Conflict Animals, or Conflict People—That Is the Question

Authors

• Vincenzo Penteriani, National Museum of Natural SciencesFollow

Date of this Version

Spring 2023

Document Type

Article

Citation

Human–Wildlife Interactions (Spring 2023) 17(1): article 13 

doi: 10.26077/0cmj-pe63

Comments

Open access. License: CC BY 4.0

Abstract

Managing conflictual sce­narios involving large carnivores is generally addressed from an animal-centric perspective. This is rather contradic­tory because such conflicts are mostly triggered by human conduct that acts on animal’s instinc­tive behaviors. Shifting conflict miti­gation perspectives to human behaviors may thus provide a more consistent management strategy than focusing only on animals. For example, human habituation and anthropogenic food conditioning are 2 main conflict drivers that mostly depend on human behavior. Thus, an approach that addresses the human dimension aspects of these conflicts needs to be reinforced. I offer 6 points to consider in prioritizing management to mitigate human–bear conflicts and, more generally, large carnivore conflicts. One of the most difficult challenges is not only managing habituated large carnivores, but also intensifying the human behavior-related management efforts.