A worldwide perspective on large carnivore attacks on humans.

Large carnivores have long fascinated human societies and have profound influences on ecosystems. However, their conservation represents one of the greatest challenges of our time, particularly where attacks on humans occur. Where human recreational and/or livelihood activities overlap with large carnivore ranges, conflicts can become particularly serious. Two different scenarios are responsible for such overlap: In some regions of the world, increasing human populations lead to extended encroachment into large carnivore ranges, which are subject to increasing contraction, fragmentation, and degradation. In other regions, human and large carnivore populations are expanding, thus exacerbating conflicts, especially in those areas where these species were extirpated and are now returning. We thus face the problem of learning how to live with species that can pose serious threats to humans. We collected a total of 5,440 large carnivore (Felidae, Canidae, and Ursidae; 12 species) attacks worldwide between 1950 and 2019. The number of reported attacks increased over time, especially in lower-income countries. Most attacks (68%) resulted in human injuries, whereas 32% were fatal. Although attack scenarios varied greatly within and among species, as well as in different areas of the world, factors triggering large carnivore attacks on humans largely depend on the socioeconomic context, with people being at risk mainly during recreational activities in high-income countries and during livelihood activities in low-income countries. The specific combination of local socioeconomic and ecological factors is thus a risky mix triggering large carnivore attacks on humans, whose circumstances and frequencies cannot only be ascribed to the animal species. This also implies that effective measures to reduce large carnivore attacks must also consider the diverse local ecological and social contexts.

Socioeconomic development and ecological traits as predictors of human-bird conflicts.

Because of the significant impacts on both human interests and bird conservation, it is imperative to identify patterns and anticipate drivers of human-bird conflicts (HBCs) worldwide. Through a global systematic review, following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we analyzed the socioeconomic factors and bird ecological traits driving the degree of knowledge and extent of HBCs. We included 166 articles published from 1971 to 2020 in our analyses through which we built a profile of the socioeconomic conditions of 52 countries with reported conflicts and the ecological traits of the 161 bird species involved in HBCs. Although HBC expanded worldwide, it had the greatest impact in less-developed countries (estimate 0. 66 [SE 0.13], p< 0.05), where agriculture is critical for rural livelihoods. Species with a relatively greater conflict extent had a relatively broader diet (estimate 0.80 [SE 0.22], p<0.05) and an increasing population trend (estimate 0.58 [SE 0.15], p<0.05) and affected human interests, such as agriculture and livestock raising. In countries with greater biodiversity, HBCs caused greater socioeconomic impacts than in more developed countries. Our results highlight the importance of understanding and addressing HBCs from multiple perspectives (ecological, sociocultural, and political) to effectively protect both biodiversity and local livelihoods.

El desarrollo socioeconómico y las características ecológicas como pronosticadores de los conflictos entre aves y humanos Resumen Debido a los impactos significativos sobre los intereses humanos y la conservación de las aves, es imperativo identificar patrones y anticiparse a las causas de los conflictos humano-aves (CHA) a nivel mundial. Por medio de una revisión sistemática, siguiendo los lineamientos de PRISMA 2020, analizamos los factores socioeconómicos y las características ecológicas de las aves que impulsan el grado de conocimiento y la extensión de los CHA. Incluimos 166 artículos publicados desde 1971 hasta 2020 en nuestros análisis, con los cuales construimos un perfil de las condiciones socioeconómicas de 52 países con reportes de conflictos y de las características ecológicas de 161 especies de aves involucradas en los CHA. Aunque los CHA se expandieron mundialmente, tuvieron un mayor impacto en los países menos desarrollados (estimado 0. 66 [ES 0.13], p< 0.05), en donde la agricultura es crítica para el sustento rural. Las especies con una extensión de conflicto relativamente más larga también contaban con una dieta más amplia (estimado 0.80 [ES 0.22], p<0.05) y una tendencia poblacional en aumento (estimado 0.58 [ES 0.15], p<0.05), lo que afectó los intereses humanos, como la agricultura y la cría de ganado. En los países con mayor biodiversidad, los CHA ocasionaron impactos socioeconómicos mayores que en los países más desarrollados. Nuestros resultados resaltan la importancia de abordar y entender los CHA desde múltiples perspectivas (ecológica, sociocultural, política) para proteger de manera efectiva tanto a la biodiversidad como a los sustentos locales.

Tourism and human computers offer new tools to monitor Patagonia's top carnivore.

Monitoring wildlife populations to determine changing abundance is the basis for conservation strategies and interventions. Monitoring, however, is expensive, and we lack baseline data for countless species and landscapes around the globe. One solution is to utilize methods that leverage observations collected by everyday people. Humans are not only excellent sensors for diverse data, but possess a remarkable ability to process data and differentiate patterns with minimal training. Here, we explored the potential for people, including guides who work in tourism in southern Patagonia, to determine whether paired photographs of puma (Puma concolor puma) faces were the same individual, akin to a computer-led Siamese network analysis. Overall, participants performed well (average score of 92.2 %) and we detected no differences in local people versus those from the USA, or differences due to differential experience working with pumas. Based on these results, we built a historic capture-recapture dataset of individual pumas collected by local guides and report annual abundance for a portion of the Torres del Paine UNESCO Biosphere in southern Chile, an area lacking such data and of critical conservation for the species. Our results highlight the innate capabilities of human computers and their potential for contributing to wildlife surveys in novel ways to increase science capacity.

A conceptual framework for understanding illegal killing of large carnivores.

The growing complexity and global nature of wildlife poaching threaten the survival of many species worldwide and are outpacing conservation efforts. Here, we reviewed proximal and distal factors, both social and ecological, driving illegal killing or poaching of large carnivores at sites where it can potentially occur. Through this review, we developed a conceptual social-ecological system framework that ties together many of the factors influencing large carnivore poaching. Unlike most conservation action models, an important attribute of our framework is the integration of multiple factors related to both human motivations and animal vulnerability into feedbacks. We apply our framework to two case studies, tigers in Laos and wolverines in northern Sweden, to demonstrate its utility in disentangling some of the complex features of carnivore poaching that may have hindered effective responses to the current poaching crisis. Our framework offers a common platform to help guide future research on wildlife poaching feedbacks, which has hitherto been lacking, in order to effectively inform policy making and enforcement.