars per sheep.
  2. My greatest fear is that it will work wel for a year or two. Jackals (and I assume coyotes as well) are extremely intelligent. And methods which worked at first (e.g. bell collars) soon became useless. With jackals we also have the issue that many of the jackals on farms are now starting to hunt in packs instead of the typical territorial pairs (with helpers). So a commonly solitary hunter (the pairs would often hunt separately) is now turning into a pack hunter. However, I do think that it might remain fairly effective against solitary cats. I would be interested in the results of the tests in America, but I think it should be for at least a 3 year period (I know funding etc. might be an issue). 
Rachel Kramer

3 November 2016 5:09pm

@Suzanne.Stone have you had any success with your trials in Idaho?

 

 

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discussion

Camera Trap based Alarm Systems

Ratufa_Indica

22 March 2016 9:14am

Hi, I am looking at using camera-trap based alarm systems for managing Human Elephant Conflict in a specific area in India. Has anybody worked on developing something along...

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James Watkins

12 April 2016 10:19am

This might be a silly question, but why do you need a camera trap for either purpose - unless you want a record of specific individuals?

If the aim is to provide an alarm to scare off elephants then a system that uses a simple motion sensor wired to an alarm would do the same thing at a much lower cost without the risk of damage or theft that all camera traps suffer from.

If the aim is to alert locals then the Indian Nature Conservation Foundations Elephant Early Warning System is worth exploring http://ncf-india.org/projects/in-the-elephant-hills 

Nilanga Jayasinghe

21 April 2016 9:01pm

Hi James,

Thanks for sharing information on NCF's early warning system. NCF's tool is great and works well for the context in Valparai where it's being used. We work closely with them as well. As you are aware, the context for each conflict situation is different. These are open plantation areas where elephants can be seen if present in any patch, while in other areas, it's harder to tell when they come out of forested protected areas and into adjacent habitation in order to warn people. And for a number of the landscapes where we work, that particular approach may not be as effective, we are trying to test other forms of early detection. Do let us know if you learn of any results from camera-trapping early warning systems as well using a tool that could potentially serve multiple purposes. Many thanks.

Nilanga

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article

Internet Cats Just Got Bigger

WILDLABS Admin

26 October 2016 12:00am

The internet has a long love affair with cat pictures, but these aren’t your mom’s internet cats. Now internet cats are getting even bigger and wilder. In this article, Dr. Lisa Feldkamp talks about the work Panthera is...

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event

Perspectives from the World Ranger Congress

John Probert

10 August 2016 12:00am

The 8th annual World Ranger Congress was held in Colorado, USA from May 21-27th 2016. John H. Probert attended the conference as a representative of WILDLABS.NET. In this report he shares his experiences at the congress...

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article

Camera traps reveal mysteries of nature

Roland Kays

18 July 2016 12:00am

Sharing personal 'best of' animal pictures is a favorite pastime of many camera trappers. A prolific camera trapper himself, Roland Kays has pulled together more than 600 images collected by 152 researchers from 54...

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article

Can Drones Live up to the Hype?

Paul Glover-Kapfer

8 July 2016 12:00am

Drones are being explored for a spectrum of applications in conservation that include mapping, biodiversity inventories, antipoaching patrols, wildlife tracking and fire monitoring. However, questions remain about...

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article

TEAM Network and Wildlife Insights

Eric Fegraus

28 April 2016 12:00am

Operating the largest tropical forest camera trap network globally, TEAM Network has accumulated over 2.6 million images. How can large datasets coupled with new techniques for data management and analysis provide...

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discussion

Migration monitoring app

John Probert

25 April 2016 1:36pm

Hello all, Another thought I had regarding human-wildlife conflict. Since wildlife migrations occur around similar times, every year, what about an app to make people aware of...

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