Human-Wildlife Conflict

                                   Golf is an extremely popular sport that is played both leisurely and professionally. However, golf is a profession where dealing with human-wildlife conflicts can be a daily occurrence. The golf industry is extremely large according to the Statistical Portal, from Spring 2016 to Spring 2017 25.95 million people played golf at least once. Maintaining a golf course means you constantly deal with all different kinds of wildlife conflicts.         Thomas Albert, whom works at a golf club in Virginia, gave us his insight into the issues they face. The interview is below: Q: Where do you work? A: Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. Q: What is your job title? A: Golf Course Maintenance Intern Q: Do you have to deal with human-wildlife conflicts daily with your job? A: Yes. The m...

              Photo credit: Cary Pest Control In New Hampshire, most of the human-wildlife conflict we experience has to do with nuisance   or pest   species. Luckily, we do not have to worry about elephants trampling over our crops, but we do worry about insects, groundhogs, and birds getting into our gardens. We also worry about nuisance species like mice, rats, and squirrels getting into our homes, especially when fall becomes winter and temperatures are dropping. This is the time when many critters are looking for a nice cozy place to live, and to them what better place than yours?!           These sneaky rodents make themselves right at home; getting in the walls, chewing on important stuff, and even having babies (if they decide to stick around long enough). R odents can contaminate food and spread disease when in someone’s home, which is why we don’t want them hanging around. Some peopl...

Those living in New Hampshire may or may not know that we have human-wildlife conflicts right in our backyards! These conflicts are caused by simple things like birdfeeders and unsecured trash. A lot of these issues stem from places popular for camping, like Keene, NH, which has a high instance of bear conflicts. I’m sure we’ve all seen the news every now and again, with mentions of bears running around a city or town causing a ruckus! This can be extremely dangerous for bears, as well as the people around them. Those of us in places with low instances of bear encounters may not understand that these are not isolated incidents. Black Bear in Bedford, NH, Helping Himself to Some Bird Seed! http://www.newhampshire.com/storyimage/UL/20140603/NEWHAMPSHIRE1408/140609631 /AR/0/AR-140609631.jpg&q=82&stamp=&maxw=723 The daily interactions that bears have with humans have become an increasingly concerning problem. Fish and Game states that in 2016, unsecured garbage ...

Did you know that a large part of the elephants' habitat is being encroached on by human settlement in Asia and Africa? This results in a very big human-elephant conflict, as Asian elephants can weight up to 5.5 tons and African elephants up to 7 tons!  These are ginormous animals to be having conflicts with! In India, an average of 300 humans are killed annually due to elephants raiding farm land, and 40 to 60 elephants are killed by retaliation from humans. There are many ways we can help prevent the frequency of human-elephant conflicts that continue to increase as humans unfortunately continue to encroach on the elephants habitat. African Elephants in Malawi, Africa-Elephants and Bees Project As mentioned in the "Preventing Conflicts" blog post, a  cost efficient option could be planting chili plants around farms to prevent elephants from raiding crop fields which has shown some decrease in the frequency of human-elephant conflict in areas ...

As written in our first post, any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts   can be  described as a human-wildlife conflict. This accounts for people, animals, or the environment. Conflicts are occurring more and more as the human population increases, and   available land decreases. There is a scale of how dangerous a conflict can be, such as   crop destruction to something as simple as trash rummaging. Many people have researched and created   solutions that are preventing these conflicts,   such as corridors, barriers, and tracking. Photo Credit: kstr.wordpress.com         Corridors are a great way of reducing conflicts with wildlife. Corridors are like bridges or tunnels that provide a safe pathway for animals to travel between two habitats; like forests. This diminishes the chance of vehicle collisions with deer, bears, moose, and even monkeys. In many places ...